LawyerUp

From this NY Times article:

“I would say that roughly 90 percent of the credit card lawsuits are flawed and can’t prove the person owes the debt,” said Noach Dear, a civil court judge in Brooklyn, who said he presided over as many as 100 such cases a day.

The business model relies on people not fighting back:

The errors in credit card suits often go undetected, according to the judges. Unlike in foreclosures, the borrowers typically do not show up in court to defend themselves. As a result, an estimated 95 percent of lawsuits result in default judgments in favor of lenders. With a default judgment, credit card companies can garnish a consumer’s wages or freeze bank accounts to get their money back.

Don’t let a lawsuit slide. The article describes people over-billed thousands of dollars. Pretending it will all go away can be much more expensive than hiring a lawyer: a LawyerUp dispatch is never more than $250 and many of our lawyers are happy to provide members a free initial consultation. Don’t let a scumbag use the courts to steal from you.

For all of these initiatives, there is a commercial vendor both getting paid and afforded special access to public property and sensitive government information.

The benefit to the public is vague.

Where else?

It melds cameras, computers and data bases capable of nabbing bad guys before they even know they’re under suspicion.

What could go wrong with tracking every New Yorker, every day, so they can be “nabbed” as soon as law enforcement makes a snap judgement?

There is increasing recognition by the courts that some of what passes for fact just isn’t so. Mistakes happen.

Most of these failures begin long before a case is tried. Witnesses are canvassed and lineups are performed at the beginning. Once that “evidence” is collected, the case’s momentum can bake these statements into firmly held beliefs. And jurors find them very persuasive, even when they’re wrong.

Many people believe that you don’t need a lawyer if you’ve done nothing wrong. These findings show otherwise. The right help, right away can help focus law enforcement on the true culprit by pointing out errors and shortcuts that lead to mistakes.

Where is the line between education and law enforcement?

Here is the school district’s statement:

Sampson County Schools spokeswoman Susan Warren says Cox should have been informed about the search but that Holmes did nothing wrong and that a male janitor was present for the search.

“The assistant principal was within her legal authority, her legal right, to do the search,” Warren said. “She may have been overzealous in her actions.”

If you were “informed,” do you know your options? Do you have options? Whom could you call to find out before they touch your child?