An Old Bailey hack speaks from the trenches

I don't know what I intended to do when I got out of school, I had no firm idea of what my professional life would look like. I suppose that it was in my mind to do lots of library work and brief writing. Did I see myself trying cases? I suppose that I did, at least I had the vague image of Perry Mason-like murder trials, although how I was going to get there by inhabiting the library was a little obscure. (This winter, I toyed with growing a beard, largely because Raymond Burr looked so darn good in one in the more recent Perry Mason episodes. But for so long, I've been known as the guy with the brushy moustache and the book, so it was a little late to change that image.)

Most kids want to play in the NFL, I think, and I was probably like most of them. Everybody wants to play quarterback, but he's one of 22 starters. There are far more linemen, the guys who play in the trenches. Eighty times or so a game, they have an explosion of energy, work very hard, and get knocked on their ass. In the world of the NFL, this takes a great toll. Not only do I think about the guy from the Buffalo Bills with the cervical spine injury from a couple of weeks ago, I think of Mike Webster, the Hall of Fame center who played for the Steelers. His body and head took so much abuse that he became totally confused and, though he was drawing a decent pension, homeless. The guys in the trenches mostly don't end up as commentators or pitchmen, they end up selling cars or appearing at local "celebrity" golf tournaments. Well, this is where I live - in the trenches. John Mortimer would refer to me as an "Old Bailey Hack." (The Old Bailey is the common name of the Central Criminal Courts in London.) I'm not one of the guys who "wins every case." Indeed, those people are myths, with sooooooo few exceptions. Max Steuer was one of those - I bet you've never heard of him, he tried the defense case in the Triangle Fire case in 1912, and to my thinking is the second greatest trial lawyer of the 20th century. Gerry Spence is the best trial lawyer of the century, and my admiration for him is great. But when he started, he lost lots and lots of cases that even now he says he should have won. Nancy Grace markets herself as an always-victorious crusader. She never mentions the appellate courts who have thrown out verdicts because she pulled unconstitutional and illegal stuff in trials. Well, I don't win all my cases. Indeed, sometimes the best "win" looks a little bit like a surrender. Mary T. from yesterday's post is one of those - served a short term when she was facing the possibility of a life sentence.

I had two plays today that are on my mind. One of them, we had a three and out. The other, we made a first down and are still playing.

In the first, a 45 +/- y.o. woman came in who was injured in an industrial accident about 8 years ago. She has a really bad back, without involvement of the disks. After she healed up as much as she was going to (which isn't much), the Workers' Comp Commission "awarded" her a permanent impairment rating equivalent to about 1-1/2 years of wages. (I don't like the term "award," even though the statute uses that. It suggests that getting hurt to the point that you are permanently impaired is a good thing.) Anyway, as years are going by, she is getting worse, has increased pain and continued medical expenses. Her household is supported by her husband, who makes $12 an hour doing skilled manual labor. Before being injured, she had been in that workplace for 3 years, having gotten that job to help keep her son (who has two jobs himself) in college. Before that, she stayed home with the children. Clearly, this lady is permanently and totally disabled. She is in too much pain to do even a sedentary job on a sustained basis. And there is not a darn thing I can do to help her. Workers' Comp is a joke. It is virtually impossible to reopen a claim this old, because the carrier will always claim that the aging process is the reason that the exact industrial injury that she had is getting worse and, in any event, they have changed the impairment standards to make it most unlikely that the rating will be increased. They will also deny paying for medical expenses. There she is really screwed, because WV law prohibits me from charging any fee to help people with medical issues. That is the product of crocodile-tears-concern-for-the-worker, and the effect is that the worker gets the shaft. Because this lady didn't work for more than 5 out of the 10 years prior to her injury, she is not covered for Social Security Disability. Because her husband makes about $30,000 with lots of overtime, she is not covered by the "needs based" SSI system. So here we have an American family of hard working people, one of whom cannot work due to zero fault of her own who now live on the edge of economic collapse. Un-fucking-believable.

The second lady was a woman who is trying to do a "pro se" divorce, that is, without a lawyer, and a serious problem has arisen. Her husband wants to "give up his rights" to their toddler, even though she has been able, even anxious, that he be very much involved in the child's life. This presents very special problems -- will the Judge erase his rights and responsibilities? Isn't going to happen. But what sort of parenting arrangement can she now safely agree to? Would you want a spouse to have your kid when s/he had stated very clearly that s/he wanted nothing to do with the child? Oh, and there is an older step-child involved who is suffering the pangs of rejection/separation Hell. This is highly custom work, and I can help her. But it's another play, and I will get knocked on my ass a lot.

So, an Old Bailey hack, I just totter on.

Oh, I haven't forgotten my promise to reveal here on this very page all of the deep secrets of the Freemasons. It's taking a while to write carefully, so the Absolute Truth will finally be known by all. None of the so-called "researchers" writing on this topic today have this information. I am risking the Fires of Hell by revealing these things, but the Time has come for the Secrecy to be Pierced.

Mizpah.

R