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Lawyer Is Big Winner In Webcamgate Settlement
crimeandpunishment writes "The Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania has agreed to a $610,000 settlement in two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops. Less than a third of that will go to the students. A total of $185,000 will be put in trust for the students. Their lawyer will receive $425,000."
But you know, lawyers have costs too. For example they need to pay their office, wages, taxes, and paper isn't free either. The students itself didn't have any costs and I doubt they would had win the case without a lawyer, don't you think?
And the irony is? All the money came from the tax payers.
Lawyers are legalized crooks, news at 11. The world would be a better place without them. The fact that we need specialized professions to be able to properly navigate the legal system is, well, downright stupid.
Can anyone tell me why 99% of
Just a reminder kids - stay in school - LAW SCHOOL.
This lawyer has proven that lawyer-driven lawsuits are a critical part of keeping the high-paid lawyer system intact.
the only winners in class action lawsuits are the lawyers.
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Skunkpost? WTF is that?
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I am glad they won and I don't particularly care that the lawyers are getting paid the majority of the settlement. What I do care about is that the people actually responsible aren't going to be punished. The settlement will be paid by the district's insurance policy and the people actually responsible will get to walk away.
I'm hoping eventually we run out of stuff to attach "gate" to.
Tough call for me, on this one.
On the one hand, I don't even bother participating in the various class actions suits I qualify for, because my dignity costs more than a $5 gift certificate. The lawyers in those situations should make far, far less.
In this situation, though, that really amounts to a pittance for even a small legal team, perhaps three lawyers plus their supporting staff, working for a solid two months on the case; Unfortunately, this one had no big corporate pockets to raid, and even in winning, the community (rather than the school administration) suffers. So a bigger payout that might really have given the kids something to enjoy, wouldn't have counted as a win for anyone.
Personally, I'd much rather have seen the school administration facing child porn charges, and no civil penalties involved. Then, and only then, could we have seen a "win" here.
It's always the lawyers who win. Always the lawyers.
The RIAA fighting piracy? Lawyers make millions. Microsoft asserting its software patents? Lawyers make millions. Porn studios want to sue a bunch of people? They call Andrew Crossley. Layers make millions. Andrew Crossley leaks the database of his victims? Sue him. Lawyers make millions. Someone calls you a dick on the internet? Sue him. Lawyers make millions. A hospital patient dies? Sue the doctors! Lawyers make millions. etc etc etc
Where does all that money come from? Of course, we as good little consumers and taxpayers, pay for everything. It's not the shareholders that lose money -- companies have an obligation to keep them happy -- but they have no obligation towards their customers or any need to keep prices reasonable.
Maybe we can apply some oil company resentment and institute a Windfall Profit Tax, just to spread the wealth around a little. Na, this would take an act of Congress, members of which are mostly lawyers.
Conservative, mod down for violating
It may not be a poor decision. We don't have enough information to decide that. (We also don't have enough information to decide if the lawyer was overpaid, underpaid, or appropriately paid. But, O Slashdot, don't let lack of knowledge get in the way of your prejudices about other vocations.) In settling a lawsuit, both sides have the same decision to make: What is the marginal risk of holding out for that next dollar? If you don't take the current offer, do the odds of getting more tomorrow weigh favorably against the odds of getting less tomorrow?
The vast majority of lawyers are scum that leach off of the rest of society. Remember, judges are also lawyers.
Exactly, we should go back to the simple days when people appointed by the king made arbitrary decisions based on their mood and how much people bribed them. That was much better.
Where is the call for the US governemt to take over Legal care?
Isn't legal care a right? Isn't $425,000 a big bill to be paid?
Where are the liberals and the Democrats in calling for Lawyers to be paid like Doctors?
How about a system of free legal care for everyone with lawyers paid according to a scale set by the governemnt? Spying on kids = $8,000 fee, not $425,000.
Unlike Obamacare, this really could save taxpayers money.
I just wish Congress did unto lawyers what they do unto doctors.....
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So, it's OK to have a society where a group that produces absolutely nothing (e.g. what we call a 'parasitic class') can pocket 2/3 of our wealth? This the really what's wrong with America. Instead of asking how we can fix this awful situation we're busy asking how we can be the guy that gets paid $400k to fill out a little paperwork.
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Attorney - An honest, well-educated representative of my interests before the court.
Shyster - The low-life, lying dirtbag representing my opponent.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
I don't get this attitude that the lawyers are the only winners. Sure, they're the big financial winners here. This was never a case about lost funds, though. It was a case in which the students sought both relief from invasive practices and a punitive sum to discourage further similar actions. They won on both counts, and since no school district wants to shell out over half a mil because they spied on their students it should be a win for the privacy of teens everywhere.
who got sacked for doing this? Who's going to jail? who's being charged with pedophilia? Who's on the sex crime watch list because of this?
Because if the answer is no one then justice was not served and no one learned any lessons 'Cept that Lawyers charge a lot for their services.
Lawyers leaching off clients is not newsworthy. Title of the article should have been "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN AMERICA?". FTA "prosecutors decided not to pursue criminal charges", "took pictures of students even while they were sleeping in their own bedroom".
Prosecutors, the FBI, and Judges are taking a big dump on the constitutional rights of individuals, and you're concern is what the lawyer earns off of this??? Americans are squandering their freedom and have no right to complain when they finally wake up and realize their Democracy is but a shadow of what it once was.
Hope is the currency of fools
As an attorney myself, I feel the need to address some misconceptions.
1. This was not a class action, it was simply two individual cases.
2. The article is woefully sparse on details regarding the settlement. I do not practice in Pennsylvania, but I can assure you that the Rules of Professional Conduct in that state do not allow attorneys to take a nearly 70% fee. Most states will only allow a maximum fee of 35% or so. In a contingency fee practice, the client is always responsible for his or her own costs, unless the client fee agreement specifically states otherwise. Under the agreement, these costs are advanced by the attorney, but the client is ultimately responsible for repayment. In this case, it seems unlikely that the attorney could have accumulated $350k in costs, but regardless, any money above that 35% (more likely 33%) ceiling is going to repay money the attorney already spent out of his or her own pocket. These costs do not include the attorney's salary, her staff's salary, office rent, etc, they only include direct costs related to the case, such as legal research fees, travel expenses, filing fees, and expert fees.
3. An attorney DOES have repercussions if she issues casual advice to a potential client. The attorney/client relationship begins before any agreement is signed between the parties. Details, even from an initial meeting and even if the attorney is not ultimately hired to represent the client, are protected by attorney/client privilege and the attorney can land herself in hot water if she breaches this privilege.
Something to remember here is that an individual can always represent him or herself in court, so long as the individual is competent. That being said, hiring an experienced attorney will inevitably lead to a better outcome, very likely offsetting any costs. Unfortunately, our legal system is far too complex to navigate effectively without years of education and experience.
-Alex
You'll typically be asked to pay several thousands bucks, up front, as a retainer fee, BEFORE anything is even accomplished at all. (Does you doctor or software programmer demand this?)
Not all attorneys use a retainer. For those that do (commonly in divorce, bankruptcy, and criminal defense), it's done because not using a retainer is a good way to end up with nothing. Clients are actually pretty bad about paying their bills. Sometimes they don't have the money. Sometimes they decide it wasn't worth the cost and don't want to pay. It happens very frequently, especially with private individuals.
And yes, there are software developers, designers, and other professionals that do custom work that require a retainer.
After you pay, you get billed for such things as a document being delivered and submitted to the court clerk.
First, not all attorneys or firms do this. Shop around. Some will have documents dropped off by a paralegal or secretary and bill accordingly.
Second, for an important case or important document, sometimes you want an attorney to handle the little stuff. You want someone there who can notice if the clerk mishandles it, for example. Or you want someone who can make an on-the-spot correction if needed.
For that matter, you're typically billed an hour or more for time spent drafting letters or other documents that are already saved on a PC as a Word template, and a relatively low-paid admin. assistant actually filled out
Presumably that was billed at a lower rate. If not, you should shop around. Most firms bill very different rates depending on whether the work was done by a senior or junior attorney, paralegal, or secretary.
I'm sorry about your particular case. It sounds like you picked a pretty terrible attorney. Some of what you describe sounds like you should have contacted the state bar about or otherwise disputed. You certainly should have made sure you understood the billing structure better and shopped around for alternatives before choosing an attorney. An attorney is supposed to explain his or her fee structure clearly, and if your attorney did not, then that's certainly something to complain about.