John Edwards responds on donations from trial lawyers.

CLINTON: Well, John, trial lawyers have given you millions and millions of dollars. So...

EDWARDS: And what they expect from me is they expect me to stand up for democracy, for the right to jury trial, for the right for little people to be heard in the courtroom. And that is exactly what I stand up for. That is not the same thing. That is not the same thing as corporate lobbyists who are in there every single day lobbying against the interests of middle-class Americans. And I think we need a president who can stand up.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0801/21/se.01.html

John Edwards is right about this. I was so proud of him for this statement. I hope it puts to rest the criticisms about trial lawyers.

Whether you hire a lawyer or not, your right to a hearing before an impartial judge under the rule of law is protected by all lawyers.

Hillary thought she was going to trap him with that one, but he hit a home run.

lawyers, real lawyers, the kind who went into law to uphold it not make alot of money. Know whats at stake and the fact that edwards has their support says alot. Real lawyers are outspoken intelligent advocates of democracy and their support says alot.

:grr: I could have beat more than a few developers who wrecked the environment in my town if I could have afforded a lawyer. :mad:

Besides, the "trial lawyers" means plaintiff's personal injury trial lawyers. They usually charge a contingency fee.

How could you have stopped the development? As a private citizen, what standing would you have had to challenge it?

In California, certain environmental and other laws can provide a basis for challenging development. You have to exhaust your administrative remedies within certain rather short periods of time after specific decisions are made. It's called CEQA.

school projects, which is one type of development I'm dealing with.

you usually have standing if you want to take a case to a court.

Unfortunately, even though they may argue their case, around here there is usually no legal basis for the objection. If the procedural road-blocks don't get them, the substantive law will. In point of fact, the county's refusal to grant a zoning change (from agricultural to residential) can be challenged in court by the developer and be easily overturned as there is usually no legal basis to oppose it.

Did you know that the Republicans have restricted the scope of cases that the legal aid services that receive certain kinds of funding can accept?

Protecting your legal rights is a very expensive undertaking. The big corporations have all the money they need to fight to protect their rights. You have touched a problem that causes me agony every day of my life. $300/hr.? I know (personally know) lawyers that charge $700 per hour. You must understand that lawyers' fees include a lot of costs you don't know about. Some of them include ordinary business expenses like licenses, bar fees, computer costs, telephones, heat, light, but then their are secretarial fees and hopefully rare sanction (never been sanctioned but have received sanctions from other lawyers) and books -- lots of books that cost a lot of money. And remember, while computers industrialize the practice of law somewhat and make it more efficient, they have also complicated the practice of law. We have to deal with more paper than ever before.

You have touched on an enormous problem. It sometimes seems that there is no justice for the poor as things now stand. Still, to the extent that justice exists, it owes its existence to lawyers.

Edwards is trying to do something about poverty. He does not focus on the issue you have raised. I have no doubt whatsoever that he is very aware of it and cares about it and will raise it once he is president.

Considering some of the other groups raising money for candidates, the Academy of Trial Lawyers is pretty benign.

A lawyer is your best friend when you need one.

Without lawyers the few rights we still have left would be gone.

don't have a lawyer.

Brought to you by the same people who think "liberal" is a bad word, no doubt.

They are also the the enemies of unions, and anything else that defends the little guy.

Which means their word is sacrosanct and gets amplified in the MSM echo chamber until everyone repeats it reflexively without even thinking about the actual implications of what they're saying.

strongly

We do understand that a) not all corporations are evil and b) some lobbyists work for organizations that do good things (NRDC, Planned Parenthood, etc). Right?

Should continue to do so. (And while they're at it, they should pick up the pace a little. We're hurting out here.) And if they continue to do good work for the people, from their positions as lobbyist, then why should we want them in the White House? Right?

But I believe in one person one vote. Each person who works for a corporation or belongs to an organization is entitled to donate to and volunteer on behalf of the candidate of his or her choice. But when the corporations and special interest groups start giving corporate and special interest donations to candidate on behalf not of individual members but on behalf of the corporation or special interest organization, then we no longer have one person one vote. When that happens, my vote, your vote and the votes of your family, friends and neighbors count for less. That is not democracy. I believe that is wrong.

Campaigns. They cant -- it was called soft money. Now, when "corporations" are listed as big contributors -- be it Goldman Sachs, Chrysler or AT&T, those contributions are listed only by company, but are actually the result of individual employees cutting checks to candidates -- not a central check.

I am hoping the stress of this doesn't kill me...

or I will never be able to collect. I sold my old house and paid all cash for this hazmat house with the equity, I have terrible credit as I had health issues. I had to spend down so that I would qualify for medi-cal. Everything that I worked my entire life for is now worthless. I can't get a roommate to help with expenses as I await disability approval as once I mention there was a meth lab on the property they decline. The neighbors say they watched "the cook" pour liquid all around the driveway. My dog had bloody diarhea twice before neighbors told me about the meth lab. I no longer let her in the yard. The lab wasn't in the house, but in the shed where I have a few hundred boxes of books that are most likely contaminated...

I have thought about going public in the hopes of finding an attorney, but the asset hiding issue makes think that is not a good choice. I have contacted a dozen attorneys, legal aid and CLIC. I can't take one more "not interested".

The sellers (3 brothers) are well off and I did find that they were sued by the state for hiding assests from the state-the suit was dropped.

They did NOT disclose there had been a meth lab bust on the property (one of the brother's stepson). There are still a few remnants.

There is NO justice for the poor and I have absolutely no idea how I can resolve this. I am an absolute wreck...

"I have contacted a dozen attorneys, legal aid and CLIC. I can't take one more "not interested"."

They have all said I would win, that I have an excellent case for willful fraud (I have 4 witnesses seller knew of lab, but didn't disclose).

They all have said something along the lines of "I am $250 an hour, how are you going to pay me" and "you have a good case, but collecting is another issue". And "I would need $5K-$10K just to depose the witnesses and file all the paperwork."

This has caused me to fall into a major depression as I can't seem to see any way out. I am having major anxiety attacks and the thought of getting turned down once more would be the final, final straw for me so I can not even muster the courage to do so. I can't even think about my problem without crying, much less have another breakdown in front of the next lawyer that turns me down.

If only the EPA and Public HEalth, DEA, legislators and law enforcement had done their job and red-tagged and cleaned up and put liens on these properties I would not be in this mess. There is millions of dollars for law enforcement and for the recovering druggies that create these hazmat homes, but no money for the innocent buyers or renters of these undisclosed former meth labs. There is also no education for the public that these homes are out there. There are 800 former meth lab homes, apartments, motel rooms, motor homes and roadside meth lab dumpsites in my county alone. DEA says they only bust 5-10% so that means around 8,000-16,000 toxic sites. The local professional cleaning company has only cleaned 25 of these.

I have read stories around the nation of others in my predicament and their stories are as bad as mine...

:kick: