Month: June 2010

Judge takes transparency to a new level (it’s not Martin Feldman)

“This internet is truly amazing…it’s a great medium to disseminate information.”

Judge Larry Primeaux, 12th Chancery Court District of Mississippi

As a general rule, “you have to be the news to make the news” applies to the decisions a judge makes in a significant case.  As Martin Feldman now knows, it’s even bigger news when the decision is subject to question and the Judge releases financial report, raising more questions as Rebecca Mowbray reported.

Mississippi Chancery Judge Larry Primeaux is an exception to the general rule.  Judge Primeaux has a blog.  He not only makes the news, he reports it!

You can read about the court’s procedures and guidelines here, and pick up useful information about recent cases and other developments that impact practice in our court.  You’ll find some food for thought, practice pointers,humor and some pure horse sense.

If you could see all the corrections the various court clerks enter on Pacer, you’d understand why a judge would want to make “the court’s procedures and guidelines” more user friendly – and, if you read any post on Judge Primeaux’s blog, you’ll also know that Mississippi has yet another another gifted writer! Continue reading “Judge takes transparency to a new level (it’s not Martin Feldman)”

Thank God for Arizona Part 3: Blaming the surge in drug violence on the Mexicans. God damn the pusher man (and his U.S. banker).

But now we live in debased times,
Sans punishment to fit our crimes
Our moral compass has got lost,
Or on the rubbish heap been tossed.
As in this cautionary tale of bankers,
Who came to look like social cankers.

You will all know the basic story,
In all its venal details, gory.
Of how a bunch of peerless clowns
Despite degrees – from Yale to Brown –
Behaved like schoolboys in the lab,
When teacher’s gone to smoke a fag……..

Their attitudes were so repulsive
The public backlash grew convulsive,
And dimly seeing that their wages
Just might be threatened by these rages,
Self-interest prompted some to say
“We’re sorry” – in a muted way. Continue reading “Thank God for Arizona Part 3: Blaming the surge in drug violence on the Mexicans. God damn the pusher man (and his U.S. banker).”

Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick, Jr.: A mantle of malfeasance Part II. A guest post by Whitmergate

Aside from the obvious and expected role of a District Attorney, to enforce the criminal laws of his Parish and State, that office is also charged in many instances with the obligation to seek and recover monetary restitution from any individual and/or any legal entity that has, in violation of parish or State law, profited from their wrongful conduct by way of a civil lawsuit.

As it concerns public officials, elected or appointed, DA Connick has failed to investigate, indict, prosecute or convict any officials suspected or known to have broken the laws of Jefferson Parish or the State of Louisiana. The fact is, DA Connick’s intentional refusal and/or gross negligence by not bringing any of these individuals to justice has resulted in unjust economic gains to these same miscreants at the prejudice of the taxpayers who have a right to honest services from their public officials, including HIM! To put it another way, we, the citizen/taxpayer, deserve to receive what we paid for, expecting public officials to do the right thing; not what these officials believe they deserve by covering up for each other and distributing our tax dollars to benefit themselves, family, friends and cronies as they deem fit.

There are also provisions under our laws that provide for both civil and criminal penalties in addition to any recovery. This too is ours, the taxpayers’ just reward for the punishment of these wrongdoers.

Mr. Connick is most certainly guilty of malfeasance, and most probably misprision of a felony. I will in a subsequent post detail a litany of wrongdoing by individuals seemingly protected by DA Connick, including Council members and contract/personal service campaign contributors. For the moment however, there is no other person than former Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson, whose conduct while in office provides undeniable credibility to my belief that Mr. Connick has failed us; he has betrayed his oath of office. Continue reading “Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick, Jr.: A mantle of malfeasance Part II. A guest post by Whitmergate”

Potsdam Conference: A guest post from Unslabbed

As the dates of qualifying to run for Jefferson Parish President draw near (July 7, 8 & 9), one cannot help wondering if the strained relationships between and among the super-powers have resulted in a Potsdam Conference.

As history has it relations between Truman, Churchill & Stalin had grown increasingly strained toward the end of WWII and at the Potsdam Conference (July 17-Aug 2, 1945) they divided up Germany into occupation zones & planned for the Nuremberg trials. Potsdam was the final meeting between the Big Three powers under the pretense of a wartime alliance.

Anyone else getting that feeling here in Jefferson Parish that the Parish being divided up by the powers-that-be into zones for occupation even as we brace for federal indictments and more resignations?

Remember, if you fail to remember history you are doomed to repeat it. Continue reading “Potsdam Conference: A guest post from Unslabbed”

Let's switch gears and talk Louisiana Insurance Commish Jim Donelon: A hollow man that is full of hot air.

This past week on Slabbed has been nothing short of extraordinary as Nowdy’s post on Katrina’s Who Dat Judge Martin Feldman went national and our site traffic went into the stratosphere despite not being credited with breaking the story in the press with the exception of Anita Lee at the Sun Herald. In the middle of the mayhem, we were contacted by Debbie over at the Dimechimes Adjuster Information Blog asking for our take on the problems in the BP claims process. She also mentioned Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim “Jimbo the Clown” Donelon, which at Slabbed is like throwing red meat to a pack of hungry dogs.

Jimbo has been a frequest topic through time here at Slabbed as he is a wholly owned by the insurance interests he is charged to regulate. He can spout the party line from the shills over at Insurance Information Institute chapter and verse and he presides over the most expensive insurance market in the country while doing little to change it. He is a pal to Mississippi’s Insurance Commish Mike Chaney, another hollow man / career politician that is similarly wholly owned by the insurance industry. Simply put both these guys are accomplished at going on camera and spouting bullshit as gospel but in no way shape or form serve the citizens that elected them.

Before we get to BP claims some air clearing is in order.  In some circles Slabbed has the reputation of being anti-business and anti-insurance though that could not be further from the truth.  In real life I am the embodiment of the small business person and proudly belong to the local Chamber of Commerce. Politicians like to spout off at the mouth at the importance of small business while serving their paymasters in big business, a topic we’ve frequently called bullshit on.  We’re also not anti-insurance though we take great exception to the new fangled way the large retail insurers adjust their claims as well as the way certain insurers defrauded the National Flood Insurance Program after Katrina. We’ve been privileged to get to know several folks in the industry like our own Supsalemgr who has written a couple of guest posts for Slabbed that may not agree with everything we write but who also understand we have raised legitimate issues that need to be addressed. Debbie falls into that group so when she asked for our take on the BP claims process we are very happy to help.

So here is the deal. BP hired a large adjusting outfit, ESIS to handle the many claims of the commercial fishermen and small business impacted by the spill.  ESIS is a subsidiary of ACE, a company connected to disgraced former AIG CEO Maurice Hank Greenberg, that did not have a footprint in this area.  ESIS in turn hired Worley Catastrophe Services, a local company based in Hammond to help staff the BP claims centers. And of course the process to date is best described by the acronym FUBAR. Continue reading “Let's switch gears and talk Louisiana Insurance Commish Jim Donelon: A hollow man that is full of hot air.”

Meet Judge Helen "Ginger" Berrigan. Another Louisiana Eastern District Judge with a recusal problem.

Judge Berrigan also has problems getting insurance cases right. In Berrigan’s case, she has never met an insurance company or murderer she failed to like. In this video clip, Professor Carl Bernofsky explains how he was Berriganed and how she refused to recuse herself despite a clear-cut conflict of interest.  Carl is the moderator of Tulane Link and until Slabbed has been a lone voice in the wilderness on problems in the Louisiana Eastern District Courts.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5203601110730482074]

Putting in the fix and giving them the Feldman Part 2: Slabbed explores the seemingly foreign concept of recusal in the Louisiana Eastern District Federal Courts as we tie a few more things together.

Subsection 455(b)(4) requires disqualification where a judge “knows that he, individually or as a fiduciary, or his spouse or minor child residing in his household, has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.” Section 455(d)(4) defines “financial interest” for the purposes of section 455(b), and provides specific exemptions, such as investment in a mutual fund or ownership of government securities. Note that, apart from such exemptions, even the smallest financial interest (e.g., ownership of a single share of stock) requires recusal. It is a judge’s duty to keep abreast of all of his or her financial interests.

Te above text from Recusal: Analysis of Case Law Under 28 U.S.C. §§ 455 & 144 found at the Federal Judicial Center has provided us with a treasure trove of information. As is often the case what appear to be unrelated events in Louisiana there are often common roots.  My research on the landmark recusal case I cited yesterday on Jim Brown’s Common Sense, Liljeberg v Health Services Acquisition Corporation led to this post which is also one heck of a story, one that will bring us from that case in the 1980s to the current impeachment of disgraced Louisiana Eastern District Court Federal Judge Tom Porteous and several points in between.

We need to catch our readers up to a key concept that we’ve highlighted several times here on Slabbed in the concept of control in politics and the judiciary. Many times those that run for office or nominated for judgeships are mere lackeys for monied interests. A very wealthy South Mississippian that is well respected in the business community told me something long ago that introduced me to the concept:

Some people want money. Some people want the power. I always wanted money because money rents power. Continue reading “Putting in the fix and giving them the Feldman Part 2: Slabbed explores the seemingly foreign concept of recusal in the Louisiana Eastern District Federal Courts as we tie a few more things together.”