Q: What do you do if you’re a lawyer too stupid for Donald Trump to hire you?
A: Go to work for Rupert Murdock at FUX News instead
Indulge me, please. Let me set this up with a little hypothetical fun. Let’s say your crew is heading out to Vegas for a three day Bachelor party weekend. Do you A) Buy your wife a bracelet, take her to a fancy dinner and beg, or do you D) say ROAD TRIP! See ya on Tuesday babe!
Your in-laws are coming to town for the weekend, and your wife wants them to stay with you in the spare bedroom. Do you tell her A) Oh, honey! I’m so sorry! I told you last weekend I was resurfacing the floor in there this weekend, remember? Or do you tell her, B)Â Babe, that’s what Motel 6 is for. You need their number?
One more. You score sweet seats to the ballgame in the middle of the week, but it’s a day game. Do you tell your boss, Sorry Sir, I have the Cubie flu, see you tomorrow, or do you score another ticket and take him to the game?
Starting to see the point? There are times in all of our lives where we have a decision to make, and a little humility, cajoling, and schmoozing is needed to smooth the way if you have any prayer of getting what you want without being in Chateau Bow-Wow for the rest of your life. In such cases, the rule is simple, Always pander to power!
In court tomorrow morning, jury selection is scheduled to begin in the FUX News-Dominion voting machine case. It’s not much, there’s only $1.6 billion in compensatory damages and untold billions in punitive damages at stake for FUX. But instead of putting the finishing touches on their opening day strategy, the FUX lawyers were busy back in court.
Because they played too fast and loose. Dominion’s lawyers went before the court and showed, with witness and evidentiary testimony that FUX had been trying to play hide-the-salami with evidence and documents that should have been turned over in discovery. This has already been a sore spot for this judge. He warned FUX from the start. And when Dominion brought evidence that FUX was redacting material that should have been turned over, the judge himself took over and worked the documents. That’s why you saw all of those bombshell unredacted statements a few weeks ago. The judge released them publicly as a form of sanction.
The judge had a coronary infarction. He excoriated the lawyers in open court, and sanctioned them. He also offered the Dominion lawyers a chance to reopen the discovery window to peruse the new information. And then he really dropped Thor’s Hammer. He appointed a Special Master to investigate the lawyers conduct, and report to him personally whether or not any further sanctions were necessary. You know, like referring the lawyers back to their state bars for further discipline, including possible law license suspension or even disbarment. I would call that uber pissed.
But here’s the point. Jury selection starts tomorrow. Following discovery, the judge has already ruled that no sane human could deny that defamation took place. So that isn’t even an issue before the jury. What the jury will have to find is whether or not the defamation was intentional and malicious. And if they do, then it’s up to the jury to decide damages.
The FUX lawyers are fighting over $1.2 billion in compensatory damages, and possibly 2-3X that in punitive damages. I read an article recently that said that $1.2 billion represented what FUX News made in operating profit in an average year. Imagine running a company that size for a year basically for free?!
The FUX lawyers are going to be contesting every little point tooth and nail. And in order for them to have any chance at all, they are going to have to get at least some favorable rulings from the court. And here these nimrods are, arguing their case in front of a judge who doesn’t believe a single word they say! And they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Pride Goethe before a all. But arrogance Goethe before a pratfall. Rich nimrods like Trump and Murdock have spent their entire lives believing they were untouchable. And their lawyers fell prey to the same trap. They played fast and loose because what difference? The case would never get to court anyway, and even if it did, the judge would side with the ruling elite. I’m looking forward to this trial, as well as Trump’s first pratfall. Don’t touch that dial.
I wonder how much of this is attorney malpractice and how much is Rupert (not unlike TFG) not being honest with his lawyers. NYC corporate lawyers surely know how to cover their derrieres better than this. Poor Rupert, already being sued by stockholders for failing his fiduciary responsibilites, not to mention the SmartMatic suit that’s going to be a slam dunk with all the Dominion discovery. While he may not end up a pauper, Rupert is going to be much poorer when this is all said and done.
This shines a light on how incompetent “state bars” are because they will not discipline attorneys unless they are convicted of a crime.
That’s why a lot of attorneys work for the mob leading to easily bought off “judges”.
Maybe the reason there are so many gun crimes is because the “courts” and “justice” are only for the wealthy.
Do you think regular folks can just drive down to Austin Texass and pick an obviously corrupt and incompetent “Federal judge” to hear their case?
Qualified immunity for us, corrupt courts for the wealthy….
Well, it’s reasonable to assume that Murdoch/Fox would have no trouble retaining top-flight legal talent. Lawyers who were well-qualified and competent and also experienced. On that latter point they’ve certainly had lots of practice given the number of messes they’ve been called upon to clean up! That makes me wonder, since they had no choice as this lawsuit has worked its way towards trial but to work with Trump’s lawyers at times, did the “stoopid” from Team Trump rub off on them?
I would say while financially they wouldn’t have trouble, you still have to find lawyers willing to take the case. If you were a lawyer, knowing what you already know, would you take such a loser case?
In his book The Franchise one of the characters author Peter Gent created stated most people’s moral code was their wallet. Not quite fair, but there’s still an awful lot of truth in that statement, particularly when it comes to lawyers. I didn’t head off for the Marines until I was 26, and for some years my best friend back in my small home town (two years older than me – our birthdays were only two days apart and we had some legendary joint parties!) was a lawyer. A good one too. Most guys who hand out a shingle take years to make their practice successful financially and he was doing quite well after only a year. We had some good philosophical chats over the years, including about his chosen profession. He refused to do divorce or criminal work, and stuck to estate planning (lots of farmers like his dad back there), tax work (got a Master of Law at Florida) and collection work for banks up in St. Louis. That made him uncomfortable at times but he did it because it paid well but some of the time people really did try to meet their obligations but their creditor wouldn’t work with them. In talking about that, and collecting those fees & how it might compare to criminal work where someone was guilty, or some sleazy divorce where the client was the one who deserved to get taken to the cleaners but instead made out like a bandit he summed it up in one sentence – He said of lawyers “We are societies whores.”
My point is that even a very good lawyer who has qualms will, if the retainer is large enough take plenty of morally objectionable cases and particularly if they are already financially set and more towards the end of their careers than the beginning. A good retainer agreement means all they have to do is fight hard with every legal means and they get paid win or lose. So Fox will get good legal talent whenever it needs it because they not only can afford to pay large legal bills, but because unlike Trump they don’t stiff their lawyers!
Well corrupt judge usually more outside of Austin tx I think. More west texas or other rural areas. I assume. But back to main idea. Kept thinking about shareholders (normally they can rot, in general) and fiduciary blah blah blah (folks with the gold get theirs back and regular folk… hahaha)… are just enjoying all this discovery or lack there of and really sharpening their knives.?
Well that’s the point here. One you might have the money to hire the finest lawyers around, but the finest lawyers around just might not want to be seen in or around fux news. Two. It was reported that people were saying that there possibly was a thin layer of something like a smoky substance around the judge’s head while he was kinda rubbing it in what seemed to be an effort to get his composure back. Just saying here.