#had to leave them to deal with it because of jury duty in ANOTHER STATE

[cheese-anon-real]

i am clarifying right now that the writing is going to take a while, I'm not gonna get too specific as to *why*, but uh

yeeeaaaah

[wiypt-writes]

Guilty As Charged

Guilty As Charged: Bucky Barnes One Shot

Summary: Defence Attorney James ‘Bucky’ Barnes is the absolute bane of your life…

Pairing: Lawyer AU Bucky Barnes x Reader (Frenemies!)

Warnings: Bad language words.

Word Count- Under 2k

A/N:  This was originally posted on my old blog ages ago, but I’ve just given it a little polish and thought, seeing as I’m on the Bucky Train at the moment, I’d bring it back. Also, my knowledge on US Criminal Law is sketchy at best, so humour me…

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this bar reader and any other OCs that may or may not be mentioned. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Bucky Barnes Masterlist // Main Masterlist

*******

In God We Trust, the words set about the Judge’s podium were fixed in your vision, motes of dust moving freely in the rays of sunlight which were streaming through the large, ornate windows of the court room and you took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, concentrating on expelling the nerves you were feeling with the air that left your mouth and lungs.

No matter how many times you were in this position, the reading of the verdict still got to you. Your gaze turned to the jury, as the judge did the same, that all important question ringing across the room, the air stiflingly tense.

“On the charge of murder in the first degree, do you find the defendant or not guilty"

“Not guilty.”

Fuck.

Cheers from the defendants family drowned out your loud groan as you rubbed at your temple. Looking over at your colleague, Sam, you shook your head in utter disbelief.

The judge continued through the remaining charges, second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, and your despair grew as the same verdict was returned for each.

You’d lost. And it stung, not merely because of your near perfect conviction rate, but for the family of the victim you were one-hundred percent convinced the accused.

"Y/N this wasn't your fault.” Sam stated in a low voice but you simply sighed again and shrugged.

"I was sure they'd see through his lies,” you glanced over to your right where the defence team, headed up by James Buchanan Barnes of Barnes and Rogers Law firm were shaking hand with each other and their defendant. Barnes' face was arranged in the usual smug look that you always had the urge to slap right off it. His partner, Steve, glanced over at you and gave you a genuine, sympathetic smile.

He’s always the most courteous out of the two, the one you actually didn’t mind dealing with when it came to cases.

"He fucking did it Y/N," Sam's voice was almost a growl, "I know he did."

"Well in the eyes of the law he didn’t." You stated, standing up.

The commotion continued behind you, as the defendant was told he was free to go. Making sure to keep your head down, you hastily shuffled your papers back into their respective files and packed your briefcase up. Picking up your jacket, you shrugged it on, smoothing down pencil skirt before you head to leave the courtroom before Barnes can pipe up with his usual smart ass quips. But you're not quite fast enough. "Commiserations Miss Y/LN, can't win em all." The familiar Brooklyn drawl hit your ears.

"Buck," Steve sighed "c'mon pal..."

You grit your teeth. You know you shouldn't rise to it, but you just can’t help it. The man is an utter jack ass in the courtroom. Spinning to face him, you shot him your best contemptuous glare, the one you always reserve for those people you really cannot stand, and looked at him like he was something you'd just trodden in.

"You know Barnes, there is such a thing as being gracious in victory as well as defeat." "Defeat?” He asked, looking at Steve with a puzzled expression on his face, “no, not sure what that is." "Eat shit.” You mumbled before turning to Sam who was stood behind you, watching the exchange. You nod to him and the two of you continued up the aisle towards the exit. The victim's family were congregated outside and all at once the start barraging you with questions.

"How did that happen?"

"You said it was a cert he would go down!”

"What about a private prosecution?”

You sighed and turn to look at them, you were exhausted. "I'm sorry.” You shook your head. “That new evidence that his attorney submitted, it was just threw too much of a doubt into the juries mind..." you held your hand up to gently silence them. “If you're serious about a private prosecution then I can meet you next week to discuss and put you in touch with a few people but I’m sorry, as far as the State’s involvement goes…I can’t do anymore."

Escaping as quickly as you could, you and Sam headed back to your office. After a short meeting with your boss, the District Attorney, who was as pissed as you were that the prosecution had failed, you emerged feeling twice as tired and battered as you had when you’d left the courtroom.

As Sam stated, there was only one thing left you could do. Drink alcohol. A lot of alcohol.

It was a short walk to your preferred bar, having decided to abandon your car and collect it in the morning. You were going to get drunk. Really drunk. "Hey Y/N, hey Sam." Clint, the bar tender greeted you. “I hear it wasn't a great day.” You looked up and saw he was pointing to the TV behind the bar. It was on a news channel, focussing on a report from earlier that afternoon which wasn’t surprising. The case had thrown up huge public interest ever since the body of the teenage girl has been found in the alleyway in Queens. The defendant confessed but somehow, the new evidence submitted was an alleged recording that the defence had gotten their hands on as proof the confession was taken under duress. If you were being totally honest, you had to admit that it didn't sound great, the officer did seem to be leaning heavily on the defendant, but the other evidence was, no, IS overwhelming.

But all it needed was that little seed of doubt, which the defence sowed expertly, and the jury couldn't convict. And now, thanks to Barnes and Rogers, specifically Barnes, in your mind a dangerous killer was walking free. As you stared at the television, you saw Barnes on the screen with the defendant, all smiles and Steve at his side. Barnes greeted the press with a raised hand. "Clint turn it over man." Sam almost pleaded and Clint shot you both a sympathetic look, before he pointed the remote at and flicked the report over to a mundane, late afternoon game show. You ordered 2 beers, and then settled at the bar on one of the tall chairs, crossing your bare, heeled legs as you and Sam began to dissect the case. You couldn’t help it, you always did this, analyse where you went wrong or right.

The pair of you got that enthralled in your discussions, that before you know it, it was an hour lager and you're now four beers deep... and Sam was fielding an angry phone call from his wife, Natasha. "I gotta go, boss." He sighed, apologetically, “it’s my little girl’s dance recital at six and if I miss this one, Nat’s gonna hang me out to dry!” You waved his explanation off. “Its fine, Sam. Oh, and take the morning tomorrow. That case has had us working all hours and I don’t intend on being there till lunch. Clint, gimme a bourbon please?" "Don't let Barnes get to you.” Sam sighed. “You know what he is like" "Smug, arrogant and annoyingly self-righteous.” You nodded. “Yup, I got it.” Sam smiled and dropped a friendly kiss to your cheek. "See you later." Clint slid the glass of bourbon over to you and you smiled before pulling out your phone to check a few emails and your social media. You were just reading through an article about a Billionaire in Manhattan who had designed some kind of metal suit that allowed him to fly (because that's gonna end well), when a familiar voice broke your concentration. "Can I buy you a drink?" You rolled your eyes and looked up at Bucky Barnes as he leaned on the bar, still in his suit, although he had dispensed of his black and white tie, and opened his top button. This was another thing you hated about him. He is utterly gorgeous. Like GQ cover gorgeous, especially in his sharp suits and silk ties.

And he fucking knows it, too. "Depends." You shrugged, throwing back the remainder of your bourbon. "Does it come with a side helping of irritating smugness?" He chuckled. "I'm off duty, Doll so no."

"In that case I'll have another Monkey Shoulder." You slid the empty glass back to Clint. "Take it you're not driving home?" Barnes asked, his azure eyes running over your bare legs. "Well if I do and I get caught, I'm sure you can get me off any charges.” You replied sharply, shooting him a look that made it clear you caught him eyeing you up. And it isn't the first time either. That's another reason you clash so much in the courtroom. Sexual tension. Fucking jerk. He barked out a laugh "You're really not happy with me are you?" "Not particularly." You shook your head, thanking Clint as he pushed the now full glass back to you, with a small wink. It's a double, you noticed. That should set Barnes back a bit. Bucky reached for his beer and after a pull he looked directly at you. "Come work for me." He said and you groaned.

Not this again. "I'm a prosecutor." You rolled your eyes. "Not a defence attorney. I told you that last time you asked. And the time before, and the time before that." "I'm nothing if not persistent." He winked, turning in his stool so he was facing you. "Besides, I can teach you the ways of the dark side." "You’d love that wouldn't you?" You snort. "Oh, Sweetheart you have no idea." He leaned forward slightly, his elbow on the bar and this time he is blatantly staring at the flash of skin that was showing above the buttons on your blouse. "My face is up here, ass hole." With a smirk he raised his deep, blue eyes and they locked onto yours. Despite yourself, you feel your breath hitch slightly. Dammed him and his sex appeal. "Why are you always this insufferable?" You eventually tore your gaze away from his and picked up your drink, glancing up at the TV as an excuse not to look at him. "Ah come on Y/N, don’t be like that." He reached out to squeeze your hand which was resting on the back of the tall chair you were sat in. "We could make a great team..." You raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "Professionally.” He added, his eyes not leaving yours as he took another large drink of his beer, and you pulled your hand away from under his. "I'd kill you within five minutes of us being in the same office." You glared at him as you took another sip from your drink. He chuckled and eyed you again, “to be fair I'm not sure Stevie would be able to function with a beautiful dame such as yourself in close proximity. He still flusters around any woman that isn’t his Peggy.” "That's because Steve is a happily married man." "So am I." He shot back. Ah yes, Mrs Barnes… "Your wife deserves a medal. She must have the patience of a fucking saint to put up with you." You said into your glass. "I have other hidden qualities which mean she's prepared to overlook my slightly less favourable personality traits." He quipped, and you looked back to see that lopsided grin on his face that flips your stomach. Behave Y/N. "They must be very hidden." You mused, and he let out another loud laugh.   "You're killing me, Doll.” "Good." You drained your glass. The liquid burnt your throat and you could feel the effects of the alcohol from the last few hours as your brain started to hum. You looked at Barnes who was watching you, his eyes shining with all the cheekiness of a teenage boy and you know you need to leave before you do something stupid.

Like snogging his dumb, handsome face off. "I think it's time I got going." You said simply, standing up. Barnes gave a nod, draining his bottle. “Yeah I should be making tracks too. Wife to see to, you know how it is.” You stood and he did the same, and you realised he was holding up your jacket, ready for you to slide your arms into. Narrowing your eyes slightly at his sudden chivalry, you couldn’t help the small smile that flickered across your face as you turned and allowed him to help you into it. His hands dropped to your shoulders and he span you round gently and smiled with those perfect teeth, a smile that lit up his beautiful face, his eyes crinkling in the corners. "Lead the way Mrs Barnes.” He instructed softly, dropping a tender kiss to your lips. "You know it's a good job I love you,” you smiled, sliding your arms up round his neck. "Yeah, I know." "Although right now I'm struggling to remember why." "Well, when we get home I'll just have to show you some of those hidden qualities I was talking about, see if they help jog your memory.” You bit your lip slightly at the dark flash of desire that flit across his eyes, and you leant up to brush your lips across his stubbled jawline. "Unanimous verdict,” your voice drops slightly as you pull back and he smirked again, “guilty as charged.” You tossed Clint a good bye, linked your hand into your husband’s and he walked you outside into the brisk wind, his arm pulling you close, his lips pressed a soft kiss to your temple. Yeah, James Buchanan Barnes might be an insufferable, arrogant ass hole in the courtroom, but outside it he's simply your Bucky.

[colettawilkes]

         COLE WILKES’S WANTED CONNECTIONS !! 

1. BIG BROTHERS NEVER LET ME DOWN: these two connections are ones i’m dying for: cole’s big brothers. cole has two big brothers, that she grew up with in birmingham, england. the wilkes family is half american, half british, as their father, peter wilkes, grew up and is originally from fallbrook, north carolina, and moved as soon as he was eighteen to travel the world and do photojournalism. he made a good living, lived on the wild side, but always worked hard. he met asha mills when he was twenty-four in birmingham, england, where her family owned a family favorite pub and the rest was history. they married and had three children: cole’s oldest brother, cole’s middle brother and cole herself. her brothers and father were more of a close knit family unit, because as time went by, her mother became an addict, as well as an alcoholic and never was around and when she was, it was usually to berate and yell nonsense at all of them. growing up in a pub doesn’t seem glamorous, but the wilkes siblings knew the meaning of love, hard work and passion when they see their father and for that reason, they’ve always stayed very close to one another. it was when cole was fourteen, that peter wilkes found out that his wife was using the money cole had won from her many knowledge based tournaments to buy drugs that enough was enough. he decided to leave her, take cole (whether or not the brothers came with him or stayed in england is entirely up to player), and move back to fallbrook. both personalities of the older brothers are entirely up to player, as well as names, ages - they just need to be older than cole who is twenty seven. 

2. COMPLICATED, BUT WE’RE GRIEVING TOGETHER: this is a real great connection i’m dying for also! as stated in cole’s bio, she dated her high school sweetheart, ryder masterson, up until a year ago when he died in a car accident that cole very much blames herself for. this connection is someone who was ryder’s best friend, and in turn, a close friend to cole as well. this person could have known ryder and cole since high school, or met in college - but the three of them were very close. i’d like this connection to be male, around the same age as cole, but they can be older or younger depending. this person is going through the grieving process with cole, but there’s some spice to it as well. somewhere in the friendship and throughout the midst of cole and ryder’s relationship, they hit a rocky patch and got into a big fight. cole went to this connection, venting and needed a shoulder to cry on. throughout the night, they talked it out, bonded, and perhaps had a few too many drinks - which cole never really indulges in. they kissed, and it was a damn good kiss - but broke away as quickly as they kissed. they vowed to never speak of it again, that it was a one time, stupid mistake - and this could’ve happened a while ago or before ryder died. either way, they’ve got each other now to deal with the pain, and perhaps the guilt they feel. will it bring them closer together or further apart? 

3. PATIENTS, CO WORKERS, OTHER SOCIAL WORKERS, DOCTORS:  this is also a very interesting connection! because cole is a social worker at fallbrook behavorial health. what she does is work with people who have been arrested, jailed for some time, and help them back on their feet and place them in programs, half way houses, etc, as well as run a few groups with fellow social workers. what i’d love is for more patients for cole - negative and positive ones. cole is a very hard-working social worker and she devotes so much time to it, but due to the death of her fiancee, only a year ago, she does tend to get more in her head than not lately and i’d love for a patient of hers, new or old, to know this and use it to their advantage to try and pull one over on her, or use it against her. in general, i’d just like more patients and people that cole has worked with, to further connect her to fallbrooke. also, i’d love for any doctors, social workers, therapists to also connect with cole! she could have gone to school with your character, studied with your character, work with your character, etc! 

4. YOU’RE A BAD INFLUENCE, BABY: calling all bad influences! listen up, i love a good bad influence, especially for a goody goody, ocd girl like cole. at this time in cole’s life, she really has been through a lot and so it’d be interesting to have some bad influences corrupt and get her into some trouble, turn her into more destructive habits, because she hasn’t really dealt with her loss of ryder yet. it hasn’t fully hit her and i think it’d be really interesting to have a character, or characters in general, that get her more out of her shell, get her to do things she normally wouldn’t do and get her into some sticky situations because we all love the spice! 

5. JURY DUTY, BLACKMAIL! : bravo for you if you got the reference lmfao. (it’s from the grinch.) but basically, this connection is someone who is blackmailing cole, who knows that she’s struggling at her job right now and using it to their full advantage to get her to sign off on therapy that the patient hasn’t actually done. this person could have gotten arrested, caught doing something, and they are assigned to cole for a social worker and they find out, through one way or another, about ryder and about how she is the one who steals keychains from other people, out of her own ocd ridden impulse and this person could very well use the emotional despair that she has to get her to sign off on therapies that they did not attend, so they don’t have to go. this connection is also spicy, and one i’d love to fill! 

6. COLE’S OWN PERSONAL THERAPIST: cole listens to people all day long, about their own hardships, but what she really needs is some help of her own. this person doesn’t have to be an actual therapist, but a friend, a close friend, who knows all of cole’s secrets and how hard it is that she’s going through this loss of hers. they know about cole’s ocd, they know about her compulsions and so this person is always around for cole when she needs them. this person is the one cole goes to when she needs to have a good cry, when she is out of options when it comes to controlling her urges and she can lean on them. she really needs that lately, as she is usually the one who does the therapy sessions. 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 25, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

A year ago today, 46-year-old George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis as then–police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. As bystanders begged Chauvin to get up, a teenage girl walking by had the presence of mind to video what was happening. Thanks to that girl, Darnella Frazier, we all could hear Floyd telling Chauvin, “I can’t breathe.”

Floyd’s murder sparked more than 4700 protests across the nation that popularized both the idea that policing must be reformed and the concept that American systems, starting with law enforcement and moving to include housing, healthcare, education, and so on, are racially biased. In the past fourteen months, support for the Black Lives Matter movement among white people has jumped 5%, fueled mostly by younger people.

And yet, the rate of deaths at the hands of law enforcement officials has not changed, and Black people are three times more likely than white people to die at the hands of law enforcement even though they are 1.3 times more likely to be unarmed.

In April, a jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He will be sentenced in June.

After the jury convicted Chauvin, President Joe Biden promised Floyd’s family that he would deliver a police reform bill. Today he and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Floyd’s family privately in the Oval Office for more than an hour, but the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act has not become law. The act bars the use of chokeholds and makes it easier to prosecute police officers, but lawmakers have been unable to compromise over so-called “qualified immunity,” a federal doctrine established in 1967 by the Supreme Court that protects officials—including law enforcement officers—from personal liability for much of their behavior while they execute their professional duties. Members of both parties, though, say a deal on the measure is in sight.

Today we learned that the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., has recently called together a special grand jury to hear a number of cases, including whether to indict former President Trump, other people in charge of running his company, or the Trump Organization itself. That a grand jury is considering whether a former president committed a crime is unprecedented.

It also suggests that Vance believes there is evidence of a crime. There appears to be a focus on whether the Trump Organization manipulated the value of real estate to make it seem more valuable when trying to get loans against it, and less valuable when listing it for tax valuations. Investigators are also looking at compensation for Trump Organization executives.

Vance began to investigate in 2018 after Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to making hush-money payments for Trump and to lying to Congress.

The former president also responded today to a lawsuit filed by Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who in March filed a lawsuit against Trump; Donald Trump, Jr.; Alabama Representative Mo Brooks; and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani for inciting the insurrection of January 6. Trump’s lawyers asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that the president has “absolute immunity conveyed on the President by the Constitution as a key principle of separation of powers." The memo is the usual political attack we have come to expect from Trump, but it’s interesting: his claim that he enjoys absolute immunity leaves the rest of the defendants out in the cold.

On January 22, just two days after President Biden took office, Lincoln Project founder George Conway published a piece in the Washington Post noting that Trump’s frantic efforts to stay in office might well have been “a desperate fear of criminal indictment.” Trump needed the protection of the presidency to avoid the fallout from his connections with Russia; the Ukraine scandal; and bank, insurance, and tax fraud. Conway noted that refusing to prosecute ex-presidents would undermine the rule of law because it would place them above the law: they could do whatever they wished as president—including trying to overthrow our democracy—knowing they would never answer for it.

Trump, of course, has refused to admit he lost the 2020 election. Today, he issued a statement suggesting that all potential prosecution of him would be political, saying that he was “far in the lead for the Republican Presidential Primary and the General Election in 2024.”

Trump’s memo also suggested he had a First Amendment right to say whatever he wished about the 2020 election, but in January, criminal law professor Joseph Kennedy of the University of North Carolina School of Law pointed out that while Trump’s speech might have been protected, he had a legal duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, a duty that meant he should have immediately told his supporters to stop what they were doing on January 6. His supporters breached the Capitol shortly after 2:00 p.m., and he did not ask them to leave until 4:17, in a video that was itself incendiary.

Meanwhile, the “audit” of 2020 ballots in Maricopa County hit another pothole when the Pennsylvania-based technology company in charge of running the recount refused to renew its contract, which expired on May 14, the day the process was supposed to be done. Wake Technology Services Inc. was subcontracting under Cyber Ninjas. A different technology company has taken over from Wake TSI.

The Nevada Republican Party has its own troubles. It recently censured Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, charging that she had failed “to investigate election fraud” in the 2020 election. Recently, one of the people who claimed to have voted for that censure said on a podcast that he is a member of the far-right Proud Boys. He said he and about 30 of his friends had been urged by state Republican leaders to step into the political fray on the side of the former president and were, he claimed, the deciding votes on the censure. Republicans in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, and in Washoe County, which includes Reno, are now trying to clean the Proud Boys and their ilk out of the party, while Trump loyalists are now trying to purge the party of anti-Trump people.

As of today, 50% of adult Americans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and on May 24th, the seven-day average of new cases was the lowest it has been at any point since last June. But those numbers are driven by the vaccinated part of the population. Among those who are unvaccinated, the rate of disease and death is estimated to be as high as it was in late January.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[reelwriter19]

Resurfaced

(Kevin Atwater x Original Female Character)

*Not my gif*

Kevin finds it hard to protect what's his when the past comes back to haunt him and his wife.

Moonlight & ambient noise from the city streets several stories below filled the room. Both of you barely dressed, Kevin’s large muscular frame rested comfortably on top of you in the bed. Having just made love for the first time in weeks, neither one of you wanted to move from this space. He kissed you right above your collarbone, which still managed to make you quiver in all the right places. You gently traced circles along his back and finally decided it was time to break the silence.

“What’s wrong?”

He shifted to place his lips slightly lower on your chest as a distraction. While leaving gentle kisses.. “Everything’s...fine..Bianca..”

Finding it difficult to concentrate and not cave in to another round of passion, you immediately put his head in your hands to get his attention. Motioning for him to move so you could sit up straight, readjusting the sheets over your bare chest as he rolls on to his back, clearly annoyed. Play time was over.

“Kevin, I’m serious. I know something happened. You've been distracted, almost nervous, all week. Then tonight..you were different. I can’t describe it but you know I’m right.”

Kissing your hand, he realized in this moment that honesty with you was the only way. You were his wife after all, the person he loved more than anyone and would do anything to protect. He finally sat up, back towards you, facing the wall. You waited anxiously for words to come out of his mouth.

“It’s Damien. He’s back in Chicago.”

This sentence instantly shot chills down your spine. Kevin turned around to take you in, evaluating your mental state after hearing this news. Tears welling up in your eyes.

“Bianca.”

“How is that possible? I thought...what??”

“He popped up last week. We were working the case. Burgess was under with Upton at this little hole in the wall in Pilsen and he showed up at their meet.

“Did he see her? Is she ok?”

“She’s fine babe. Kim thought she might get made so she dipped out really quickly & let Hailey finish the deal. Voight & I have had a security detail on you ever since.”

You were now panicked and obviously upset that this news was kept from you. “You’ve what?! Don’t you think that’s something I should’ve known?! Oh my God.”

You jump out of bed sheet in tow, now pacing the floor. Kevin, knowing the bombshell he’d just dropped gives you another minute to process before he’s up and off the bed behind you.

Taking your face in his hands, the deepest sincerity in his heart, “B, look at me. I will NEVER let that piece of shit touch you again. Do you hear me? I know I should’ve told you, but I didn’t want you worried, especially without me being here for so long. I gotchu... You’re safe with me.” Kissing your forehead & wiping away your tears.

“I know. I know I am. I just thought this was all over. I don’t want my mess affecting Intelligence. If anything happened to Kim or you because of my past…”

Now sobbing, Kevin wraps you in his reassuring arms, with a steely look of determination to protect his world on his face.

Morning came, and you were startled awake by the sound of Kevin’s phone ringing. You heard the shower running in the next room so you reached to answer it with a groggy hello.

“Hi Hank.”

“Bianca, how you holdin’ up kiddo?”

Hank had become like family to you rather quickly. Your case was special. Damien was a long time predator he and Al had been trying to capture for years. When Hank found you 6 years ago, beaten, bloodied and half conscious, he made it his duty to look after you, especially seeing that you had no relatives in a new city. You were there with him through it all...Justin’s disappearing acts, Al’s passing, which eventually led to you meeting and falling in love with Atwater.

“I thought he was dead. How is he back? Why is he back?”

“I’m doing everything in my power to figure that out, Bianca. Don’t you worry about this ok? We’re gonna get this prick.”

Nothing anyone said could completely reassure you in this moment, but you nodded in agreement anyway.

“Yeah...Kev’s in the shower. I’ll have him call you back.”

You hang up the phone and get out of bed, looking for something to throw on. You find an oversized hoodie of your husbands and a pair of shorts.

You exit the bedroom just as Kevin emerges from the bathroom, towel around his waist.

“Hey...I was gonna wear that today.”

Completely deadpan, “It looks better on me.”

As he walks towards the kitchen to greet you, “You’re right about that. Good morning.”

Attempting to plant a kiss on your cheek, you show zero emotion & continue to prep your cup of tea.

He shakes his head but decides to give you your space and heads to the bedroom to get dressed.

Standing at the threshold of your bedroom door, tea in hand you boldly say, “I want you to put me under.”

Kevin stops in his tracks, as if he’s spotted Bigfoot buying a Venture card on the green line. Pulling his shirt the rest of the way over his head.

“Put you under what??!”

“You know what I mean. Undercover, Kevin. You know I’m part of the reason he’s back in Chicago. He didn’t get what he wanted from me before Voight found me that night. His usual pattern was completely thrown off. I want to help. I need to help catch him.”

Kevin storms passed you in to the living room. You follow.

“HELL NO. Are you joking?! You want us to damn near put you in the hands of the man who almost took you from me, before I got a chance to have you?! Absolutely not.”

You walk towards him softly. Knowing this will be a hard battle to win, you sit in front of him on a chair as he leans against the wall.

“Baby...it’s taken years for me to feel safe in my own skin again. You did that for me. Hank looking after me, leading me to you. This life that we’ve built is the greatest gift I could’ve ever gotten. And now you’re telling me that someone is threatening what we’ve worked to create? I can’t just stand and watch while you guys, my family, puts themselves in harms way for me. I have to do something.

………

A few weeks had gone by and Intelligence still had no leads in their investigation. It was almost as if Damien Charles had never resurfaced...until the team got an alert that a young woman was found dead in an abandoned warehouse, brutally assaulted. They had no real proof, as Damien was very careful, but it was definitely his MO. Kevin was on edge and pissed at you, somehow believing that shutting you out would stop you from getting your way. Knowing your husband wouldn’t budge, you decided to go to Hank to convince him to use you as bait to catch Damien. He reluctantly obliged.

Night fell on the 21st. Upton and Burgess were prepping your phone with a tracking device while Ruzek and Halstead checked weapons and started to vest up. You were nervous, but Kim kept reminding you to take deep breaths. “We’ll be with you the whole time.”

“I know, I just wish Kevin…”

Hailey chimed in, handing you your phone, “Trust me, he’ll come around Bianca. It’s in their nature to want to protect us, but sometimes it’s up to us to take that power back ourselves.”

Kevin was upstairs in the locker room wreaking havoc on anything that wasn’t pinned down. Hank, hearing the commotion from down the hall, rushed in to see who had lost their mind.

“Kevin! Kevin!”

“How could you let her do this man?! I’m her husband! You don’t get to make that kind of decision for her.”

“Neither do you, Kev. This was her choice, do you understand? No matter how much either of us wants to catch this scumbag, she wants him gone a whole lot more. She’s stronger than you think. Now you have a choice. You either hang back, mad at the world or you gear up and back Bianca...back this team.”

Back downstairs, having settled in on the choice you’d made, “Ok, let’s do this.”

As the three of you were headed out of the room to join the others, Kevin walked in. Kim touched his shoulder in an attempt to reassure him as she walked away. You wanted to find solace in his familiar embrace, but you knew it was pointless. The walls were up. He walked towards you and you immediately noticed the tears in his eyes. “Kev…” Grabbing your hand and leaving a kiss on your frontal lobe, he quickly wiped his face and walked out to join the others.

It was a typical undercover mission, except this time, the stakes were much higher. You and Upton walked into the crowded club, dressed as if you were ready to party. The intel the team gathered tracked Damien at this same location several days in a row looking for his next victim. The rest of the team were scattered throughout the room or on surveillance outside the main entrance. This was one of those cases where justice was decided by Voight and his team, no judge or jury necessary.

You spot him almost immediately. Tapping Hailey on the arm, she reports back to the group, “We have eyes on Damien. He’s at the bar talking to a young woman.”

Hailey turns to you and for a moment, you can’t even remember your own name.

“Bianca, you ready? You good?”

“Yes. I’m ready.”

Morphing into a drunken party goer ready to have more fun, you make your way to the bar.

Halstead distracts the woman Damien is speaking to, saving her from imminent danger.

As Damien walks away, pissed that he had to ‘let that one go’ he spots you. A beautiful & familiar face. You’ve changed over the years, but a vulture never forgets its uneaten prey. You’re nervous as hell. More thoughts run through your mind than you can handle at once, but for now, you must push them aside.

No sooner than you spotted him, Damien disappeared into the crowd. You called Kim as a cover while you began to look around. “Hey girlie! I thought you were supposed to meet me tonight? I don’t see you!”

Kim responds on the other line…”Keep talking, Jay is checking the bathroom. He couldn’t have gone far.”

You spot Kevin on the stairwell on the other side of the club. Everything will be fine….

The fire alarm sounds.

Suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your neck.

A look of panic on Kevin’s face in the distance is the last thing you see as the cell phone slips from your hands.

Everything goes BLACK.

Chaos has ensued in the club. The alarm continues to blare, sprinklers shooting out water, and people running in every direction. Voight radios in as he and Ruzek are covering the perimeter, trying to calm down the frantic crowd. “Hailey, talk to me! Is everyone ok in there?!”

Kevin has bolted down the stairs, pushing his way through the crowd as he sees Damien pick you up and drag you out a backdoor. “B!! Bianca!!” It’s as if he’s trying to run in quicksand. As Kevin finally makes it to the back door, Burgess, who isn’t far behind spots your phone on the floor. She blots out after Kevin who is racing to his car. They get in, Kevin, not saying a word, speeding down the block trying not to lose you. Kim radios the team.

“Sarge, Damien has Bianca! We’re headed the wrong way down Parkside Ave in pursuit of a late model gray pick up truck. Tags are Indiana custom DG ...L16. We’re making a right on to George St. now!”

“We’re coming!! Don’t lose them!”

The high speed chase through the streets of Chicago continues as the rest of the team joins Atwater and Burgess. Atwater loses sight of the truck for what seems like an eternity. Ruzek radios Kim… “I just pulled up at the warehouse. I see the truck.”

Kevin picks up speed, gripping the wheel even tighter, “Copy that. Tell him we’re 5 mins out.”

…………………

You begin to come out of your fog. The dark room Damien has you in smells like mildew and death, yet in weird contrast, you’re lying on a mattress with fresh white sheets. Damien, not realizing that you’ve woken up, is in the corner at a table pouring wine and gathering instruments. You scan the room looking for anything to use as a weapon. Fear takes over as he walks towards the bed. You pretend to still be in a daze.

Scanning your body, then touching your face… “Wow. You’re more beautiful than I remember, darling. I’ve been waiting for this chance to be with you again.” He sits you up, started to touch you more, now looking down your shirt.

“Please, don’t…” Before you can get the words out of your mouth, his hand is around your neck. Gasping for air, tears start to stream down your face.

“DON’T act like you don’t want this! Hank Voight stole our chance at happiness years ago. And he thought he had me, but now is our time.”

As Damien leans in to connect his lips with yours, the sound of metal hitting pavement resounds in another area of the warehouse stopping him. He loosens his grip on you allowing just enough time for you to lunge for the bottle of wine and swing it hard against his skull.

“KEVIN!!!!!!” You scream, as you quickly scramble out of Damien’s grip. Racing towards the door, your realize that it’s locked from within. As you begin to pound on the door, Damien slowly starts to move closer to you. “KEVIN!!!! HANK!!! Please...down here!!”

Had the noise you heard a few minutes prior been a false alarm? Did you make a mistake? Damien’s disorientation and head gushing with blood give you time to look around the room for another way out, but nothing. With a newfound burst of energy, he lunges towards you like the madman that he is now pinning you against the wall. You fight him off with every ounce of strength you have.

BOOM!!!!!!

Moments later in true Atwater fashion, the door to your current prison swings open. Without any hesitation, Kevin grabs Damien and tosses him yards across the room. He stands over his exhausted body and begins to pummel his face like a boxing bag. Ruzek rushes in to stop him.

“Kev! Kev! We got him man! We got him.”

Snapping back to reality, Kevin turns his attention back towards you, crouched down near the door crying. Voight and the rest of Intelligence are now in the room. They stand in utter disbelief that this madness has finally come to an end.

Without saying a word, Kevin comes down to your level and begins to gently kiss every inch of your tear-filled face as if there’s healing in his touch….you’ve always known that there is.

You wrap your arms around him as he carefully lifts you up off the floor. You’ve never felt more relieved in all your life.

Voight, clearly broken up at seeing you in this state, puts a hand on Kevins shoulder. “Make sure you get her over to Med. We’ll clean up here.”

Fully leaning on your husband for support, the two of you exit the room.

………………………

Kevin hadn’t left your side since being admitted into the hospital two days ago. He was planted in the chair beside you.

“Do you need anything babe?”

Touching his cheek to reassure him, despite the IV in your arm. “I’m ok, thank you.”

Dr. Halstead walks into the room to check in. “Bianca, we got all of the test results back. The syringe he used to sedate you wasn’t contaminated, and everything else is cleared. You’ll be able to go home today.”

Kevin gets up to shake his hand. “Thank you man. Seriously, thank you.”

“Of course. Bianca take it easy ok? Try to hold off on being a hero for a while.”

With a smile, “I’ll try. Thanks Will”

Will walks out. Voight walks in.

He and Kevin hug.

“Hey Sarge.”

“How’s our patient doing?”

“I get to leave today.”

“Ok! That’s great. Oh look at those balloons.”

Kevin chuckles, “Yeah, everyone stopped by yesterday.”

Voight walks closer to the bed like a proud father and takes your hand. “I’m really proud of your kiddo.” You squeeze his hand in acknowledgement, knowing that for Voight that sentence translated into ‘I love you and I couldn’t bear it if we lost you.’

Voight starts to walk out of the room and Kevin follows.

“Yo Sarge, are we good? You know.”

“He’s gone. Forever this time. Ruzek and I took care of it for you.” With a pat on Kevin’s chest, Voight looks back at you one more time and leaves.

Kevin makes his way back into the room. You sit up a bit, still weak and reach for him.

“Everything ok?”

“Everything’s perfect, B. Everything’s perfect.”

He kisses you as if there’s no one else in the world besides the two of you. His world has been set right once again.

“Let’s get you home.”

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 16: MJ is being extremely selfish

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Last time I pointed out how its a false equivalency to claim being Spider-Man’s lover is no more dangerous than working with Mysterio.

This time out I will detail how MJ is, at least arguably, being extremely selfish in AMJ #1. Specifically, selfish in regards to her career. To explain how and why though we’re going to have to delve into MJ’s life priorities, in particular how she views her marriage to Peter. 

There are various scenes in AMJ #1 that at least imply she is:

Leveraging her silence to improve her character’s role in Mysterio’s movie

Impressed/excited to be working on the movie

Hoping the film will serve her future career prospects well; possibly by opening up the possibility of a spin-off for her character.

When taken in context of the story it can come across as though MJ’s sincere enthusiasm for making the films, and her hopes It will aid her career, are factors in her keeping quiet about Mysterio.

That in addition to any hypothetical sympathy she might possess for Beck/his crew, any hopes they could use his opportunity to reform (or at least contribute something positive to the world), she is also thinking about herself.*

On the other hand that might not be the intent by Williams, Gomez. Or it might not be how the story pans out. 

But for the sake of argument let’s pretend it is. In that case then it would be yet another (perhaps the worst) example of mischaracterization in the entire story.

Let me spell it out for you plainly.

Mary Jane would NEVER  prioritise her career prospects over the potential safety and well being of innocent people.

Never.

I’d have thought that was obvious but apparently it’s yet another thing that needs to be proven with evidence. Thankfully I have just such evidence.

The first and most obvious reason for why this is utterly out of character for MJ links back to something I mentioned earlier. Specifically in part 9.

We know MJ understands and puts into practice Peter’s underlying life lesson, that she herself tries to live by it in her own way. Peter, pretty much from the day his uncle died, has strived to be selfless in general, in particular in regards to his hero duties. Indeed it is this selflessness that so often strained his romantic relationships, which included his one with MJ.

It is therefore not believable that for her own financial or career interests MJ would be so lenient with criminals or allow them to operate essentially freely with no accountability. At best this is still fairly  similar to what Peter did in Amazing Fantasy #15.

One might argue that MJ just values her career thatmuch. That she has had such struggle so hard to make it work in the past that this opportunity is something she doesn’t want to let slip by.

This then calls into question just how much MJ values her career in the grand scheme of things, so let’s take yet another dive into history lesson to examine that.

In ASM #303 Peter was offered a great new job, the catch being that it was in Kansas. This would not only entail moving to that state but also MJ potentially giving up her beloved modelling career. MJ was forced to question what was more important to her, her career or her marriage.

Ultimately she decided it was her marriage, though thankfully Peter opted to turn the job down for her sake.

Another example can be found in ASM #502, which transpires not too long after Peter and MJ have gotten back together following a separation. Immediately following their reconciliation MJ took a break from her fledging acting career, having just starred in a super hero movie, Lobster Man. She did this in order to move back to NYC and work things out with Peter. In this issue though she raises the topic of returning to work (which would involve spending a lot of time in L.A.) but qualifies she won’t if it would risk harming their relationship.

More recent stories maintain this characterization, such as ASM v5 #29 which actually leads directly into AMJ. In the issue MJ clearly wants to take up the role in Mysterio’s movie offered to her. But she is also torn because it would entail leaving Peter for a long while. Peter, aware of her feelings, reluctantly encourages her to go. It is heavily implied this encouragement is at least an important factor in MJ’s decision to pursue the role, but even then she raises the idea of changing her mind.

To jump back in time a little, Sensational Spider-Man v2 #32 provides us with our final example of how MJ values her relationship with Peter over her own career.

In the issue MJ is dealing with the ramifications of Peter unmasking to the world and consequently (along with MJ and Aunt May) going on the run when the Super Human Registration Act was enforced.

Pushed to her wits end and wrestling with her life falling apart MJ is frustrated by her loss of status and career. However, by the issue’s end she’s come to terms with her new status and reaffirmed her commitment to her husband.

For sure, these are not a 1:1 equivalent to the situation under discussion. In AMJ we’re talking about MJ’s career vs. her sense of justice and in the above examples the question is between her career vs. her marriage.

It’d be fairly easy to argue that obviously  MJ values her marriage more than her career, as Peter himself does too. Surely most people in healthy relationships have similar priorities?

But by the same token wouldn’t common sense dictate that if MJ was willing to give up her career for the sake of a relationship she’d also be willing to give it up for something that, in the grand scheme of things, is actually much more important; namely people’s lives?

After all, Peter may well give up his heroic duties for the health of his loved ones, but he wouldn’t do it simply to retain a relationship with them. This is evidenced in ‘Maximum Carnage’ when Peter reluctantly goes against MJ’s wishes of taking a break due to Carnage attacking the city, a fact MJ ultimately accepted.

This shows us that, as hard as it can be for Mary Jane, she believes in the need  for Spider-Man in the world (to protect the innocent and apprehend crooks) and places the importance for that over her relationship with him.

She might not like it, but she recognizes the greater good.

This sentiment is further corroborated in ASM v2 #50, wherein MJ and Peter try to patch up their marriage. In the conversation MJ outright states that she never wanted nor expected Peter to place her above his duties, and that she never wanted to interfere with them.***

MJ’s recognition that her and Peter’s relationship is ultimately trumped by Peter’s heroic duties is glimpsed again in ASM v5 #29.

MJ hopes Peter will accompany her to the airport before she departs for L.A. but Spidey stuff gets in the way. Whilst she admits him letting her down again upset her she also calmly acknowledges that his work was more important because he is saving the world/innocent lives.

What I’m saying is if MJ ultimately prioritizes Peter’s duties (and thus the well being of innocent people) over keeping her marriage in tact and also values keeping her marriage in tact over her career then obviously she prioritizes innocent lives over her career.

Or to put it more succinctly, MJ’s priorities read like this:

Innocent lives>Her marriage>Her career.

Additionally in Spider-Man Unlimited v3 #2 Mary Jane simply states outright that she values Spidey’s heroic duties as more important than her career.

In the story MJ ponders how it is ridiculous for her to be treated like royalty for being an actress whilst a hero like Spidey gets nothing.

She even denigrates her job in comparison to the importance his role as a hero is. Finally she voices upset about feeling useless in the face of what he does. Her upset is alleviated when Peter informs her that she is an important factor in enabling  him to be a hero in the first place.

The story very clearly outlines that MJ places distinctly greater value on Peter’s role as a hero than her job in the entertainment industry.

It also arguably proves MJ on some level wants to contribute to Peter’s role as a protector of innocents and catcher of the guilty herself. In this regard it isn’t alone as some other stories arguably tap into that idea too.

In a part 9 I looked at how in Web Annual #6 MJ keenly participated in jury duty. This could be taken as evidence of MJ wanting to participate in the justice system as Peter (sort of) does. And if we return to ASM v2 #50 we can find a little more food for thought in the very moment Pete and MJ reconcile.

In the trade versions of the issue (which I admit brings the canonicity into question a bit) MJ reveals that the reason she separated from Peter was because she felt like she was unneeded in his life (as Spider-Man), that she wasn’t a part of it and that she couldn’t help.

This could be taken as a further example of how MJ in fact wishes to contribute to Peter’s ‘mission’ as it were, though I admit that isn’t a watertight argument.

Furthermore let’s consider a particular moment from AMJ #1 itself. As you might recall, MJ noticed the presence of super powered people and criminals on the film set along with her as well as how the director (Cage McKnight) was avoiding her. 

This was in spite of writing the role for her, hiring her without an audition and insisting she be in the movie. MJ was suspicious and confronted McKnight demanding to know what kind of con he was pulling. Although he insisted it wasn’t a set up, his inability to provide any answers led to MJ quitting. 

She stated she wasn’t an innocent, naïve, unsophisticated young actress who could be scammed with empty promises and promptly began to walk away.

Whilst it’s possible to argue that MJ was simply bluffing in order to know the truth, the likelihood is she seriously intended to leave.

Consider the fact that she has acknowledged the presence of criminals, the director literally running away from her and the questionable circumstances behind her hiring. Specifically she claims to have come to the conclusion that the film is not legitimate.

Do these preceding events really imply that MJ was merely bluffing? Unlikely, she can clearly tell something smells fishy and she’s at the centre of it somehow. Realistically, common sense would dictate not sticking around for the sake of your career, especially if you’ve concluded there isn’t actually a career opportunity to be had in the first place.

Mary Jane doesn’t know the specifics of the con. For all she knows she could be caught up in general crime, some kind technically legal Hollywood scam, a sinister plot connected to Spider-Man (which would technically be correct), yet another obsessed stalker or some kind of #MeToo moment waiting to happen.

Regardless, she was prepared to walk and potentially throw away any career opportunity she might have by sticking around.

If she was prepared to do that with the limited information she had then when she learns of the actual situation why would she stick around?

Now, you could argue that MJ is concerned for the careers and livelihoods of the crewmembers who are not criminals. But even this doesn’t stand up to scrutiny because that’s the equivalent of caring about the people unknowingly employed by a crime lord. If the crime lord goes down they lose their jobs. That sucks, that’s horrible. But their jobs are obviously far less important than the potential lives and livelihoods of other innocent people Beck might harm.

Yes it’s a choice between lesser evils but it’s a necessary  choice, and one the police make regularly. People can find new jobs, but lives are irreplaceable after all.

There is some food for thought supporting this too, gleamed from Spider-Man’s own actions.

In a story from Spider-Man Unlimited #11 a poor criminal (named Joe) with a wife and baby is apprehended by Spider-Man. He desperately begs Spidey to let him go for his family’s sake. Though Spidey takes in Joe’s words and is implied to believe him, he ultimately doesn’t agree. Harsh as it might be, he simply tells Joe he should have thought about his family before he broke the law.

At the issue’s end Peter is arguably upset by the experience, and yet he clearly didn’t change how he operated.

Later, in the Clone Saga, Ben Reilly was shocked to learn that his new lover, Jessica Carradine, was in fact the daughter of Uncle Ben’s killer. He learned that as a result of her father being caught by Spider-Man Jessica had a hard life growing up in foster homes. Peter and MJ were fully aware of the situation with Jessica and helped Ben work through his feelings.

It is important to note that at this time Ben, Peter and MJ all believed Ben was the original Peter Parker, the actual  person bitten by the radioactive spider. This meant that as far as they knew Ben was the one who personally apprehended Jessica’s father.

In spite of this information though neither Peter nor Ben ever even considered changing how they operated as Spider-Man, nor did MJ ever suggest they do so in light of Jessica’s experiences

Finally in ASM v2 #55-56 Peter discovers that Melissa (a student he was teaching) was the younger sister of a criminal he apprehended named Joshua. Joshua’s  capture had a negative effect upon the rest of his family. This included him keeping his distance after being released from jail. Peter learned that Joshua was hanging out with other reformed criminals under the eye of Ezekiel Sims, a friend of his who knew his identity. Ezekiel basically called Peter out for not checking in on the criminals he captured, nor their families.

Though Peter claimed this was an impossible task, by the story’s end he did at least consider trying to attempt the feat. He also informed MJ about this incredibly unique experience even in amidst his incredibly unique life, meaning it’s something she’d be likely to remember.

Noticeably though neither in the story nor thereafter, did Peter ever consider not  bringing criminals in out of concern for the unintended consequences. In fact, upon learning the truth about Joshua’s group he still made it clear that if they did anything even slightly out of line he’d turn in the organization.

It’s clear from these examples that Peter believes that criminals are worth capturing even if there might be negatives consequences upon their families. It’s something he doesn’t like but his sense of justice places the greater good upon the innocent people who are or might be harmed by the criminals above the families more indirectly affected by the criminals going to prison.  Logically the extension of this mentality is that Spider-Man prioritises preventing crime and apprehending criminals over the jobs that might be affected by their capture, because a family seeing one of their own sent to jail and struggling with their loss is obviously not as bad as simply losing your own job.

Once again I will remind you that MJ’s own sense of justice is extremely similar to Peter’s and in fact directly influenced by it. Thus it is very possible that MJ shares this sense of priorities.

But I will admit how much MJ is aware of these incidents and how much she directly applies them to herself can be debated. Nevertheless it’s at least something to consider. Even if you feel these examples are not really applicable to MJ, just real life common sense would dictate that you shouldn’t let dangerous criminals walk free just because you are costing (merely potentially) innocent people their current  jobs. Even if they were blacklisted from Hollywood MJ could at least put in a word for them with her acquaintance, billionaire Tony Stark, who might be able to find them other work.

Moving on, next time we’re going to examine the fact that in AMJ Mary Jane is knowingly deceiving Peter.

*Note that they are contributing something important to the world through deceiving investors and using the identity and reputation of someone who hasn’t consented to any of that.

**It is worth bearing in mind that between Ben Reilly being Spider-Man at this time and MJ being heavily pregnant, her desire for him to remain retired was entirely sympathetic.

***Before anyone brings it up, yes, strictly speaking this is not true. Maximum Carnage alone seemingly contradicts this sentiment. But it’s fairly easy to argue that MJ’s dialogue here is speaking specifically about their marriage (not their pre-martial relationship) and excluding extenuating circumstances. Circumstances such as the immediate aftermath of Harry’s ‘death’, MJ’s pregnancy, and Peter being seriously injured. Alternatively it’s entirely possible to argue that MJ is speaking about how she feels deep down at the end of the day, not how she might’ve felt during off days where she was occasionally less understanding than others.

After all Peter himself deep down is dedicated to being Spider-Man but he has quit or contemplated quitting multiple times.

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[kathleenmcgregor]

September 6, 2020 (Sunday)

Heather Cox Richardson writes:

Earlier this week, New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo warned that American democracy is ending. He pointed to political violence on the streets, the pandemic, unemployment, racial polarization, and natural disasters, all of which are destabilizing the country, and noted that Republicans appear to have abandoned democracy in favor of a cult-like support for Donald Trump. They are wedded to a narrative based in lies, as the president dismantles our non-partisan civil service and replaces it with a gang of cronies loyal only to him.

He is right to be worried.

Just the past few days have demonstrated that key aspects of democracy are under attack.

Democracy depends on the rule of law. Today, we learned that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who rose to become a Cabinet official thanks to his prolific fundraising for the Republican Party, apparently managed to raise as much money as he did because he pressured employees at his business, New Breed Logistics, to make campaign contributions that he later reimbursed through bonuses. Such a scheme is illegal. A spokesman said that Dejoy “believes that he has always followed campaign fundraising laws and regulations,” but records show that many of DeJoy’s employees only contributed money to political campaigns when they worked for him.

Democracy depends on equality before the law. But Black and brown people seem to receive summary justice at the hands of certain law enforcement officers, rather than being accorded the right to a trial before a jury of their peers. In a democracy, voters elect representatives who make laws that express the will of the community. “Law enforcement officers” stop people who are breaking those laws, and deliver them to our court system, where they can tell their side of the story and either be convicted of breaking the law, or acquitted. When police can kill people without that process, justice becomes arbitrary, depending on who holds power.

Democracy depends on reality-based policy. Increasingly it is clear that the Trump administration is more concerned about creating a narrative to hold power than it is in facts. Today, Trump tweeted that “Our Economy and Jobs are doing really well,” when we are in a recession (defined as two quarters of negative growth) and unemployment remains at 8.4%.

This weekend, the drive to create a narrative led to a new low as the government launched an attempt to control how we understand our history. On Friday, the administration instructed federal agencies to end training on “critical race theory,” which is a scary-sounding term for the idea that, over time, our laws have discriminated against Black and brown people, and that we should work to get rid of that discriminatory pattern.

Today, Trump tweeted that the U.S. Department of Education will investigate whether California schools are using curriculum based on the 1619 Project from the New York Times, which argues that American history should center on the date of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to Chesapeake shores. Anyone using such curriculum, he said, would lose funding. Government interference in teaching our history echoes the techniques of dictatorships. It is unprecedented in America.

Democracy depends on free and fair suffrage. The White House is trying to undermine our trust in the electoral system by claiming that mail-in ballots can be manipulated and will usher in fraud. While Trump has been arguing this for a while, last week Attorney General William Barr, a Trump loyalist, also chimed in, offering a false story that the Justice Department had indicted a Texas man for filling out 1700 absentee ballots. In fact, in 2017, one man was convicted of forging one woman’s signature on a mail-in ballot in a Dallas City Council race. Because mail-in ballots have security barcodes and require signatures to be matched to a registration form, the rate of ballot fraud is vanishingly small: there have been 491 prosecutions in all U.S. nationwide elections from 2000 to 2012, when billions of ballots were cast.

Interestingly, an intelligence briefing from the Department of Homeland Security released Friday says that Russia is spreading false statements identical to those Trump and Barr are spreading. The bulletin says that Russian actors “are likely to promote allegations of corruption, system failure, and foreign malign interference to sow distrust in Democratic institutions and election outcomes.” They are spreading these claims through state-controlled media, fake websites, and social media trolls.

At the same time, we know that the Republicans are launching attempts to suppress Democratic votes. Last Wednesday, we learned that Georgia has likely removed 200,000 voters from the rolls for no reason. In December 2019, the Georgia Secretary of State said officials had removed 313,243 names from the rolls in an act of routine maintenance because they were inactive and the voters had moved, but nonpartisan experts found that 63.3% of those voters had not, in fact, moved. They were purged from the rolls in error.

And, in what was perhaps an accident, in South Carolina, voters’ sample ballots did not include Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, although they did include the candidates for the Green, Alliance, and Libertarian parties. When The Post and Courier newspaper called their attention to the oversight, the State Election Commission, which is a Republican-majority body appointed by a staunch Trump supporter, updated the ballots.

Democracy depends on the legitimacy of (at least) two political parties. Opposition parties enable voters unhappy with whichever group of leaders is in power to articulate their positions without undermining the government itself. They also watch leaders carefully, forcing them to combat corruption within their ranks.

This administration has sought to delegitimize Democrats as “socialists” and “radicals” who are not legitimate political players. Just today, Trump tweeted: “The Democrats, together with the corrupt Fake News Media, have launched a massive Disinformation Campaign the likes of which has never been seen before.”

For its part, the Republican Party has essentially become the Trump Party, not only in ideology and loyalty but in finances. Yesterday we learned that Trump and the Republican National Committee have spent close to $60 million from campaign contributors on Trump’s legal bills. Matthew Sanderson, a campaign finance lawyer for Republican presidential candidates, told the New York Times, “Vindicating President Trump’s personal interests is now so intertwined with the interests of the Republican Party they are one and the same — and that includes the legal fights the party is paying for now.”

The administration has refused to answer to Democrats in Congress, ignoring subpoenas with the argument that Congress has no power to investigate the executive branch, despite precedent for such oversight going all the way back to George Washington’s administration. Just last week, a federal appeals court said that Congress has no power to enforce a subpoena because there is no law that gives it the authority to do so. This essentially voids a subpoena the House issued last year to former White House counsel Don McGahn, demanding he testify about his dealings with Trump over the investigation into the ties of the Trump campaign to Russia. (The decision will likely be challenged.)

On September 4, U.S. Postal Service police officers refused Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) entry to one USPS facility in Opa-Locka, Florida and another in Miami. Although she followed the procedures she had followed in the past, this time the local officials told her that the national USPS leadership had told them to bar her entry. “Ensuring only authorized parties enter nonpublic areas of USPS facilities is part of a Postal Police officer’s normal duties, said Postal Inspector Eric Manuel. Wasserman Schultz is a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

And finally, democracy depends on the peaceful transition of power. Trump has repeatedly suggested that he will not leave office because the Democrats are going to cheat.

So we should definitely worry.

Convincing people the game is over is one of the key ways dictators take power. Scholars warn never to consent in advance to what you anticipate an autocrat will demand. If democracy were already gone, there would be no need for Trump and his people to lie and cheat and try to steal this election.

But should we despair? Absolutely not.

And I would certainly not be writing this letter.

Americans are coming together from all different political positions to fight this attack on our democracy, and we have been in similar positions before. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln spoke under similar circumstances, and noted that Americans who disagreed on almost everything else could still agree to defend their country, just as we are now. Ordinary Americans “rose each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach---a scythe---a pitchfork-- a chopping axe, or a butcher's cleaver,” he said. And “when the storm shall be past,” the world “shall find us still Americans; no less devoted to the continued Union and prosperity of the country than heretofore.”

[no1laywer]

After A Truck Accident – Prompt Investigation Is Key

Prompt Investigation Is Key

If you want to get all the important evidence to identify all the key parties and prove your case properly after being hurt in a truck accident, then it’s important to do a quick and first-rate investigation. Numerous parties could have played a part in the wreck that injured you, so a diligent investigation will be done to figure out who’s at fault and their specific degree of negligence. It’s essential to locate proof to make the jury be swayed in your favor and rule for you, and evidence begins to disappear promptly after an accident. You need to have your truck accident lawyer searching for evidence immediately if you can. Every day you hesitate and don’t get a trustworthy lawyer the more permanent damage you’re inflicting on your case because the proof you want is disappearing – witnesses can relocate or their memories become fuzzy, videos will be copied over or deleted and the accident scene will evolve as well.

The truck accident lawyers at our firm have invested two decades in becoming experts at how to investigate accident scenes. Once we’re hired we go to the accident, free of charge to clients, so we can look for any evidence that strengthens our client’s case. We do what’s needed to discover the truth – securing and searching for all the mandatory vehicles, getting photos, searching for video evidence, scouring police records, taking measurements between skid marks and where the vehicles collided, conducting forensic tests, spotting and talking to witnesses and getting any other credible evidence that can be used later in court.

You need to understand you’re probably already well behind the case and investigation that’s been done by the defense. What happens is generally the trucking or insurance company quickly sends their investigators to the accident scene not long after the trucker phones it in. The defense investigators aren’t concerned with how the accident happened; they just want evidence that backs up that your injuries were a result of your own negligence. If you don’t have your truck accident attorneys at the scene undertaking their own investigation, you’ll not be able to see if there was any evidence tampering or if the defense’s investigation was done in an honest manner. If they can locate evidence that proves your negligence, then they can reject your insurance claim if they can show you were completely at fault, or have the damages lessened if they can show your negligence was a contributing factor.

One case we recently handled illustrates why you need to do a speedy and thorough investigation. In this matter, our firm was hired by the driver of an SUV after he was a part of a nighttime accident involving an 18-wheeler. The trucking company was trying to say our client had no headlights installed in his vehicle when the accident happened. Once we began working the case, our client’s totaled car had been removed from the accident scene and towed to a nearby salvage yard. When our attorneys located the car at the junkyard, they saw it definitely had no headlights. We were concerned about our client being able to get any compensation, but at that moment our investigators saw a surveillance system in the salvage yard and managed to secure some video footage. We were fortunate because this exact system was designed to record over its memory every 48 hours and we managed to get our hands on it before it was erased. The video revealed a worker from the trucking company coming in late at night, then illegally taking the headlights out of the car and leaving the premises with them. Once the trial started and the trucking company’s defense counsel attempted to say our client’s car had no intact headlights, we had physical evidence that serves as proof of the deception taking place and managed to get compensation for our client. If our client had waited much longer to hire us, the video would have been missing, the chances of receiving restitution would have ended and the trucking company would have managed to get away with felonious evidence tampering.

Our attorneys regularly encounter such lies and deception when it comes to truck accident cases, so you need to hire a lawyer and let them begin a speedy and thorough investigation as fast as possible. Sometimes there’s still a chance for our investigators to find the necessary proof well after an accident occurred, but the faster we can start an investigation, the better odds we have of securing the proof needed to get the compensation you deserve. Don’t hesitate any longer in discussing your case with a truck accident lawyer.

Common Obstacles Plaintiffs Must Overcome

You may have filed an insurance claim after your everyday car wreck, but that doesn’t instantly qualify you to work a truck accident lawsuit by yourself. Trucking insurance policies are deemed 50 times more expensive than a normal auto insurance policy. Due to the enormity of these insurance policies, litigation to handle truck accidents is way more complex than what you’ll find in normal passenger carcasses. Plaintiffs who attempt to save money on lawyer’s fees by handling their own case eventually cost themselves financially with lessened or totally denied compensation. People with no legal experience and lawyers fresh out of school wind up confused and puzzled when they attempt to file lawsuits following truck accidents because of many factors: showing the burden of proof, the huge size of insurance policies, companies that choose to self insure and truckers who lie.

Burden of Proof

Defendants don’t have to immediately pay you a dime after you’ve been injured in a truck accident, the law states unless you as the plaintiff are able to prove they need to. If you want to get the fair restitution you deserve for your injuries, you’ll have to submit rock-solid, credible evidence. Even when other types of negotiation are used to deal with a claim, evidence still needs to be submitted to the defense or insurance will work in good faith. You’ll have to show each of these four elements in a trucking accident case:

Duty – The first part of this long arduous process is having to show the defendant owed you a duty to maintain your safety by acting appropriately. The legal duty of care is set for certain issues and for each person – all based on the specifics of their relationships. In truck accident cases, showing this element is pretty easy, since every motorist has to operate their vehicle in a fashion that appropriately makes sure other drivers are kept safe, along with pedestrians and passengers on the road.

Breach – The next step if you’re hoping to prove your case is that you’ve got to show the defendant or defendants violated the duty of care you were owed. This happens when the defendant endangers others with actions that regular people wouldn’t have done, or inaction when regular people would be expected to take action. You’ll have to obtain evidence that proves the defendant ignored his or her legal duty of care through action or remaining inactive in hopes of proving this breach of duty happened. That’s why you’ll need a truck accident lawyer who knows how to use the evidence to properly persuade a jury that the defendant or defendants acted wrongly.

Causation – Along with being able to prove the defendant’s breach of a legal duty, you’ll also have to show your injuries were a result of this duty being broken. Keep in mind that several parties could have played a role or been completely responsible for a trucking accident, so it requires very solid, credible evidence to persuade a jury that a causal relationship existed between the defendant’s breach of their obligation to you and the resulting harm you sustained. If you can’t do this, then what will happen is the defendant will rip your case apart by moving the blame over to another individual for your injuries. Many times, the defendants tend to avoid blame by shifting attention to the victim for creating their own injuries with their negligence.

Damages – Once the first three parts have been established for a successful truck accident lawsuit, you finally have to show the damages the defendant owed for the injuries you’ve sustained. In the legal world, damages aren’t about your injuries and your property damages. Damages, in this case, refer to the compensation owed by the defendant due to the harm they’ve created. The plaintiff can pursue damages for medical expenses, lost wages, pain, and suffering lost earning capacity, damaged property and other losses that happened in the accident.

The challenging issue here is that you can’t just ask for compensation you feel you deserve from the court and assume you’re entitled to it. No, you’ve got to show evidence that doesn’t just include your losses, but also how you compiled the monetary value of those damages. Many times, defendants will contest the total amount of compensation the plaintiff is requesting and will come back with their own amount of damages owed that will shrink the monetary value of harm incurred by the plaintiff. If you hope to show the defendant attempted to short-change their damages, you have to provide inarguable proof that your numbers are spot on.

What is the true value of my case? Damages like pain and suffering or loss of earning capacity can wind up being subjective and open for debate, which means that damages can be very complicated for inexperienced people to deal with. It’s difficult compiling a price for issues like pain and suffering or determining lost earning capacity by including the potential value for raises and inflation. In court, you’ll only have one opportunity to total the amount of compensation you’re after. For the past 20 years, our truck accident lawyers have been totaling damages, and we have gained plenty of comfort by litigating cases similar to yours and we know how to include all your losses and come to an estimation of the compensation that adequately provides restitution you’re after.

If you’re unable to show any of these four elements, you can guarantee yourself that you won’t receive the compensation you’re seeking for the injuries you’ve sustained. You need the help of truck accident lawyers – definitely if you head to trial. All the years of litigating truck accident cases have allowed our lawyers to discover how to build a strong legal strategy to meet the burdens of proof and convince a jury to rule for you.

The post After A Truck Accident – Prompt Investigation Is Key appeared first on Carabin Shaw Attorneys at Law.

https://no1-lawyer.com/after-a-truck-accident-prompt-investigation-is-key/

[theotherstephencobert]

November 27 - My Jury Duty is completed

Well, the Eighteenth Judicial District of the State of Kansas only needed me for two days, really, just a day and a half. The experioence was, well... "curious" is the best word I can think to describe it.

When I arrived at 8:30 Monday morning, there were well over 100 prospective jurors in the Jury Waiting Room. We were briefed on what we were expected to do, including watching a video showing us the various aspects of what jury duty entailed. Then one of the judges addressed us, welcoming us and giving us further instructions.

We were all given a form with our Juror Number on it and were told we would be called by number when we were chosen to serve. We were also informed that, while there were no Juvenile cases, there were 23 Criminal cases starting that day as well as 3 Civil cases scheduled to start on Tuesday. Although we were told some of those cases might be postponed, extended, or settled without a jury, I figured with that many cases it would be a pretty sure bet I'd be chosen as a juror.

We all sat and waited as the TV's in the room on which we'd seen the video were set to the local CBS station. I think around 9:50 the first group of prospective jurors was called; I listened, but my number was not among the 20. Around 10:30 another group was told to report, but once again I was not one of them. I think a little after 11:00 four more numbers were called because so many of the jurors in the second call were disqualified, but once again I wasn't one of the lucky ones. (Or unlucky ones, depending on how you look at it.)

Then it got really, really DULL.

We broke for lunch just before noon; I ate at the Courthouse Cafe because I could have left the building but I didn't care for the hassle of going through the metal detectors all over again. The uncalled jurors were all back by 1:30 as we were told to be. Then around 2:30 the secretary asked for 20 of us to volunteer to stay on. I was one of 14 who agreed to remain; six more were picked at random, and the rest were dismissed. Then around 4:00 the number was trimmed to 10; once again I volunteered, along with five others, and the remaining four were picked at random.

Just before 5:00, the situation was explained to us: Of all those cases, the two that had had the jury calls were the only ones that were going to trial that week! All the rest were extended or postponed or a plea was reached without a jury. We were told jury selection was still going on in one trial and we were to leave for the day and would all need to report back at 9:30 the next morning.

So this morning I dutifully reported back at 9:30 to sit and wait. The TV was still set to CBS. Around 10:30 a dozen people came into the jury waiting room; turns out they were the jurors chosen for the first trial the day before, the trial was over and they had been dismissed. The secretary said she would check with the judge, and shortly after 11:00 she returned to the room to tell us we were all dismissed, gave us our Jury Service Certificates and thanked us for our willingness to take part in jury duty.

I learned a lot of interesting and useful things from my experience:

A prospective juror can be automatically excused from jury duty for a number of reasons, such as being under 18, no longer being a resident of the county, not understanding English, or being a breastfeeding mother. Most of the reasons required some sort of printed verification, including that last one.

Drew Carey is still host of The Price is Right. He has lost a LOT of weight since he starred on The Drew Carey Show.

All jurors were advised to bring reading materials or something to occupy their time (Wifi was available). Bringing knitting tools was suggested, but a warning was given that the traditional, sharp-pointed knitting needles would not be allowed because they could be used as potential weapons.

There is a new version of Let's Make a Deal! on TV now and the host is even more obnoxious than Monty Hall was.

For our efforts, we would be paid $10 per day we served, plus a nominal allowance for travel to and from the courthouse and for meals while we served. In our briefing, they were very tongue-in-cheek about how "you won't be able to retire on Jury Pay", but as might be expected we were told how we should focus on how this was a civic duty and we should take pride that we served our community.

I am glad I "served my community", but I think I would have felt a little less like this was all a waste of time if I had actually been a juror in a real trial. Even the folks who left at 10:30 this morning could claim they'd done SOMETHING. (And for those of you about to tell me, "Be careful what you wish for, Cobert, you might get it"... For my "service" these past two days I am now ineligible for jury duty for one calendar year.)

[texasprelawland-blog]

Issues With Trials By Zoom

By Jonathan Cheng, Rice University Class of 2024

February 19, 2021

A Texas lawyer recently went viral after an embarrassing mishap during a recorded Zoom trial. While representing the state of Texas in a hearing concerning contraband products leaving the US, lawyer Rod Ponton suddenly transformed into a baby-eyed cat. Hilarity ensued, with Ponton attempting to remove the filter and reassure the judge that he was, in fact, not a cat. The presiding judge, Roy Ferguson, of Texas’s 394th judicial district, later shared the video on social media (Guardian). But this incident highlights existing questions and concerns that many have had about the prospect of transitioning this nation’s judicial system into an online format.

There are several pressing issues that immediately surface when considering the idea of a “trial by Zoom”. First and foremost, there is the problem of due process and equality under the law that is a cherished institution in this country. Under the 6th Amendment, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed” (Constitution Center). Zoom presents several obstacles to the idea of an impartial jury. There is the fact that many Americans do not have access to technology, which severely limits jury selection and raises the possibility of a trial only by Americans with the income to afford personal devices. In 2019, almost 1 in 5 Americans did not own a smartphone, 1 in 4 Americans did not own a laptop, and 1 in 10 Americans did not use the internet at all (Pew Research Center). With physical trials in a courtroom, there were few legitimate hurdles preventing lower income Americans from attending court and doing their civic duty as a juror. This is not the case in the age of Zoom.

Online trials may also affect the equality of proceedings for the witnesses and the jurors themselves. Witnesses may find it far easier to commit perjury while under examination from the safety of their own home, with a video screen separating them from any hostile interrogator. It is far easier to tell a lie when you are not physically seated on the wooden bench of the stand, staring at an aggressively probing attorney and twelve jurors listening intently to every detail of your story. Jurors may also have a different trial experience from the comfort of their own homes that may impact their ability to remain impartial. Both the defendant and the witnesses could appear impersonal and alien to the jurors, causing them to feel far less sympathy towards them. Jurors could be distracted by interesting Zoom backgrounds, or even by scrolling through their phone or checking their emails on their computer (Institute for Legal Reform), presenting a new problem compared to physical trials where cell phones and other devices are strictly discouraged as potential distractions. Technical issues could also frustrate jurors and disrupt their ability to focus on proceedings. During a criminal jury trial on August 11th, 2020, “Several jurors could not see the defense attorney when he first began his voir dire, so the proceedings had to stop in order for the court to teach the jurors how to switch from Gallery View to Active Speaker. Lots of questions had to be repeated because of bad connections or an audio lag. Poor connectivity caused visual and audio problems multiple times throughout voir dire, which led to people talking over one another. One juror had to move locations during jury selection (for reasons unknown), which was very awkward and caused yet another delay” (Law.com). Forcing jurors to embarrassingly flounder through an unfamiliar process by themselves can lead to them becoming flustered and less likely to sympathize with the defendant or properly engage in proceedings. Everything is obviously different now, from business meetings to everyday life, during the pandemic. But any significant change to procedure, like for instance the wholesale altering of the medium of trials across the US, is immediately a gross injustice under the 6th Amendment to all defendants who are now expected to fight for their lives and livelihoods in a system that is completely different from the one their predecessors faced.

This persisting problem of technical difficulties is multi-faceted. It must be remembered that this level of disruption caused by technical difficulties is rare in an ordinary courtroom (Grabowski). The increasing number of antics and mishaps that have occurred on Zoom trials, while hilarious to watch on social media, can create a lack of seriousness in the proceedings. Examples range from Ponton’s issue with the cat face (Guardian), to lawyers having mic issues, being intruded on by others members of the household, or struggling to change inappropriate backgrounds. Obviously, many of these issues are unavoidable due to the pandemic and the unique difficulty that working from home poses, however it cannot be denied that Zoom trials are having a detrimental effect on the reputation of the US justice system. Courts are supposed to inspire a degree of formality and authority; that’s why courthouses are normally some of the most centrally located buildings in cities, why the Supreme Court building looks as imposing as it does, why witnesses have to swear an oath before testifying, and why judges wear their official robes and sit in high chairs above everyone else (ClearWay Law). It must be remembered that courts are powerful institutions, capable of dealing out punishments and jail sentences that can change a person’s life forever. Imagine how it must feel as a defendant to watch your trial proliferate across all of social media, with your defense lawyer and presiding judge cracking up and your prosecutor looking around confusedly with a cat face on, when you are on trial for your life. Conducting trials by Zoom and running the risk of amusing technical difficulties removes some of the power and gravity that was previously invested in the US court system.

A problem also exists with the ability of courtroom trials to be recorded and live streamed in a way that they were never able to be before. Judges and legal scholars have long been opposed to the presence of cameras in the courtroom, alleging that they “distract trial participants, prejudice trial outcomes, and thus deprive defendants of fair trials” (Strickland). In addition, having cameras pointed directly in people’s faces can cause a shy witness to fidget, sweat, and appear uncredible, or encourage egotistical lawyers to become overly dramatic and showy. This is the reason why there are still dedicated artists that create courtroom sketches, in order to provide the public with a view into the courtroom while still maintaining some decorum. When the decision was made by Judge Lance Ito to televise O.J. Simpson’s trial, it was met by significant controversy and backlash in the legal community, who objected to the prejudicial presence of cameras in such a high-profile case (Lowry). Obviously, with Zoom, it is impossible not to have cameras pointed in your face at all times or avoid their prejudicial effects. And there are significant potential negative consequences to this. Trials can be recorded, live streamed, or posted online with ease now due to their online nature. This can lead to privacy concerns for both parties in a trial who may not want the entire world knowing their business. For example, tech-savvy children could conceivably find ways to watch footage of their parents’ nasty divorce or heinous crimes that they are not ready to emotionally handle. Hackers can potentially gain access to sensitive material that is made available in court, such as birth dates, valuable evidence, signatures, or social security numbers (National Law Review). Given the painstaking effort in the past by lawyers and judges to ban cameras, maintain privacy, and ensure complete impartiality, it is surprising that all of these pretensions have been tossed out the window with Zoom trials.

Of course, as long as the pandemic continues, trial by Zoom is something that must continue in order to preserve the safety of all parties involved. But it is worth at least considering the plethora of issues that are presented by the idea of making a potentially life-changing decision over someone else while sitting in the comfort of your own home, dialing in on a video screen.

______________________________________________________________

“Court Can Be A Scary Place- A Law Student Story.” ClearwayLaw, 23 Nov. 2018, https://clearwaylaw.com/court-can-be-a-scary-place-a-law-student-story/.

“First Asbestos Trials on Zoom Marred by Distracted Jurors and Technical Problems.” ILR, 19 Aug. 2020, https://instituteforlegalreform.com/first-asbestos-trials-on-zoom-marred-by-distracted-jurors-and-technical-problems/.

Mark Grabowski, Are Technical Difficulties at the Supreme Court Causing a "Disregard of Duty"?, 3 Case W. Res. J.L. Tech. & Internet 93 (2011)

Jouvenal, Justin. “Justice by Zoom: Frozen Video, a Cat — and Finally a Verdict.” Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/justice-by-zoom-frozen-video-a-cat--and-finally-a-verdict/2020/08/12/3e073c56-dbd3-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

Lapinski, Jennifer, et al. “Zoom Jury Trials: The Idea Vastly Exceeds the Technology.” Texas Lawyer, https://www.law.com/texaslawyer/2020/09/29/zoom-jury-trials-the-idea-vastly-exceeds-the-technology/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

Lowry, Brian, and Brian Lowry. “O.J. Simpson Trial Ruling to Let TV Cameras in Court Created 20-Year Mess.” Variety, 18 June 2014, https://variety.com/2014/tv/columns/judge-itos-decision-to-let-cameras-in-the-courtroom-20-years-ago-has-created-a-mess-1201222205/.

NW, 1615 L. St, et al. “10% of Americans Don’t Use the Internet. Who Are They?” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/22/some-americans-dont-use-the-internet-who-are-they/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

---. “Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in the United States.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

Schiffer, Zoe. “The Jury Is Still out on Zoom Trials.” The Verge, 22 Apr. 2020, https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21230022/jury-zoom-trials-court-hearings-justice-system-virtual-transparency.

Strickl, Ruth Ann. Cameras in the Courtroom. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/989/cameras-in-the-courtroom. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

Texas Lawyer, Trapped by Cat Filter on Zoom Call, Informs Judge He Is Not a Cat | Texas | The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/09/texas-lawyer-zoom-cat-filter-kitten. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

“The 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” National Constitution Center – The 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-vi. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

“The Pros and Cons of Zoom Court Hearings.” The National Law Review, https://www.natlawreview.com/article/pros-and-cons-zoom-court-hearings. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

“What To Expect at a Virtual Hearing.” Michigan Legal Help, 27 Apr. 2020, https://michiganlegalhelp.org/self-help-tools/going-court/what-expect-virtual-hearing.

[pennsylvaniaprelawland-blog]

Former College Football Player Sues The NCAA

By John Martin, University of Pittsburgh Class of 2020

September 18, 2020

As college students, we often come across classmates that are a foot taller than us and look strong enough to lift a car. They are the people we see decked out in official team merchandise with their special backpacks. Of course, I am referring to college football players. We cheer them on with all our hearts on Saturdays, and go crazy when they pull off a big win. Many students know that it can be very challenging to be in a student-athlete’s position. A full course load in conjunction with morning lifts and afternoon practice every single day seems daunting, to say the least. However, what if I told you that our mighty peers are dealing with a little more than a busy schedule? They could be dealing with serious head injuries, as well.

It is no secret that football has been starting to discover a trend of serious head injuries. First discovered and published by pathologist, Dr. Bennett Omalu, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease stemming from repeated head injuries. The disease encompasses a wide range of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive issues. Unfortunately, there is no definitive test to positively identify CTE in people until their brains are analyzed postmortem. However, according to a study conducted by neuropathologist, Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University School of Medicine, it is extremely common in football players. Of the 111 brains donated to science from deceased NFL players, 110 were positive for CTE. As part of the same study, it was found that 9 out of 10 college football players’ brain had the same outcome[1]. That leaves us with this particular question: is the NCAA, the governing body of college athletics, doing enough to warn and protect athletes from suffering this debilitating neurological illness?[8]

Meet Matthew Onyshko. He was a Pittsburgh firefighter and played linebacker for the California University of Pennsylvania (Cal U) football team from 1999-2003. Now, he suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) that has caused him to suffer from paralysis and loss of speech. He claims that the cause for him developing this neurological degenerative disease was the head trauma he endured while playing football at Cal U[2]. Because of this, Onyshko filed a lawsuit in June of 2014 against the NCAA for their failure to inform him of the dangers of playing football.

The complaint cites two-counts against the NCAA: negligence and loss of consortium. They allege that the organization breached their duty to supervise, regulate, and minimize the risk of long-term brain injuries. The loss of consortium would involve the damages paid by the NCAA for their negligent actions causing Onyshko’s injuries. The NCAA filed a pre-trial motionto dismiss based on a multitude of reasons, which include the suit falling outside the two-year personal injury statute of limitations, lack of the NCAA’s legal obligation to the plaintiff, and others[3]. The courts ruled that Onysko was still within the statute of limitations because he was not aware that he suffered from repeated head trauma until 2012[4]. Thus, the proceedings continued, and the jury selection began April 29th, 2019.[9]

The trial lasted roughly a month, revolving around a few different main issues. The defendant insisted that there was no duty to protect an athlete from the potential risks of a sport. The plaintiff countered, asserting that the NCAA failed to provide adequate education and safety standards as the governing body. Another claim made by the NCAA was that there is no evidence that the ex-athlete suffered any head-trauma while playing at Cal U. Though Onyshko testified that he sustained at least 20 concussions during his college career, the cross-examination produced evidence that he only reported one injury to the training staff in that time (bruised thigh). [4] Additionally, the defendant stated that there is no generally accepted link between ALS and head-trauma. The plaintiff refuted that by bringing in Dr. Omalu to testify that ALS can be triggered by concussion-related trauma[5]. After all was said and done, the jury entered deliberation and ruled in favor of the NCAA.

Onysko appealed this decision, and the case is currently being brought to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania seeking revival. They appeared in court on August 25th, 2020. The plaintiff claims that the trial court judge improperly allowed testimony from a Cal U administrator. This person set the policies to educate the athletes on the signs and symptoms of head injuries. The plaintiff argues that this administrator was not personally in the meetings that apparently educated these players, therefore he could not definitively say whether the student-athletes actually received that information or not. Onyshko’s legal team insists that by allowing this testimony, it potentially swayed the jurors. Additionally, the jury selection process is in question, as Onyshko’s representation was forced to use their preemptive strikes as interviews were being conducted for potential jurors, rather than after. They argue that, in accordance with state laws for civil proceedings, parties are allowed to save their strikes until after the interview process. The NCAA’s representation denies, saying it was in accordance with local rules and did not contradict the state’s rules [6]. The case was heard in front of a three-panel judge, and we await their decision.

For now, Onyshko is currently waiting to hear if he was granted a new trial, and it could be months until we know.

________________________________________________________________

John Martin is graduating in December of 2020from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies with a minor in Administration of Justice. He has plans to attend law school in the future.

________________________________________________________________

1-     Chan, Nicholas. “CTE in Football: Is Brain Injury in NFL Players Being Misdiagnosed?” Being Patient, 2 May 2020, www.beingpatient.com/cte-in-football-nfl-brain-injury-misdiagnosed/. 

2-     Miller, Barbara S. “Former Cal U. Football Player Testifies at Trial with Electronic Communication Device.” Observer Reporter, 7 May 2019, observer-reporter.com/news/localnews/former-cal-u-football-player-testifies-at-trial-with-electronic/article_f4d7e9e6-7043-11e9-9a9b-aba3a2f1475f.html. 

3-     Corleto, Anthony B. “Jury Rules for NCAA in First Sports Concussion Case Tried to Verdict.” The National Law Review, 21 Aug. 2019, www.natlawreview.com/article/jury-rules-ncaa-first-sports-concussion-case-tried-to-verdict. 

4-     Dennie, Christian. “Onyshko v. NCAA: NCAA's Motion for Summary Judgment Denied.” Barlow Garsek& Simon, LLP, Wpadmin, 4 Apr. 2017, bgsfirm.com/onyshko-v-ncaa-ncaas-motion-for-summary-judgment-denied/. 

5-     Linaberger, Anne. “Doctor Whose Story Was Made Into a Movie Testifies in Trial.” Sparkt, Good News | Sparkt - Sparkt.com, 24 Feb. 2020, sparkt.com/matthew-onyshko-concussion-doctor-testifies. 

6-     Santoni, Matthew. “Ex-College Athlete Seeks To Revive NCAA Concussion Suit.” Law360, 25 Aug. 2020, www.law360.com/articles/1304271/ex-college-athlete-seeks-to-revive-ncaa-concussion-suit. 

7-     Miller, Barbara. “Verdict: NCAA Not Negligent in Onyshko Case.” Observer Reporter, 23 May 2019, observer-reporter.com/news/localnews/verdict-ncaa-not-negligent-in-onyshko-case/article_0b6963b4-7d7e-11e9-a95e-5fb04cce452c.html. 

8-     “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy.” Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy Onyshko v. NCAA. Washington County, PA Civil Division. Case No

[aion-rsa]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Who is John Walker, the US Agent?

https://ift.tt/2Ptg8gH

John Walker, the US Agent will be one of the antagonists of Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

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When The Falcon and The Winter Soldier starts up on Disney+ next year, one of its main antagonists will be the returning Daniel Bruhl as Helmut Zemo. At D23, it’s been announced that there will be another major antagonist in the form of John Walker, as played by Wyatt Russell. Walker is a B-lister-at-best to Marvel and it makes sense that this would be the project that would formally introduce him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While there have been various people to take up the mantle of Captain America outside of Steve Rogers, there are only five who truly matter. Isaiah Bradley was the prototype for Captain America as revealed in the excellent Truth: Red, White, and Black. William Burnside became Captain America in the 1950s in response to Rogers’ disappearance after World War II. John Walker became the new Captain America after Steve Rogers was dismissed from the role. Bucky Barnes took over as Cap when Rogers temporarily died. Then Sam Wilson became Cap when Rogers (living again) lost his super soldier powers and became physically elderly.

While Bradley and Burnside have potential to show up in the future (though they’d have to get a good Chris Evans double for Burnside, if not Evans himself), John Walker is the perfect wrench to throw into a story about Sam Wilson wielding the shield.

So who is John Walker, the Captain America of the 80s?

Walker was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary, debuting in the pages of Captain America #323 in 1986. In his original appearances, he played the role of Super-Patriot, a glory-hound loud-mouth vigilante backed up by his own propaganda machine. He’d spend much of his time giving speeches about how Captain America was old news, falsely portraying him as a gun-toting psychopath, and he’d even stage fights with goons in Captain America masks called “The Buckies.”

Though respecting the First Amendment and all that, Captain America obviously didn’t like this. Walker, who was driven by fascism, couldn’t leave well enough alone and instigated a fight with Cap. It went on for a while and Walker considered himself the winner because he...threw a shuriken into Cap’s chainmail.

Yeah, I don’t get it either.

A few issues later, Rogers had issues with the US government. The two parties disagreed on the status of the Captain America identity and the United States’ ownership. Deciding that he answered to the dream and not the suits behind the desks, Rogers gave up being Captain America, choosing instead to fight crime as Nomad and later The Captain. Tony Stark even made him a new shield!

The high-ranking government types discussed who would make for the best replacement. Fittingly enough, one even suggested that Sam Wilson would be a perfect candidate...but the public wasn’t ready for a black Captain America. They instead went with Walker, because jerk or not, he was still pretty damn good at punching terrorists in the face.

read more: Everything You Need to Know About The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Walker was taken aback, especially considering he made had made a name for himself specifically by telling everyone how much Cap sucked. He ended up agreeing to the terms, mainly since he would do just about anything the government tells him to. It was there that we also got to learn his origin.

Walker was the younger brother of a soldier who died in Vietnam and was celebrated as a real hero. Idolizing his brother, but stuck in his shadow, Walker decided to prove himself by joining the military. While he was active, the US wasn’t involved in any wars, so his attempts for glory and acknowledgement were empty gestures. He ended up getting powers from the Power Broker, a pro-wrestling promoter who was the lazy way out whenever a writer in the '80s needed to give someone special abilities without revealing that they were actually a mutant. Walker never entered the squared circle, as he instead got himself an agent and a dream to be America’s #1 patriotic hero.

Then again, he did stage pre-determined fights with the Buckies to get him more cheers from the public, so I guess he's more pro-wrestling than I originally thought.

After Taskmaster trained Walker to sling a shield like an expert, the new Captain America started kicking ass in the name of ‘Murica. For roughly two years, Walker played the role, where he was portrayed as a violent psychopath dressed in the flag. He wasn’t quite Frank Castle level of bonkers, but he had no problem tying his villains to explosives and leaving them to die. 

Over the course of his run, he started to chill out a bit, question authority a little, and the narrative made sure to make him sympathetic. For instance, he got doxxed and his parents were murdered because of it. Then he wasn’t even allowed to see their funeral because duty calls.

In the end, it turns out the big puppetmaster of everything was the Red Skull. Walker and Rogers teamed up against him and took him down. Then everyone decided to go back to the status quo with Rogers as Cap.

Walker was lucky, though. You see, the 90s were on their way and there was no better haven for an edgier copycat of an existing hero. It was a time when Iron Man was flying around with a giant gattling gun on his shoulder, Spider-Man’s alien double was eating the brains of drug dealers, a Thor knockoff was embarrassing all of us with a leather jacket and ponytail, a new Batman had a hideous costume covered in razors, and so on. Rather than go back to being Super-Patriot, Walker dressed in a black version of the Captain America outfit, got a shield of his own, and fought crime as US Agent.

Even though the two were never really shown to be close friends, Captain America and US Agent co-existed as politically-opposite counterparts with a mutual respect (usually). US Agent received a couple miniseries to his name, but never got a full-on solo series.

Instead, he spent the next few decades jumping from team to team. As part of the West Coast Avengers and later Forceworks (oof, the '90s), he often played opposite Hawkeye. Hawkeye initially was the Avenger who was a stubborn asshole to nice guy Captain America, so now he had to deal with a version of Captain America who was actually a stubborn asshole. US Agent later led the Jury, a team of armored soldiers who were originally put together as a revenge pact against Venom, then just kind of stopped fighting him after two stories.

For real, though, it's kind of amazing how nobody cares about the Jury and yet they still show up from time to time.

Speaking of teams nobody cares about, US Agent was also part of Superhuman Tactical Activities Response Squad (STARS) and one of the modern incarnations of the Invaders. He became the American liaison to Omega Flight (which he hated, because they’re filthy Canadians). This led to him joining Hank Pym’s Mighty Avengers during the whole Dark Reign thing. Funny enough, Walker was a big supporter of Norman Osborn being in charge of the superhero wing of the government for a time. Of course he was.

read more: Marvel Pulls Essay Over Political Fears

This came to a head in a Siege tie-in where the Mighty Avengers fought Osborn’s Thunderbolts and we got US Agent vs. Nuke. It was the battle of the I-can-see-where-you're-coming-from right wing patriotic super soldier and the crazy-email-that-your-uncle-sent-you right wing patriotic super soldier. The Mighty Avengers won, but US Agent took some horrible damage from the fight, losing an arm and a leg in the process.

No longer wearing the tights, US Agent became Warden Walker as part of the Thunderbolts. He remained in a wheelchair as he didn’t want to use cybernetic attachments to augment his body and be one step closer to becoming like Nuke, the unfortunate super soldier knockoff who first appeared in Daredevil: Born Again. The comic was bloated with characters, so his panel-time was limited, but Walker at least got a rad moment when he took care of a prison riot on his own, Bad Day at Black Rock style.

It’s the guy meekly bringing over the wheelchair that gets me.

Thunderbolts became Dark Avengers and US Agent was briefly sucked into an alternate reality where the heroes of NYC were at war with each other. Using a lobotomized Venom symbiote, the creature was used to replace the missing pieces of Walker’s body, making him whole again. Team member Toxie Doxie had US Agent under her control, but that was a series-ending cliffhanger that was never touched on ever again.

After that, US Agent has been just kind of kicking around Marvel, showing up whenever someone needs a cranky guy who can still kick some ass. Fittingly, one of his last appearances was him going after Sam Wilson Captain America, but that ties into Civil War II and Secret Empire bullshit and I really don’t want to have to discuss those events.

Outside of comics, the biggest appearance for US Agent was the Capcom tag-team fighter Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. He was a secret character and really just a recolored Captain America to the point that they didn’t even make his outfit accurate. Still better than how the game turned Blackheart red and called him "Mephisto." US Agent would reappear in Marvel vs. Capcom as an assist character and would be an alternate costume for Cap in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

read more: The Legacy of Marvel vs. Capcom

As a newcomer to the MCU, Walker is going to be a real wild card. He could be anywhere from a full-on villain to an eventual member of the Avengers. The most likely scenario, at least at first, is that the government isn't going to be thrilled with the idea that Steve Rogers bequeathed the Captain America legacy to Sam Wilson without checking in with them first, and Walker is probably their preferred candidate. I can’t wait to see what Wyatt Russell has to offer.

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and wonders how long until Forceworks shows up in the MCU. Don’t say they won’t because we’re getting the goddamn Eternals! Nothing is impossible! Read more of his articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Gavin Jasper

Aug 24, 2019

Marvel

Captain America

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

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[capstageriverside]

From: “Black on Blue: Race and Police Misconduct”

This selection is taken from a longer piece in American Conservatory Theater’s “Words on Plays” publication for Between Riverside and Crazy. Written by editor Shannon Stockwell, it summarizes the 1994 police shooting that inspired part of the plot, and explores some of the issues of implicit racial bias that impact police shootings. (Text bolded for emphasis throughout)

“Fifteen Seconds of Sheer Terror” 

...On August 22, 1994, Desmond Robinson, a black undercover transit officer, was in a subway station in Manhattan, pursuing a teenager who had just attempted to dispose of a sawed-off shotgun by dropping it between the subway platform and an idling train. The shotgun fired, and Peter Del-Debbio, a white off-duty police officer who was on the idling train, mistook Robinson for a criminal and shot him four times in the torso. Robinson was brought to the hospital, where he was in critical condition for several days but eventually recovered. Both men involved in the shooting left their jobs in the aftermath. The incident led to a tense debate among the NYPD about the role race may have played in the shooting. “I don’t think [Del-Debbio] knew [Robinson] was a cop,” said Sergeant Kelvin Alexander, president of the transit police unit of the Guardians, a fraternal organization for black police officers. “He was just killing a black man, and that is indicative of a sickness right there.” “[New York City] is a very race-conscious city,” conceded Police Commissioner William J. Bratton. “As to whether it played a significant role in this matter, I don’t think so.” He later went on to say, “This was 15 seconds of sheer terror for these two men, who did what they were supposed to do. We’re not going to second-guess them.” Bratton chose to reserve judgment at the time, but two years later, a jury found Del-Debbio guilty of acting recklessly. The New York Court of Appeals reviewed the case in 1997 and concluded:  There was overwhelming evidence that each of the four shots fired into the victim’s back were reckless and unjustified. . . . Even if a defendant is justified in using deadly force at the beginning of a single, ongoing encounter with an assailant, his right to use that force terminates at the point he can no longer reasonably believe the assailant still poses a threat to him. Despite the decision, Robinson pleaded for the judge to be lenient in sentencing DelDebbio. “Perhaps more than anyone, I can understand the pain and emptiness that Peter Del-Debbio must feel, having been forced to leave the job,” said Robinson. “I know, from my own experience, that the loss of being able to serve the people of this city as an active member of the NYPD is a harsh punishment in itself.” Del-Debbio was sentenced to five years’ probation and 200 hours of community service. Robinson sued the city for $50 million, and in 2003, he settled out of court for $3 million. 

“Objective Reasonableness” 

Although Robinson did not want Del-Debbio to be punished harshly, not everyone was happy with the outcome. Some NYPD officers felt that there never should have been a trial; Del-Debbio was only doing what he felt he had to in order to protect himself and those around him, they said. Indeed, as the NYPD Annual Firearms Discharge Report of 2013 writes, “Police officers are regularly exposed to highly stressful, dangerous situations. . . . The law should and does provide latitude for those who carry the shield and protect the common good.” When using force, police officers in the United States are protected by something called “objective reasonableness.” The standard of objective reasonableness was delineated in the Supreme Court case Graham v. Connor (1989), which concerned a police officer using force on someone he thought was belligerent but was actually in diabetic shock. The decision reads, “The ‘reasonableness’ of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.” Essentially, grand juries and juries must consider whether or not it was reasonable for the police officer in question to believe he was in danger in the moment; it does not matter if he actually was—the Supreme Court recognized that police officers rely on split-second decisions in order to survive. The moments taken to consider whether a suspect is pulling out a wallet or a gun could be the difference between life and death. 

The Factor of Race 

But problems arise when an officer’s split-second decision making is motivated, on a subconscious level, by racism and other forms of discrimination. Sociologists and psychologists call these snap judgments “implicit associations,” and researchers have found that they are more prevalent than we might think. In one study, developed by psychologist B. K. Payne in 2001, participants took a test called the Weapons Identification Task. In the test, images flashed on a computer screen, and participants had to rapidly push one button if they saw a tool (like a hammer or a wrench), and another button if they saw a gun. However, before each image of an object, a picture of either a black person or a white person flashed on the screen. Payne found that most participants were more likely to believe the object was a gun after they saw a black face, regardless of what the object in question actually was. Conversely, they were more likely to believe they saw a harmless tool after they saw a white face. It’s not just civilians who have these biases. In a similar test, developed in 2002 by social psychologists Joshua Corell, Bernadette Park, Charles M. Judd, and Bernd Wittenbrink, participants were shown a picture of either a white man or a black man holding either a harmless object (like a wallet) or a gun. The participants were instructed to quickly press either a “shoot” or “don’t shoot” button. Police officers were better than civilians at the general task of not shooting unarmed people, but both parties were quicker to press “shoot” when the image was of a black man holding a gun, and slower to press “don’t shoot” when the image was of a black man holding a harmless object. These studies, along with countless others since, suggest that people in this country— civilians and cops alike—tend to associate black faces with danger. If the standard of objective reasonableness allows cops to use force whenever they feel they are in danger, and if cops are more likely to believe they are in danger if they see a black face, it follows that cops are more likely to use force when dealing with a black person than with a white person. But because these implicit associations are subconscious, it is difficult to definitively prove racist motivation in court—the police officer might not even be aware that it influenced his or her actions. Therefore, the only way to prove without doubt that an officer was motivated by racial animosity is if he or she said something that negates all other possible motivations. Pops admits that he was lying when he said the cop who shot him called him a racial slur, but perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this as a simple money grab. It’s entirely possible that the cop was motivated by implicit racial bias, but short of Pops’s allegation, there would have been no way to prove this was so. 

Rationalizing Misconduct 

According to Lieutenant Brian D. Fitch of the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department, “Most law enforcement professionals are, at their core, good, ethical, and caring people. . . . As a result, most officers do not—and in many cases cannot—engage in unethical conduct unless they can somehow justify to themselves the morality of their actions.” Whenever a person’s behaviors are inconsistent with their beliefs, they experience a psychological tension known as “cognitive dissonance.” Because cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable, says Fitch, people will go to great lengths to rationalize their behavior, no matter how objectively unethical it may be. In Between Riverside and Crazy, Pops’s old partner, Detective Audrey O’Connor, and her fiancé, Lieutenant Dave Caro, exhibit some of the rationalizations that are symptomatic of this psychological tension. Just as some commentators felt that Desmond Robinson—who shirked departmental guidelines by not wearing a  bulletproof vest or a colored headband identifying him as an undercover officer—was at fault for being shot, Audrey and Dave feel that Pops was at least partially to blame for the accident. ... Audrey and Dave concede that the rookie who shot Pops was in the wrong, and that it was an awful turn of events. But they also want him to drop the lawsuit so they can curry favor with their bosses. Perhaps this disconnect between belief and desire creates cognitive dissonance, which leads to their blaming Pops for being shot.

[jameswrites]

Ghostly Reception: Matt Mann

Genre: Supernatural comedy

Word Count: 2028

Characters: Matt Mann, a Werewolf

He’s not the main character, and I am well aware of this and in fact, write him this way on purpose. This is his first run in with a werewolf, and it’s where his story truly begins, before the start of the story, before he gets a special needs support dog for his werewolf side.

Want to pick the next person I write a snippet for? Vote here!

--

Matt wiped his brow with a handkerchief and sighed. He had the decency to keep the sigh soft, barely a breeze between his lips, but the hippie woman in charge of the corporate “retreat” eyed him with unbecoming derision, before she perked back up and smiled with teeth at the entire group.

“Hello everyone, my name is Shelly, and I’ll be your Guidance on this journey into understanding yourself. Let my voice and my energy fill you and give you peace to explore yourselves and each other.” 

She put on a voice that’s no doubt meant to be calming, but Matt couldn’t help but feel irritation tense the worn muscles in his shoulders. She didn’t want to be their guide, but their ‘Guidance’, and frankly, Matt was already over it. Matt rolled his eyes and stretched out over the overly embellished log that served as a bench, unable to keep some of his reactions from showing, despite so much practice on maintaining composure in the courtroom. “And if we’re quite content with ourselves already?” He was politely informed that he would not prod this by his boss. He was told that everyone, from the Partners themselves on down, had to go to these at least once a year. It was a tradition. A way to show we they were all a big family. It was nonsense, but of a sort he could hardly stand.

“Well, that would make you pretty stagnant,” the voice sharpens and cuts loose from that feigned calm, “if you’re not willing to grow and change, how can you keep a job in a company as competitive as this one?” She kept the chirp in her voice and the teeth in her smile loosely threatening.

Others around him smirked, he could feel it as sure as the warmth of the fire paled compared to his cheeks. Matt didn’t bother to reply or acknowledge anyone else around him.

He could picture her as a defense attorney, against him on the stand. He could see her in a skirt and tight jecket both in a flattering navy blue, stalking about with the intent to put him on edge as she poked holes in his arguments, tried to humiliate him in front of the judge and jury. He could respect that, but the upbeat way she did it was infuriating. And this power imbalance at the retreat made it difficult to put himself on the same level as her. Still, he’d find a way. He always did. His record was nearly unblemished, and he couldn’t allow this to stand.

Instead of countering, instead of pulling even more of his coworkers’ attention onto their shared irritation, he shrugged and sat a bit more upright, angled his body to look a bit primmer, to counter her own casual posture. 

Within a minute, she handed out coloring sheets and crayons, in an attempt to get them all to pull from their childhood and unlock their creativity.

He excused himself to go to the bathroom. Such a shame he didn’t know where the nearest one was, she didn’t bother to tell him, and he ended up ‘lost’ in the woods nearby. He smirks as he follows the trail.

He knew he’d get told how inappropriate it is to escape, and he knew he didn’t care. Besides, it’s hardly like she’d take roll call, probably. He could deal with the risk. He didn’t care. Matt wouldn’t tolerate any of that preachy lovey feely kumbaya crap, especially wrapped in be-dazzled barbed wire like it’s a damn bow, and he’s not about to change himself just because his boss told him that it’s just how it’s done.

Eventually, along his stalk through the forest path, Matt realized he really did need to go to the bathroom, and he really didn’t know much about forest navigation. He knew he’d followed a path, but eventually, the evening sun slid down the sky and the forest took on a more shadowy form. The darkness didn’t scare him, with its shifting shades reaching up and clawing down from the trees. It annoyed him. It kept him from knowing which way along the path he was really going. And with the policy that cell phones had to be turned off and turned in when they arrived, so no work could be done, he didn’t even have a flashlight with him.

Finally, he realized he’d have to do his business in the woods, as distasteful as it was. At least the darkness would give him cover. So he found a tall looming tree, clung close to it, and allowed himself to finish his task in nature, like no doubt that peace-love guide would suggest they all do. 

Matt chuckled, a brief interruption to the silence of the fading evening, and shook off in preparation to put himself away.

A moment passed, and he heard movement in the distance, running, shifting movements through the trees. He felt goosebumps pull up on cool flesh as the sounds of breaking sticks and whistling leaves grew closer. Something big bounded his way.

Matt was an Eagle Scout. It looked good on his Yale applications, so of course, he’d done his duty and learned enough about New York and Scout culture to fit to the letter, if not to the spirit, of what was required. 

Matt had been an Eagle Scout. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten most of it in law school and hadn’t been camping since his last troop outing. 

If it’s a bear, play dead? But no, not for black bears like those found in New York, with those you had to fight or run. But if it was a wolf, running would set their instincts off and they’d hunt you. Besides, it sounded massive, perhaps it was a moose, and he knew to run from those.

Matt tucked himself away, the single calm action, before he took a chance that it wasn’t a wolf and ran faster than he had in State track. He was a distance runner, of course, so his sprinting skills weren’t as solid as he’d like, and it had been years since he’d gone on a morning run like he would when he was in his prime. It was an inconvenient truth, the steady throb of time and how he rarely took it to stay in shape.

His heart exhausted his body with every beat, his lungs swelled and emptied in short gasps of breath, his brow stung with sweat, nettles covered his nice button-up shirt, twigs tore at his face and hands as he pushed through the thick of the forest and the night overtook him. As darkness surrounded him in the depth of the forests, he heard the snarl of what was most definitely a wolf.

Fear gripped him, and he attempted to scramble into a tree, ignored the sharp pain on his torn fingers, forgot about how normally he’d never get messy in nature like this. No, Matt’s survival instincts kicked in and all thoughts shut down.

Except for one. Less a thought, and more a painting of fear in broad strokes. That wolf looked an awful lot different than any wolf he’d ever seen. Its mouth was far too big, and those eyes were far too wild. Its proportions pulled all wrong, in longer legs and arms, in a hump in the back, and the tatters of cloth it had on its body.

The bite burned, intense and cruel. Jaws crushed and tore through flesh. Blood soaked through his pant leg, and no doubt made the wolf even more anxious to tug him free of the tree. He could smell his own fear, he knew damn well that drove the predator on as well. 

He’d never be this weak in court. Not in the final closing arguments, where he knew he had to win, to overcome the other's defense. 

Normally, it was a defense, not a brutal offense like this. He was out of his quarter, of course, but that was no excuse for this cowardice, for backing down. He was the one with more experience winning, no doubt.

With the simple thought, he swelled with a reaction of rage and humiliation, laced with pain, then thought took over once again. He kicked the freak wolf right in the face with his other leg, once, twice, three times, and then it released. It tore the cloth, and tugged through some more flesh, but it was worth it for Matt when it meant freedom.

Matt tugged himself onto the branch, pulled past the pain in his arms and settled into a steady angled section of the thick oak tree, above the attacker. 

It yelped. Pathetic. But even with that yelp, it remained, it attempted to get at him.

Matt spit on it in a show of dominance, ripped another branch free, felt its sturdy weight in his hand, and swung it down in a low arch against the tall wolf that still approached upwards along the trunk.

It yelped again but held fast, turned that yelp into a defiant growl.

Matt didn’t hesitate to beat it again, thrash it with the thick wood until it finally tucked its tail and ran, crying the whole way. Or, that’s what he’d tell everyone.

Adrenaline steadily decreased, his heartbeat became more steady, and he felt a wave of exhaustion roll through him.

Matt checked his wounds. The bite didn’t go as deep as it could have, thanks for his thick socks and warm pants. Still, it was nasty and needed a doctor to look at it, and likely it needed some stitches.

He gazed up at the moon as it hung high in the sky, watched it light up the forest above the tree he remained in. He attempted to use his shirt to bandage his wound and was thankful it worked well enough to stop the bleeding but furious it was necessary in the first place. Of course with his top shirt pulled off for another purpose, the chill bothered him more as well, it frosted his frustrated and pained breaths. He damned himself for leaving his coat behind when he went on the trail.

At least he didn’t have to listen to that preachy positive-thinking drivel from that young woman who thought she had all the answers despite being at least a decade younger.

Matt let out a low chuckle and shook his head, leaned into the slope of the tree, and put his own positive spin on things. If he played his cards right, he would get a settlement from this, and be able to make it so the Partners could never force him to go to one of these damned retreats again. After all, he’d not been shown where the bathrooms were, how was he to know? And anyway, the wolf clearly chased him from the path into the forest, he certainly wasn’t to blame for that.

Yes, perhaps this wasn’t an entirely bad trip. He’d get a scar, a story, and a settlement out of it.

Matt smiled and found himself a bit grateful for this detour. For a bit of pain, he’d be free of so much wasted time and frustration.

He wouldn’t sleep that night, of course, but by the time he was able to limp into camp in the morning, he had his recollection tied tightly with a lovely silver-tongued bow.

As he was taken to the van to drive to the nearest hospital, he smiled at her. He’d imagined her in court to try and regain his mental footing before. Now he’d get something even better, she’d actually have to show up. He’d have the higher ground, the upper hand, and he could win easily.

Her smile didn’t have teeth this time, it was cold, pressed thin and her eyes were wild with anxiety.

Matt could smell her fear: of a lawsuit, of losing her job, of the smile he gave and the look in his eyes, and he inhaled it deeply and slid into the back of the van. He barely even felt the pain in his leg anymore. In fact, he felt stronger than he had in a long time. 

[texanredrose]

Y’all want a laugh? Here’s my explanation of the dream I had that eventually became Loyalty. Not fucking edited to preserve the shenanigans.

Alright. I have no idea how much of this is accurate, but this is how it went. Tried to break it up a bit so it's not as wall-o-texty.

So the girls are a team, right? Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang? And the organization they work for is like a government branch dedicated to hunting down Grim. That's about as much as I've gleaned, so I don't know if any of the following is actually canon or not, but that's the impression I've been working under. Apparently.

Well, our tale starts out like so: the girls are chilling in their base of operations- which was pretty swank, for whatever reason- when they get sent out on a mission to protect a high value target during transport. Yang's not so thrilled, Ruby's chipper about another mission, Weiss is anal Type A about completing it perfectly, and Blake just wants to get things over with so she can go back to her book (from what I could tell, this was considered a normal reaction for all four, so I suppose this may be where the characterizations begin to differ? Dunno). So, they head out, escorting some dude on a train, when it gets attacked by Grim (which my subconscious apparently takes to mean 'fucking werwolves'. I also rewatched the Underworld movies recently, so might be that). Yang volunteers to deal with the Grim at the back of the train while Ruby and Weiss head to the front, to protect the train's engine (the logic is that Yang can always punch off the connections between cars if she starts getting overwhelmed), leaving Blake to defend the VIP. Except, there actually are no Grim- they're just, like, shadow replicas, I have no idea how, but they go poof when hit, kinda like the Puttys from Power Rangers- and Yang, Ruby, and Weiss dispatch them easily, but not before their VIP knocks Blake out. Apparently, the mission was arranged by their organization (I think it's called Beacon? No shits given) and Yang, Ruby, and Weiss return to the VIP car to find Blake in heavy duty restraints and their VIP calling in an airlift, which promptly arrives to whisk Blake away to the protestations of Weiss, Ruby, and Yang, though Weiss is most vocal (she keeps citing protocol. Again, anal Type A, the forms were not filled out in triplicate, now bring Blake back this instant, asshole). They get stonewalled and, eventually, placed under house arrest back in their base of operations.

Weiss spends the time yelling and pacing, Ruby tries calming her down, and Yang is amused. At some point, one of the other chicks drops by (I believe her name is Cinder? Low cut red blouse, that's all I remember) and informs the group that Blake is believed to be a spy for the Grim and, through extreme measures of pain compliance, has revealed herself as having a Grim form (again, fucking werewolves). Because of this, she will be executed. Weiss is pissed, but waits until Cinder leaves to start debating their options, eventually narrowing it down to either accepting the boss' decision and letting Blake die or rebelling and freeing Blake. Ruby tries to talk to her but Yang stops her by the classic big sister tactic 'keep her from squirming and smother her mouth' (are they sisters? Fuck it, don't care) and instead eggs Weiss on until Weiss decides that, yep, she's going to rebel. Yang is excited for the impending kickassery (she apparently likes fighting losing battles? Bring 'em on) and Ruby is just praying they all make it through alive (though the youngest- I guess?- still the generally level headed one). They gear up and break out of their house arrest, fighting through their own complex to find Blake. By the time they get to her, they're extremely fatigued, but Weiss is hella determined to break through the ridiculously heavy restraints practically burying Blake. That's when (what I assume to be) the biggest and baddest of Beacon's agents show up, including Cinder, Weiss' older sister, the ice cream chick (Napoleon? Fuck, the pink and brown girl, you know who I'm talking about), and the twin chicks (I don't know they're names, but I think I've seen fan art of them in the Kill La Kill outfits?), along with the head of Beacon, their father (muscly dude, wears a suit, owns a bar?). Weiss, Yang, and Ruby are clearly outmatched but fight anyway, eventually getting smacked down due to their weakened states. Just when it looks like they're about to get absolutely destroyed, the complex comes under attack by- shocker- fucking Grim. As the agents turn their attention to the sudden attack, a group of Grim break off from the main body and infiltrate the room, finding the girls. Weiss blacks out as the Grim begin attacking Blake's restraints.

Weiss, Ruby, and Yang wake up later in the Grim stronghold, which is like a network of caves with naturally luminescent crystals lining it (I guess my subconscious was trying to imply that the Grim are not tech savvy. Or tech friendly. Au naturale. Moving on.), and under guard by several Grim. They are eventually lead to a main chamber, where the King of the Grim is basically holding a trial for Blake. Turns out, she's not a spy for the Grim, but an outcast, shuned by the Grim for failing to become a 'true' Grim (apparently, this process involves revoking her humanity and accepting her beastial form, which I guess is the nuance between Grim and fucking werewolves; the Grim never revert to a human state and hate humanity as an aberration of the natural order of predators). However, being discovered by Beacon meant they would possibly use her for experimentation and find a way to end the war between humans and Grim in the humans' favor, which they can't allow. Blake refutes the accusation she was willingly allowing herself to be used by Beacon for the purpose of engineering a 'cure' but the King demands that she kill one of her teammates to prove her innocence. At this point Weiss has had enough of this shit and, in turn, challenges the King to a duel over Blake (okay, that's not originally her wording, because she's playing this weird I-like-her-but-she-can't-know-that game that Yang thinks is stupid and Ruby just kinda shrugs because the others are older and she's not quite to the mooning over a love interest portion of her life yet, but the Grim apparently have some sort of rule where a Grim can be challenged in regards to a female, usually meant for breeding purposes, but all the Rules Lawyers are dicks and want to see the human and the King fight, so they bend the law a bit). It's a hard fought battle (Yang is a very obnoxious cheerleader, btw) but Weiss manages to force the King to yield, sparing Blake's life, which leads to a heat-of-the-moment, she-is-mine moment from Weiss that has Blake basically saying 'well, yeah, I'm okay with this'.

The fallout of embarrassing him, though, is that the King refuses to harbor the girls, and promptly kicks their asses out of the Grim caves to fend for themselves. While trekking through a forest- and with a little prodding (in the form of Ruby making Weiss actually own up to her feelings and Yang instilling Blake with some needed confidence)- Blake and Weiss admit they share a 'mutual attraction' (Weiss' phrasing?). Happy lovey dovey time is short lived, however, when Beacon's agents find them, catching the group off guard and subduing them. They're brought back to some sort of chamber, apparently being put on trial (again!) for the whole breaking Blake out thing, but it's actually going in the girls' favor. Between Weiss pointing out the inadherence to protocol, Yang's adamant defense of Blake as a teammate, and Ruby's inability to lie worth a damn, the 'jury'- which is just the higher agents of Beacon- are inclined to believe that Blake isn't a spy and is an honorable Beacon agent but head honcho isn't convinced. They're put in solitary confinement while the 'jury' deliberates, which consists of Ruby drawing as an outlet for her distress, Yang turning her mattress into a punching bag- and subsequently destroying it- as her outlet, Weiss burying herself in Beacon's rules/laws/whatever texts, and Blake tapping into her Grim side on the off chance they're found guilty and must fight their way out (again).

So, next day, Weiss found a bunch of interesting information, but none of it useful, Yang's primed for a fight, Ruby's just her optimistic self, and Blake's suddenly having trouble containing her animal instincts. Against many agents' wishes, head honcho decides that, yeah, girls are goners. Of course, the girls aren't going down without a fight, so it's initially up to Blake to draw as much attention for the others to grab their gear and level the playing field. Due to the whole 'we told you this was a bad idea' thing, Weiss' sister, ice cream chick, and Cinder refrain from the fight, until the Grim attack (again) and draw them into the fight. Turns out, Blake's distress during the whole ordeal has been like a beacon (pun!) for the other Grim and they've been timing their attacks when she's at her weakest emotionally, therefore most susceptible to making the conversion to Grim. So now we've got the Grim King, Beacon Head Honcho, and the girls in a three way battle. Weiss' priority is keeping the King from getting too close to Blake (it's still obvious he sees Blake's failed conversion as a personal insult) and Blake's priority is keeping Head Honcho away from Weiss (he sees her as the instigator in the rebellion of Ruby and Yang). This leads to Back-to-Back badasses on Weiss and Blake's part as they deal with their respective opponents, Weiss using the cool swordie thing while Blake's using her Grim powers (because I have no idea; does she actually have an assigned weapon?) and they're actually holding their own pretty well. Ruby and Yang are running interference, keeping both Beacon and Grim from joining their respective leader while pitting the two sides against each other whenever possible.

Then, in a show of finesse, Weiss manages to pierce the heart of the Grim King. At the same time, Blake uses her animal strength to overpower Head Honcho, caving the dude's head in. Everything else stops as everyone realizes that both leaders are dead. The agents of Beacon look to Blake while the Grim look to Weiss. After some tense and awkward staring, Weiss remembers something she read the night before: Beacon does run on mostly paperwork, but there's a really old clause that no one bothered to repeal, basically stating that if anyone was able to topple the leader, that person becomes the new leader immediately. Cinder acknowledges that, yes, that's still a rule (Ruby thinks it's a stupid rule; Yang is quite adamant that it's awesome and wishes she'd known about it sooner), which effectively places Blake as the head of Beacon. As it turns out, the Grim have a very similar rule (like, verbatim), which makes Weiss the Queen of the Grim. Still ready to tear through anyone who gets too close, Blake needs Weiss' help in calming her Grim side and bringing it under control (ironically, she's completed half of becoming a 'true' Grim by killing a human out of anger) while Blake pleads the case of the Grim (really, they're not all that bad; once they have a goal, they're dedicated to it, so it's really the King's fault they've been attacking the humans, they can be good pups, she swears). The two immediately order a halt to the hostilities (Yang is not exactly pleased) and everyone calms their collective shit.

Apparently (as in, the explanation given in this particular dream), Beacon and the Grim used to be two sides of the same coin: two branches of a central government. Beacon was basically the executive branch and the Grim were their enforcers, until some split happened that neither wanted to take responsibility for, leading to the decades old feud. Seeing as Blake and Weiss are now the heads of the factions, they order the hatchet be buried and reform the old government. Weiss commands the Grim as enforcers of the law while Blake takes on the administrative role as head of Beacon. They help each other out, of course, seeing as Weiss is way more into paperwork and Blake definitely 'gets' the Grim better, but they make it work. Meanwhile, Ruby and Yang are elevated to Blake's and Weiss' assistants, respectively, which amounts to Ruby getting to be a people person while Yang gets to grapple with Grim for training purposes. They are totally okay with this. Of course, not everything's perfect, seeing as the twins are a bit pissed their dad's dead and have defect to form a rough faction, and now Blake and Weiss have to deal with that headache, but it could've been worse.

So, it's essentially the story of how Blake and Weiss take over the world through the power of love.

[apriljlynch29]

Top Medical Malpractice Attorneys Phoenix Arizona

Medical Malpractice Attorneys Arizona

A medical malpractice lawsuit is something that causes physicians as well as patients/victims stress and anxiety. Statistically most medical physicians will experience 1 or more malpractice suits over the course of their career. Coping with a malpractice trial can be an emotional ordeal for both the patient/victim as well as the Physician—and one that lasts for both parties.

Insider Monkey compiled a list of the top five causes of malpractice lawsuits brought against physicians derived from information from Medscape, the CDC and Prevention Magazine.

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The highest five reasons for malpractice lawsuits were:

Failure to diagnose a patient’s medical condition. Approximately thirty one percent (31%) of medical doctors evaluated by Medscape concluded “failure to diagnose” was the cause of a malpractice lawsuit brought against them. Medical doctors as well as all healthcare professionals have a duty to adhere to professional guidelines for screening and diagnostic testing as well as understanding of when these protocols call for validation of their initial diagnoses.

31% of medical physicians had been sued for injuring a patient during treatment, often resulting in death or disability.

  Failure to properly take care of a patient’s health condition. This includes the occurrence of Iatrogenic infections or physician caused infections. Last year a medical study suggested Iatrogenic caused health issues may be a bigger problem than diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and sepsis or systemic infection.

Poor medical records and documentation. Physicians are required to at least meet or surpass what is considered medically acceptable accurate and complete documentation of patient care that another “like” physician would document.

  Medication errors, either given orally or intravenously statistically cause at least one death every day and injure approximately 1.3 million people each year in the United States. Medication errors come various different forms starting from the initial prescription, administration of the drug, dosage complications as well as other medication problems such as allergies to medication. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes medication errors are so prevalent that they have publicly stated what steps medical healthcare providers must do to reduce these medication errors. In a hopeful attempt reduce and prevent prescription medicine errors and their resultant adverse events worldwide.

The Second Most Common Reason For Medical Malpractice lawsuits is Surgery

Let’s face it, surgery tends to be risky for patients and poses a certain risk factor for medical physicians who perform these surgeries in terms of medical malpractice claims according to Coverys a medical liability insurance company.

The insurer investigated 5 years of closed medical malpractice lawsuits from 2014-2018 finding that surgery-related claims made up 25% of the cases. Amazingly, 32 % of malpractice claims during that same five-year period was diagnostic errors, sometimes called failure to diagnose, as the primary cause of liability claims against primary care physicians and accounted for the highest percentage of financial settlements made.

Every one of the stages of the surgical process, including previous healthcare care as well as the level of medical decision-making leads to surgery, as well as post-surgical care can lead to malpractice claims and financial settlements.

Here Are The Top Three Surgeries That Caused 50% Of All Malpractice Claims

General surgery (22%),

Orthopedic surgery (17%) and

Neurosurgery (8%)

29% of the injuries from surgery were considered permanent and significant or worse whereas 9% caused patient death. 39% of closed malpractice claims claimed a lack of technical skill by the surgeon. While approximately twenty seven percent of surgical claims touted failure of clinical judgment and/or communication. Some of the other causations mentioned were: leaving a foreign body seven percent (7%), performing an unnecessary procedure four percent  (4%), performing surgery on the wrong side, the wrong site of the patient, on the wrong patient (3%) and a delay in surgery (3%).

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Why is it so hard to prove medical malpractice in a court of law

So far we have discussed the most common types of medical malpractice but one must remember just because you think you have been a victim of medical malpractice there are many hoops one must jump through to actually prove that medical malpractice actually took place. For instance, it is almost impossible to prove that you got an infection after a surgery meaning you have to prove how and when you got the infection. Also as a matter of fact you have to sign a medical release that you are aware that you may in fact become or get an infection and if you do have a surgery and end up with an infection you can not claim you were aware you could get an infection just went out the window because you signed what is known as informed consent.

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Consumer Beware: Medical Malpractice Is Considered One Of The Most Complex Sections Of Personal Injury Law.

One must understand that awful consequences from orthopedic surgical injuries can and do occur even in the absence of medical negligence on the surgeon’s part. Just the fact alone that this has been historically documented that bad or unacceptable surgical results were caused by a surgeon can be very difficult. For instance, did you know it is medically acceptable to cause a fracture during hip replacement. Obviously, the surgeon doesn’t try to cause a fracture but if a fracture is caused during the portion of hip replacement it is considered an acceptable risk.

Your health care provider bears no burden of proof in a medical malpractice claim.

In medical malpractice law the burden of proof lies with you the patient and it is very difficult to prove to a jury of your peers that a medical practitioner acted unreasonably. Medical Malpractice cases are very expensive because of this burden of proof.

At Tucker Miller Law Firm, we take your health concerns and potential medical malpractice claims extremely seriously.  We hold the highest compassion for the people who come to us who typically are dealing with severe injuries and/or illnesses, the loss of a loved one, and especially financial difficulties.  Our goal is to provide you with an honest assessment of your case. As we have discussed medical malpractice cases are very expensive and difficult to prove but we are experts in this field an our previous work for the insurance industry gives us a distinct advantage over other malpractice law firms who did not previously work for the insurance industry. Let’s put it this way we know what the insurance industry is going to do before they do.

If you or a loved one have been injured in a medical environment give us a call the consultation is free and there is no obligation on your part what so ever.

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from Personal Injury Maricopa County AZ https://tuckermillerlaw.com/top-medical-malpractice-attorneys-phoenix-arizona/ from Tucker Miller Law Phoenix Litigation Lawyers https://tuckermillerlaw.tumblr.com/post/627451918002929665