Send Money Oil and Lawyers

that story speaks volumes, doesn't it?

I know all the legal types are going to say that every crook deserves a good defender, yada, yada, yada. And they're right. Still, it pretty much turns my stomach.

oh oh oh.

By the way - I did attend the Mental Health Forum on Monday, and took a lot of notes. I have had no time to transcribe those notes into a cohesive story. I promise by the weekend.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

Otherwise, the vitriol doesn't make too much sense. I mean, I walk to work and everywhere I can, and usually drive a Vespa when it's a little further, but I do drive to see my parents every now and then, so it'd feel a little hypocritical to lambast Exxon in the abstract...

How much should the punitives be? $20 billion? $50 billion? Just enough to put Exxon out of business? Dellinger is pressing the reasonable point that due process puts a limit on punitive; the nuance and question of the case is where does that limit lie? Dellinger's reasonable point is that when punitive damages have tipped the scale sufficiently to make an otherwise economically rational "decision" to be negligent irrational, they've done their job, economically and morally, and extra damages just enrich somebody else unfairly. (Because, of course, compensatory damages have already been paid.)

As for Dellinger's involvement, James said it correctly - every client deserves a good lawyer. If that applies to vicious murderers and thieves, it seems it should apply to Exxon. And Dellinger has effected a lot of real world, no-bullshit progressive change in his life on behalf on people in need: racial minorities, gays, the poor, the falsely accused, and, more recently, immigrants and people who favor handgun control. He has the time and money to do all of this (usually pro bono) because he has an honest job, like the rest of us, and tries to do it the best he can, like the rest of us. That disqualifies him from being a good progressive? I'm afraid that under that standard, this country's history reveals only two progressive lawyers - Bill Kunstler and Morris Dees. I'd add Atticus Finch, but he's imaginary, and he ran a normal law office. Wait, so did Dees...

Chill.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi

Cordova Alaska and it's population will never be the same.

The herring disappeared four years after the spill -- long after intense public scrutiny had faded and the story line had devolved into squabbling between lawyers.

Exxon claimed the region recovered quickly. Government scientists, however, said oil remained and was still working its way through the ecosystem in a process that would last decades. At the back of a local tavern, hand-scrawled graffiti expresses a common sentiment here: "Oil spills are forever."

Much of Cordova turned speechless earlier this month when Exxon Mobil announced the highest profits ever recorded by any company in a single year: $40.6 billion in 2007.

story here

I simply dislike the suggestion that someone can't be progressive unless he or she devotes his or her life to waving pickets at rallies. And lawyers particularly get a bad rap, because they are by definition, generally, hired guns. Many just make a living, then they spend time doing what they believe in - and Dellinger has done more of the latter than most, often as a full-time gig. Lawyers get it from conservatives ("all those plaintiffs' lawyers!") and from liberals; no one seems to actually internalize that a lawyer's advocacy of a position doesn't impute that position to the lawyer. My only point is that lawyers like Dellinger effect a great deal of good change, and it's petty to swipe at them for making a living advocating such a not-that-unreasonable cause.

station and a non-Exxon station I will go non-Exxon everytime.

I heard this story on NPR during the day a few days back, and I nust say I found it mildly bothersome. I know all sides in a dispute deserve decent legal representation, but hearing the name Dellinger so closely linked with those slimeballs at Exxon just doesn't sit well.

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