Disorder in the courts

As an antidote to the whole “you vill haff positive thoughts und you vill enchoy it” thing in the corporate world, I offer this report from the LA Times: seems a County judge (now retired) has been slated by the State Commission on Judicial Performance for getting a little whacky when presiding at the final hearing on a settlement in a civil lawsuit.

The case involved a woman suing Windsor Fashions for requiring that she give personal information when using a credit card. The case was settled in the plaintiff’s favor; she was awarded $2500, her lawyer got $125K and other customers who appeared in the case got $10 gift certificates from the store.

What Klein did was order that everyone—plaintiff, attorney and ancillaries—be paid in $10 vouchers from the shop.

(No word on whether there’s an expiration date on them, or if there are service charges deducted every month the cards aren’t used.)

A couple of things are interesting about this—well, aside from the obvious deviance of his ruling.

First—his pronouncement happened in January 2009. He retired last November. And the Judiciary Commission only got round to censuring Klein now.

What exactly were they deliberating in this matter? I mean—they’re all de facto lawyers themselves on that commission. Is there no honor amongst mouthpieces? Or at least a common desire to scotch the precedent that could start the profession on the slippery slope to payment in Betty Crocker coupons?

Next—did no one notice before it got to the commission that by ordering payment of judgment and fees in store vouchers Klein was in essence making the store’s outlay a wash, since they have to be redeemed in the, you know, offending shop?

Third—I’d really like to have seen what a lawyer who gets 125 large in fees on a $2500 case would find of interest in the shop in question. No mention of whether said attorney is male or female, but the merchandise on offer in this place is hardly upmarket. Perhaps if s/he is outfitting a bridal party of 11 bridesmaids and a flower girl, plus 16 prom dresses for the neighborhood. Uh, and costumes for a community theatre revival of Saturday Night Fever. And two road companies.

I have to say it’s stories like this that make a native Angelena positively qvell.