Woodworth & Frisella

If you are reading here please forgive my silence, and expect it to continue for a few more days. We have weather here with a capital “W”.

After 9 days of pelting rain I found water in my office yesterday. I quickly bought a Wet-vac and have gotten it all out, but I still have some clean-up to attend to. I’ve been hampered by 2 related power outages today, and other stuff I need to attend to.

On top of that I have a very important mediation scheduled for Tuesday and have been re-reading depositions and generally doing other stuff to get prepared. So Tomorrow and Tuesday look bad for blogging, and I suppose it could morph into Wednesday.

I’ll be back as soon as I can.

Today is my sister’s real birthday. I called her at 8:00 AM and reminded her. It’s best to be the little sister when you start getting over the hill.

We are busy busy busy so blogging is taking a back seat for today anyway. I’ll try to get back to it in earnest tomorrow.

I spent a few hours yesterday trying to put my thoughts down about this article on class action suits. A power failure this morning (probably due to all the rain we are having) washed away my attempt, which was far from done.

The article talks about Silica litigation and how an aggressive defense discovered upon investigation, the plaintiffs in these cases were often the same plaintiff’s in asbestos litigation, and that at least some of the doctors signing off on these plaintiffs manufactured the bad diagnosis in exchange for money.

This raises a lot of issues about prior class action litigation. Have we been bankrupting companies and enriching lawyers with no evidence? I can’t quite decide who is more to blame – the plaintiff lawyers for sending out invitations by mail to prospective plaintiffs with no apparent follow-up, or the defense lawyers for not bothering to check them out.

It’s a subject I hope to get back to as time permits.

On a different note the following comment was left on this blog this morning:

In the last 48 hours, I keep reading that the Government is pushing a major effort to close down websites and blogs with “questionable” content.

If true, from a legal or political perspective what is the motive?

I have to admit to not following this crackdown or being aware that it was happening. This article gives some history of the Supreme Court I know it when I see it obscenity decision outlined in Miller v California in 1973.

As for motive – perhaps the idea is to rally the base. I’m the base, and this sort of attack on private life doesn’t rally me. OTOH a recent decision in Oregon now makes it legal to show live sex acts in your local bar, so who knows where we are headed?

The New York Times published an article by Jonathan Glater today about lawyers who blog.

Inside every lawyer, it is said, there is a brilliant writer, held back by professional ambition or by fear of failure. Nowhere is that truism more evident than in the explosion of online blogs by, for and about lawyers.

Scott Turow, quoted in the article says “it’s all [about the] words”.

Lawyers are talkers, that’s for sure. We can’t fight battles with our fists so we fight them with our wits.

OTOH John Hindraker thinks it’s more about the battle:

“Most people’s personalities are such that they don’t really like conflict and are shy about putting arguments and opinions out in public where they’re going to be attacked,” he said. “Obviously lawyers do that all the time.”

And most of us like it.

Finally, Denise M. Howell who is credited with coining the term “blawg” suggests:

“…blogs demystified the law without costing outrageous sums; led to more open, frequent and occasionally informed discussions of politics, law and occasionally morality; and helped forge links between practicing lawyers, law professors, law students and the real world.”

I agree with Ms. Howell’s assessment as well, recognizing that lawyers generally have to refrain from talking about the cases they are working on, which is what propels us to talk about politics and other lawyer’s litigation.

I like blogging for many of the same reasons I like the law. I like the law’s boundaries and structure, and the playing field that each case creates. Within that playing field there are endless possibilities for solving problems, win/win solutions or Coliseum type battles. The opposing team changes with nearly every challenge, and most battles go on for far too long, but long enough to understand and assess your opponent, his case, and the pressure points. The real fun is getting to the solution.

Blogging rarely ends with a solution. For me, blogging is more analogous to having a conversation with yourself or your colleagues about where you are in a matter, where you hope to end up and how you are going to get there. The words are the vehicle, the battle is looming, and the process is unraveling. It’s a great way to figure out where the meat of the matter lies.

This week’s Blawg Review has been posted over at Ambivilent Imbroglio. Nice Job!

Much to my relief I got a call today from my client from New Orleans. He was calling from Tuscon Arizona and working in a branch office. He was talking faster than the speed of light and that made me wonder if it was the ongoing Adrenalin rush from what he has been going through for the last two weeks.

He started out by saying he was a “coward” because he high-tailed it out of town. “Coward” isn’t exactly the word I would use. In retrospect he was closer to brilliant. With the benefit of hindsight it’s hard to imagine anyone opting to stay.

He spent the first night with family in Baton Rouge and watched the trees bend in 100 MPH winds.

I don’t know how or when he made it to Arizona, but he said that he had been treated well by just about everyone. He is fully insured, and suggested that all those years of paying premiums has paid off. That’s the odd way we all look at insurance I guess, but even so I found it funny.

His auto carrier for his brand new car has given him replacement coverage for 40 days and said to simply call if he needs it to go on longer. His mortgage company has suspended payment for 90 days and said to call if he needs the suspension to be extended. His homeowner insurance company has forwarded him a check for $2000 for temporary living expenses.

OTOH one of his co-workers is getting evicted for non-payment of rent. Apparently the landlord thinks he can rent the place for twice the amount now, if he can get her out. I can’t imagine that they could find a judge to act on that request.

They think they will be back up and running in NO by October. That would be truly amazing if it happens.

With the exception of the eviction all of that is very good news.

Meanwhile we continue to collect clothes and supplies for the victims. I’ve learned that two families have come to stay at the local convention center – not the 500 people I recommended here. I hope to encourage my Rotary Chapter to aid some people with local ties. Watch for updates.

This week my article in Boston Women’s Business was published.

I also made Blawg Review (Carnival of Blawgs) for my article on Women and John Roberts.

We’ve been busy busy busy so blogging is down a bit. I hope to return to it soon.

Rumors abound that the local Convention Center operated by the DOD will be used to house victims of Katrina.

The hotel has 235 rooms, which are empty most of the time. The Center is owned by the Federal Government and operated under taxpayer subsidy. I belong to the gym there and can attest that it is attractive, up to date and generally vacant.

The town of Southbridge does not need another 500 unemployed people, so the next question becomes what do the people do, once transplanted to Massachusetts?

Southbridge borders Connecticut, and is close to the home of Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun Casinos.

These Casinos are operated under a special federal dispensation which could be made available to a survivors of Katrina. Many of the displaced people made their living working in Casino’s in the Gulf Coast. They bring an expertise that could be easily utilized. The project would alleviate unemployment in the local area and would pay for itself in short order. We need a donation of some Federal land, some local cooperation and we would be off and running.

There is no time like the present.

Disaster, particularly natural disaster is often a boon to my business. Obviously it’s a boon that most people in my business would happily forgo.

Business in the affected areas has been halted for the foreseeable future. This includes Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Transactions with those business which are to date not paid, will probably not get paid any time soon. Accounts receivable balances, and DSO for those doing business with the affected area will rise.

We can expect a trickle down effect throughout the economy. If a business that owes you money is doing business with a company destroyed by the hurricane, your rate of recovery will slow.

This is the time to make sure your receivable is on the top of the pile for payment. You can find suggestions for accomplishing that here.

As mercenary as it sounds, you won’t do the affected businesses and their employees any good by going out of business because you can’t collect what is owed to you. The time to get on top of your unpaid receivables is now.

09-02-2005 02:03:35PM – Permalink – Post Reply – Read Comments [0]
Our Missing Commercial Debt Collection Client

Still no word on my New Orleans based client Newton & Associates (link not working). That’s not to say I expected any word. I called their Denver Office yesterday and was told they were “okay” and “trying to get a generator”. That didn’t make any sense to me given what is going on in New Orleans, but I didn’t press the issue. We will protect their interests until they emerge.

It’s hard to think of much to talk about today other than Katrina. As a dedicated news junkie I was up off and on all night watching developments. I cheered around 3:00 AM when the storm veered slightly away from New Orleans – which probably only meant the difference between a 30-foot storm surge and a 15-foot storm surge. At some level it is so devastating it probably doesn’t matter much.

On a lighter note, I just heard a reporter report that he couldn’t tell us the wind velocity because his wind-velocity-measurer blew away.

We have a client in New Orleans. (I just checked and the link is currently down.) I wonder how long it will be before we hear from them.

As they say – our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.