{"id":1370,"date":"2011-02-14T10:05:38","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T15:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2012-03-27T13:48:19","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T17:48:19","slug":"who-should-sue-even-if-nuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=1370","title":{"rendered":"Who should sue (even if nuts)?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know not whether laws be right,
\nOr whether laws be wrong;
\nAll that we know who lie in gaol
\nIs that the wall is strong;
\nAnd that each day is like a year,
\nA year whose days are long. \u2013 Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Back in the middle 1990’s, the law firm I worked for began to take on civil rights and wrongful conviction and imprisonment cases\u2013cases which elicited my great compassion. Imagine the psychological state of a person who’d gone to prison for something he hadn’t done.<\/p>\n

Dave the Dude told me about one new client who had certainly been wronged. As I moaned about the poor man, Dave warned me, \u201cBut he isn\u2019t a nice guy. He\u2019s innocent in this case, but he\u2019s done bad things in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Dave the Dude was saying was: there are some people who are really, um, difficult but still have viable lawsuits. As time passed and cases accumulated, I lived through what he meant. Although I always remained moved by the righteousness of the case and worked hard at it, I didn’t always love the client.<\/p>\n

One of them, Staff Man, had spent nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he hadn\u2019t committed. By the time he got out, he was not only crazy but had converted to an individualistic form of Islam that mandated he proselytize very loudly and not entirely rationally, and carry around a huge \u201cstaff,\u201d i.e., the trunk of a small tree, which he often banged on the floor and waved around with menace afore- and after-thought. Lots of menace.<\/p>\n

As part of his lawsuit, we had to have Staff Man evaluated by a psychiatric expert we’d retained. An appointment was set up for the appointment-unreliable Staff Man to talk with Doc Diffingwell, a prominent forensic psychologist (also a scholar of the Kabbalah\u2013the real one, not Madonna\u2019s).<\/p>\n

Since Doc\u2019s main office was in one of New York\u2019s major psychiatric hospitals, someone decided that maybe the meeting should be elsewhere, in less threatening territory, and someone figured that our conference room was unthreatening enough.<\/p>\n

Staff Man did show up on the right date (although possibly not anywhere near the right time) and Doc D, a warm, funny, smart man who was one of the best trial witnesses I\u2019ve ever seen, closed himself into the conference room with Staff Man\u2013who had brought, as he was wont to do, his prayer rug, and had spread it out over the floor.<\/p>\n

The conference room had glass walls. I kept an eye on Doc D, one of my favorite people, as he interviewed Staff Man, one of my not favorite people.<\/p>\n

At some point in the interview, I suddenly heard frightening shouting. I looked through the glass. Staff Man had raised his staff in an alarming manner. Doc D looked pretty calm.<\/p>\n

Afterward I asked Doc D. what all the screaming was about. Well, Doc D said, Staff Man had asked him some questions and learned that the Doc was ex-orthodox Jewish. A philosophical “discussion” ensued. The climax came when Staff Man ferociously offered Doc a choice: \u201cDo you choose the Staff\u201d\u2013raising the thing high above Doc\u2019s head\u2013\u201cor do you choose the prayer rug?\u201d pointing the Staff downward.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrayer rug,\u201d Doc said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood choice,\u201d said Staff Man, charmingly, his eyes a-twinkle.<\/p>\n

Despite his personality, Staff Man\u2019s lawsuit settled successfully\u2013as it should have, since he had been horribly wronged\u2013but he was scary enough that once when he called up and threatened his imminent arrival, I sent everyone home and shut the office down early.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A deserving but scary client. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1175],"tags":[161,237,260,261,262,241,5,259],"class_list":["post-1370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-civil-rights-lawsuits","tag-crazy-clients","tag-kabbalah","tag-madonna","tag-orthodox-judaism","tag-psychotics-as-clients","tag-talking-to-plaintiffs","tag-wrongful-conviction-and-imprisonment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t