Never expect compensation for a good deed. Rarely will those you help ever even bother to thank you - let alone pay you. Just ask Anne Danaher.
Anne Danaher, Erin Brockovitch style, was a non-lawyer who spent thousands of hours fighting for a cause she believed was just. Nevertheless, she is being denied just compensation for her work:
Danaher was a prison barber in the Iowa Department of Corrections. She cut the hair of men doing long stretches of time. And she listened to the men. Something about what Terry Harrington told her didn't make sense. He wasn't at the crime scene. He had an alibi. No one could have seen him present at the site of the murder. Danaher listened to Harrington and she believed him.
Danaher spent nine years of uncompensated time working on the Harrington case, eventually accumulating 27 boxes of material. Last week, Harrington's lawyers informed Danaher that she shouldn't expect a dime for the work she did on the case.
Who are the lawyers denying Danaher her just compensation? They are the same lawyers who were nowhere to be found when Terry Harrington was on death row, but who were to be found when Mr. Harrington became a rainbow leading to a large pot of gold.
Ms. Danaher is justifiably upset. Those of us who spend zero hours helping free innocent people from death row - Hey, we got bills to pay, right? - will no doubt remind Ms. Danaher that virtue is its own reward.
Like the rest of us, she wants to do the right thing. Like the rest of us, she has her own bills. An hour spent working on behalf of someone for free is an money taken from our own lives. Ms. Danaher is a woman of humble means. Unlike many of the lawyers reading this blog, she can little afford to work for free.
Why do those of us who have so much deny money to those who have so little? Are we no different from the banksters on Wall Street? How can anyone who keeps millions for himself and refuses thousands to the humble woman who made those millions possible ever blog about the evils of large corporations? How can Harrington's lawyers decry greed when they themselves are keeping money that exists only because Ms. Danaher gives a dam?
Click on the link to see who is keeping all of the money for himself. Trust me; you won't be disappointed.
