Crime & Federalism

Judge Holden's speech on war brings Nietzsche into the Wild West. Blood Meridian has been a phenomenal read:

Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up the game, player, all.

***

This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification.  Seen so, war is the truest form of divination.  It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.  War is god.

Brown studied the Judge.  You’re crazy Holden.  Crazy at last.

The judge smiled.

Might does not make right, said Irving.  The man that wins in some combat is not vindicated morally.

Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak.  Historical law subverts it at every turn.  A moral view can never be proven right or wrong by any ultimate test. A man falling dead in a duel is not thought thereby to be proven in error as to his views.  His very involvement in such a trial gives evidence of a new and broader view.  The willingness of the principals to forgo further argument as the triviality which it in fact is and to petition directly the chambers of the historical absolute clearly indicates of how little moment are the opinions and of what great moment the divergences thereof.  For the argument is indeed trivial, but not so the separate wills thereby made manifest.  Man’s vanity may well approach the infinite in capacity but his knowledge remains imperfect and howevermuch he comes to value his judgements ultimately he must submit them before a higher court. Here there can be no special pleading.  Here are considerations of equity and rectitude and moral right rendered void and without warrant and here are the views of the litigants despised.  Decisions of life and death, of what shall be and what shall not, beggar all question of right.  In elections of these magnitudes are all lesser ones subsumed, moral, spiritual, natural.

The judge searched out the circle for disputants.  But what says the priest? he said.

Tobin looked up.  The priest does not say.

The priest does not say, said the judge. Nihil decit. But the priest has said. For the priest has put by the robes of his craft and taken up the tools of that higher calling which all men honor. The priest also would be no godserver but a god himself.

Tobin shook his head.  You’ve a blasphemous tongue, Holden. And in truth, I was never a priest but only a novitiate to the order.

Journeyman priest or apprentice priest, said the judge. Men of god and men of war have strange affinities.

I’ll not secondsay you in your notions, said Tobin.  Dont ask it.

Ah Priest, said the judge.  What could I ask of you that you’ve not already given?

Some call this an "urban legend." Others will note that the truth can only be found in fiction.

Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr. revealed the Bankers Manifesto of 1892 to the U.S. Congress somewhere between 1907 and 1917.

Civil defense lawyers occasionally find this humble blog after Googling, "lawyers who have beat Rex Paris." Instead of learning about those alleged lawyers, they are likely to find reports of huge personal injury verdicts and awards.

Last week the Rex Parris Law Firm, with Alexander Wheeler as co-counsel, settled a personal injury action for $10.5 million dollars.

In 2009, the same duo obtained a record, $370 million dollar verdict against all around scoundrel Georges Marciano. $370 million almost makes the $135 State Farm settlement seem small.

Defense counsel looking for lawyers who beat Rex Parris will need to keep looking.

DHL Express and Consolidated Deliveries & Logistics to Pay $10.5 Million to Woman Severely Injured in 2005 Vehicle Collision, Announces R. Rex Parris

The R. Rex Parris Law Firm Wins Major Victory for Accident Victim

LANCASTER, Calif., Jan. 5, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The crash that almost killed L.M. was violent. Now, 6 1/2 years after L.M.'s vehicle was hit by a DHL package delivery truck driven by DHL driver Susan McKinley, Ms. M finally received justice in the form of a settlement agreement under which defendants DHL Express, Consolidated Deliveries & Logistics and other defendants have agreed to pay the plaintiff $10,500,000.

On the morning of May 23, 2005, Ms. M'S car was struck by Susan McKinley's package delivery truck in Lancaster, California. Ms. McKinley ran a red light while travelling over 50 mph and struck the front-passenger side of M'S car while M was waiting to make a left turn. Ms. M was trapped in her car for 10-15 minutes before she was extricated and airlifted to the hospital. She lost consciousness and remained in a coma for several days after the crash. She was initially hospitalized for over two weeks and then went between the hospital and a skilled nursing facility for another month. Eventually, Ms. M was discharged to intensive home health care, living assistance and physical therapy.

At the time of the crash, the defendant McKinley was in a DHL uniform driving her delivery truck that was used to deliver DHL packages. The investigating Sheriff's Deputy who accompanied McKinley to the hospital after the crash testified that McKinley admitted to smoking marijuana the morning of the crash. At the time of the crash, Ms. McKinley was on her way to the "CD&L" station in Lancaster, California, where all DHL packages that either went to or left the Antelope Valley were sorted and processed for delivery.

DHL and CD&L claimed McKinley was an independent contractor, not an employee, and that they thus had no liability for McKinley's conduct. The case settled on October 31, 2011 before the damages portion of the trial was to start and over a year after a seven-day jury trial in 2010 on the issue of whether McKinley was an employee or an independent contractor. "The jury that decided the employment issues found DHL and CD&L were Ms. McKinley's direct employers," said Alexander R. Wheeler one of M'S trial attorneys.

Ms. M suffered severe injuries in the crash, including traumatic brain injuries (subdural hematoma left frontal lobe), acute respiratory failure, a lacerated spleen, fractured left pelvis and sacrum and fractured ribs.

"The case is an example of the hard fight that injury lawyers must mount against companies that do everything they can to deny accountability and leave their innocent victims holding the bag. I am proud that we were able to represent Linda M and achieve a hard-fought victory against a team of corporate lawyers," said Alexander R. Wheeler.

About The R. Rex Parris Law Firm

The R. Rex Parris Law Firm prides itself on offering experienced representation with integrity and compassion. Our lawyers fight aggressively against corporate defense attorneys and insurance companies ensuring proper compensation for our clients. Between auto accidents, defective products and class action/employment law cases, the attorneys at R. Rex Parris Law Firm deliver outstanding results for hard-working families throughout the state of California.

CONTACT: Alexander R. Wheeler (661) 949-2595 [email protected]

If you went by Lori Palmieri's website advertising her wares as a criminal defense lawyer, you'd think Michael Lewis was describing her when he wrote about Big Swinging Dicks.

Palmieri's website depicts a ghostly, almost intimidating figure with chilly blue eyes. Fans of Blood Meridian can only imagine her as a Judge Holden figure. Badges orbit around her head, as if caught in the gravitational field of her awesomeness. 

Palmieri revealed that she is no fighter. She is a coward whose career mattered only when she was able to hide behind the shields of her office. With a "badge and gun," she was somebody. Stripped of official symbols of authority, she is a worm.

When Joseph Rakofsky sued her for speaking out against incompetent lawyers, what did Palmieri do? Did she insist that, as a Florida lawyer, she could be not sued in New York? (Long-arm statutes, how do they work?) Did she insist that she would fight when attacked, just as she would claim to fight for her clients?

No. She knelt down on her knees, and gave Rakofsky a virtual blow job. The text is so revolting that I shall not reprint it here. Her stench can be smelled on every coast. I link to it only as a case study in lawyer cowardice.

As with Martha Perry, Lori Palmieri did not disclose that she had settled her lawsuit with Rakofsky. Thus, her post was almost certainly required as part of a settlement agreement. (Whether Palmieri paid the $5,000 Rakofsky demanded of other defendants also isn't disclosed.)

Choosing a Tampa criminal defense lawyer is serious business. I for one would never hire a lawyer who, at the first sign of a fight, takes her knees and grovels.

When Joseph Rakofsky filed a frivolous lawsuit against me and 84 or so other people for writing that Rakofsky is incompetent and unethical, settlement never occurred to me. There are First Amendment issues at stake. If lawyers won't stand behind their words, how can people untrained in the law ever speak?

As the author of the First Amendment and a lawyer himself wrote, "On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock."

There's also the issue of courage. When someone files a frivolous lawsuit against you, you must stand and fight. Otherwise, you're a miserable coward - a worm slinking on its belly.

When Joseph Rakofsky sued Martha Sperry of Advocate's Studio, she had a choice. She could fight. Or she could run.

She choose to run.

On December 3, 2011, Martha Sperry published an ingratiating post to Rakofsky. Perry kisses Rakofsky's ass and insults everyone who dares defend themselves from the frivolous attacks of a loon. 

What Perry did not do, however, is disclose a material fact. She settled her case with Rakofsky, and thus her kiss-ass post was almost certainly mandated by the settlement agreement.

What sort of lawyer would fail to disclose a material fact to her readers?

Rakofsky seemingly demanded $5,000 from each defendant, as evidenced by St. Thomas Law School's decision to settle with Rakofsky for that very amount.

Did Martha Sperry write a check for $5,000 to Joseph Rakofsky? Or did licking his boots suffice?

It's clear that Sperry is a coward. It's almost certainly the case she's incompetent, since no competent lawyer would have settled a frivolous lawsuit brought against her.

We should now ask if Sperry is ethical. If Sperry was required to write her December 3, 2011 blog post as part of a settlement agreement: Why did she hide that fact from her readers?

I posted a comment to her blog, asking her whether she was required to write her blog post as part of a settlement agreement. She has kept the comment in moderation rather than address my question.

What does her silence say?