Seattle Plaintiff Lawyer

Thursday, March 10, 2011

No Facebook For Debt Collectors

A judge in Florida has prohibited a debt collection agency from using Facebook or other social media to contact a debtor or her family and friends over a $362 unpaid car loan. The debtor's lawyers successfully argued that posting on her Facebook page invaded her privacy and violated Florida's consumer protection laws against collection agency harassment.

According to this News Tribune article, social media is becoming increasingly popular among debt collectors, not just to get the debtor's attention, but to shame him:

"In one Chicago case, a man was friended on Facebook by a young woman in a bikini. The account turned out to be a debt collector's, something the man realized only when the 'friend' posted a message on his wall: 'Pay your debts, you deadbeat.'"

Friday, March 4, 2011

$3 Million Settlement for Shooting Unarmed Bystander in the Face

In 2003, Chicago police officer Alvin Weems was late for work. He was not in uniform and did not have his utility bag or belt as he was walking through a Chicago transit station. Nevertheless, he attempted to stop a fight. The incident ended with him shooting an innocent bystander, 23 year old Michael Pleasance, in the face, killing him. Not realizing CTA video caught the shooting, Officer Weems lied in his report about Mr. Pleasance's involvement in the fight.

A $12.5 million dollar verdict was overturned by the Illinois Court of Appeals based on the repeated and supposedly prejudicial use of the term "willful and wanton" to describe the officer's conduct, according to Fox News Chicago. This is puzzling given that excessive force cases typically involve intentional conduct or willful and wanton disregard for safety. In any event, subsequent to the Appeals decision, Chicago has agreed to settle the suit, brought by the victim's family, for $3 million.

The entire incident was caught on video [graphic]:

Friday, January 28, 2011

Who Watches the Watchmen--Seattle Police

The Seattle Times recently reported that, in response to a Public Disclosure Act request, the Seattle Police Department withheld correspondence from Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess to Chief of Police John Diaz. Mr. Burgess emailed Chief Diaz urging him to allow an outside agency to investigate the John T. Williams slaying. Of course, that never happened. Instead, the internal SPD investigation was peer reviewed.

The Seattle Times now reports that SPD received "high marks" for its internal review of the John T. Williams shooting, from peer reviewer, the San Diego Police Department. Another peer review investigation is still pending.

The review was not all glowing, however. The Times explains, "the four-page review faulted the department for doing too many telephone interviews that produced confusing information, and for initially putting out "factually inaccurate" information about the shooting, forcing a retraction of its statement that Williams advanced on Birk before the shooting."

Factually inaccurate information about whether Williams was a threat to the officer when the officer shot him multiple times? This is the central issue of the entire investigation. The SPD either knowingly misrepresented the facts of the case to the public or failed to investigate evidence in its own possession. If a lawyer did this, he would be punished for ethics violations. When a police department does it, it gets "high marks" on peer review.

Every specialized profession has some kind of internal and/or peer review system, some more effective than others. Only the profession of policing, however, entails the authority to take away life and liberty. Peer review of an internal review is not enough, especially when it looks like this.