Raising the Price of Pain…
Is that a lawyer in your pocket, or are you just dialing the number on the billboard? Maybe you’re going with the attorney who had a “guy” at the crime scene… or one of the legal eagles who hang outside the lock-ups? Chances are, you don’t have a lawyer in your pocket, or on speed dial–even if you are a working professional with no reason to believe you will ever find yourself in legal trouble. If you are any combination of Black, young, male, poor, gang-affiliated, orphaned, drop out, or mentally fragile, the odds of you having access to honorable, capable courtroom advocacy hover around zero. The ‘profile’ of those whose civil rights are most often violated is a person who works hard to steer clear of ‘the law’.
Yet the law, in cases of civil rights violations, can repair victims & punish perpetrators even where criminal law has failed. Rodney King won a multi-million dollar civil rights suit against the City of Los Angeles–after the officers who beat him bloody on March 3, 1991 were acquitted of criminal charges (sparking the infamous King Riots of 1992). The families of Black Panthers leaders Fred Hampton & Mark Clark were awarded $1.85 million, though the Chicago Police officers who murdered them in 1969 were never charged.
Used properly, civil rights law could even create a legacy for the injured parties: preventing future injustice. The head of the Invisible Institute, the group of journalists that fought to release the police dash cam video of the shooting of LaQuan McDonald, believes plaintiffs’ lawyers could devise settlements that benefit injured parties, & their communities, “I think we can be more creative about what else settlements can include in terms of reform. Beginning to think about how the settlement process can include some constructive stuff, going beyond one family or individual.” says Kalven.
LaQuan McDonald’s mother & sister got a 5 million dollar settlement. Most details are “confidential”, but it’s been reported that they are receiving monthly payments–without interest–while the lawyers were paid a lump sum that was higher than the traditional 1/3. This for a case the city rushed to settle without litigation, before anyone else saw the damning dash cam video. According to the Chicago Sun Times, Attorney Michael Robbins defends the $1.8 million cut, “…it isn’t necessarily higher than usual”. Okay.
The question is not only if a family can get more (or pay attorneys less), but if the lawyers care about more than quick cash. Do they consider compensation and correction? As Kalven puts it, “We’ve had any number of instances of settlements that seem designed to make the problem go away, to make a case sort of disappear without judicial or public scrutiny.”
Access to honorable, competent legal counsel in times of tragedy & trauma is one of the many have-nots of the have-nots. That’s why there are so many hire-me billboards in Black neighborhoods. With more thoughtful representation by advocates who care about the injured party, the community & the overall state of abuse, pain can be transformed into power. The weapon is something Freedom Fighters before us died to obtain, Section 1863 of the US Civil Rights Act:
Every person who… subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction therof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution & laws, shall be liable to the party injured…
Attorney Andrew Stroth, Managing Partner of Action Injury Law, recently commissioned this reporter to engage prominent thought leaders on the powerful potential of the courtroom in the battle for African Americans’ civil rights. Hopefully you will spend a quarter hour exploring why so little has changed in the quarter century since Americans were first forced to believe their lying eyes. And what we can do about it.
Action Injury Law Group www.actioninjurylawgroup.com/action-mission/
TBTnews http://truthbtoldwithcarlwest.blogspot.com
Invisible Institute www.invisible.institute
Bluhm Legal Clinic www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/
The Brown Farmer Group http://thebureauchicago.com/home/members/the-brown-farmer-group/
The Faith Community of St. Sabina http://saintsabina.org
Trinity United Church of Christ https://trinitychicago.org/
St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church www.stmarkmbchurch.org
Jermaine Lawrence Anderson Enterprises www.jermainelanderson.com
Let Us Breathe Collective www.letusbreathecollective.com
Black Youth Project 100 http://byp100.org
AirGo http://airgoradio.com/airgo/
Lakeside Law Group, LLP www.lakesidelawgroup.com
Black Bar Association of Will County www.willcountybba.org/communityService.html
Black Women Lawyers’ Association http://bwla.org
FM Supreme http://fmsupreme.com
Robin Robinson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Robinson
An-Janette Albert/Derrion Albert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Derrion_Albert
