While competing law firms (and the defense firms who had the pleasure of sitting across the table) may be enjoying how the long-standing whispers of prosecution play out, those of us without a financial horse in the race should ask some questions.
Full disclosure, Mel Weiss happens to be a neighbor of mine, though we rarely see him at neighborly barbecues or picnics. I can’t say that I know him, and he didn’t have the good sense to retain me, though his attorney, Ben Branfman, is a great lawyer if you happen to be his most important client at any given time. As long as P.Diddy doesn’t get arrested in the next year, Mel should be in good hands. Branfman has both the skill and guts to try a case, unlike many of the lawyers for “white collar” defendants, whose primary skill is their knowledge of the fastest way to get to Saint Andrews Plaza from anywhere in Manhattan.
According to the 102 page indictment, Mel was a co-conspirator in a “kickback” scheme that paid $11 Million to a stable of “ready” plaintiffs and “concealed” the scheme with an elaborate system of “referral” fees. Lots of loaded words in there, amply used to make Mel Weiss look like a dirty, rotten scoundrel. And what does the Government have to say about Mel?
“This case is about protecting the integrity of the justice system,” said Debra Wong Yang, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles. “Class-action attorneys and plaintiffs occupy positions of trust in which they assume responsibility to tell the truth….This indictment alleges a wholesale violation of this responsibility.”
There you have it. By indicting Mel Weiss, the integrity of the justice system will be secured. Well, thank god for that, since nobody wants an unsecured justice system, right?
Before performing a routine lobotomy of the charges, let’s take a quick look at opportunity costs. While an assistant United States Attorney traverses the United States in search of a 5 year old girl, six years of the government’s investigative resources go into nailing Mel and his partners. The announced purpose for this dedication of scarce resources to the plague of class action litigation is to make our courthouses safe for the fair distribution of attorneys fees.
As recently noted at I was the State, the government can’t afford a Drug Enforcement Administration and a Child Molester Administration. But they have enough juice left to go after Mel Weiss. Is it just me, or does anyone else think this particular administration’s decision to point its guns at this successful class-action law firm has anything to do with, oh, a particular agenda about “frivolous lawsuits,” that most nefarious offense to the health and safety of big business in America?
And so, numerous trees have already been murdered in pursuit of Mel Weiss for this “kickback” scheme. According to the government, an attorney paid plaintiffs to be plaintiffs. Shocking! They received a percentage of the attorneys fees paid out as a subterfuge of . . . referral attorneys fees! Very shocking! And it involved $11 Million! Oh Boy! Like contestants on Wheel of Fortune, I can hear people yelling, “Big Money, Big Money,” all across America.
As former United States District Judge cum Attorney General, Michael Mukasey asked me after hearing the Government’s idea of a plea deal, “Is that a crime?” No one, to my knowledge, has alleged that Millberg Weiss in general, or Mel Weiss in particular, sued any corporation for anything that didn’t actually happen. No one, to my knowledge, has alleged that the allegations of corporate wrong-doing, resulting in the $250 Million in settlements, didn’t actually happen. They just don’t like where the money went.
As for the “Big Money,” the claim of $11 Million is, well, underwhelming. The government has always used its most fertile imagination when it comes to assessing a loss value in criminal prosecutions. A $5 bag of pot becomes part of a $20 Million conspiracy in a federal courtroom. Even so, the word “million” is tossed about so often in the United States Attorneys offices around the country as to make every criminal sound like Rockefeller. In the scheme of federal prosecution loss values, $11 Million is the tip to the cab driver.
But why, if this whole conspiracy is such a tempest in a teapot, did Bill Lerach take a plea, and former partner David Bershad the new Sammy “The Bull” Gravano turn rat? Well, this is the sad reality of scared “white collar” defendants guided by “scared” white shoe pretend criminal defense lawyers, who just can’t face up to a fight. It’s the domino theory “white collar,” with the Sentencing Guidelines held over the head of a sniveling pseudo-criminal, who then feeds the myth of grand conspiracies and brings his ex-brothers down with him. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, which is the government’s favorite way to fish.
And one additional detail. According to the government, the Millberg firm netted “$250 Million in fees over the past 25 years.” Do the math. That’s $10 Million a year for the whole firm. Mel Weiss couldn’t keep himself in shoe laces for that pittance. It didn’t pay for the white-out needed to cover up the referral fees. Big money?
If all this smells like a civil action, with some potential attorney disciplinary thrown in for its scare factor, at worst, then why is our government putting so much of its energy into saving the people of the United States from Mel Weiss? Maybe it’s not the people that are being saved, but the nearest and dearest friends of our Government. After all, what’s good for GM is good for America.
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