Category Archives: Law: Everything Else

News from Cell Block C

Posted on March 23, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Bottom line: nothing is gonna change for some time.

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Judicial Humour

Posted on March 18, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

It is reported that after the second time that a mobile phone had rung in the public gallery the Judge put down his pen, and glared across at the flustered-looking owner of the phone. “If that happens again” said His Honour, “you may discover why they are known as cell phones”.

Posted in Law: Everything Else, UK | Comments Off

Shops Bring Fake and Inflated Civil Claims Against (non)Shoplifters

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Evidence for the hypothesis that modern life in the USA is increasingly Dickensian: Big Retail Chains Dun Mere Suspects in Theft. Incredible. And right here in Florida…

Posted in Law: Everything Else | 6 Comments

Nobody’s Safe

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Well, for now, nobody poor is safe. But give them time.

McClatchy, Immigration officials detaining, deporting American citizens:

Thomas Warziniack was born in Minnesota and grew up in Georgia, but immigration authorities pronounced him an illegal immigrant from Russia.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has held Warziniack for weeks in an Arizona detention facility with the aim of deporting him to a country he's never seen. His jailers shrugged off Warziniack's claims that he was an American citizen, even though they could have retrieved his Minnesota birth certificate in minutes and even though a Colorado court had concluded that he was a U.S. citizen a year before it shipped him to Arizona.

On Thursday, Warziniack was told he would be released. Immigration authorities were finally able to verify his citizenship.

“The immigration agents told me they never make mistakes,” Warziniack said in a phone interview from jail.

It's really worth reading the whole article: no right to a lawyer, no help getting documents, no one believes the documents you get or the witnesses you find, and you have the burden of proof of showing you are a citizen — while in custody.

(spotted via Emergent Chaos, “We have to be careful we don't release the wrong person”)

Posted in Civil Liberties, Law: Everything Else | 5 Comments

I Am A Plaintiff

Posted on December 5, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I've just received notice that I'm a member of the class in the In re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation (MDL 1409) case. The defendant credit card companies are settling massive claims that they bilked card holders by manipulating fees and exchange rates on foreign-currency purchases. They of course deny everything, but are still coughing up a massive payout — one in which consumers will get actual cash instead of valueless coupons.

The proposed settlement offers me three choices:

$25 cash money.
Estimate how many days I was abroad in 1996-2006, and get a rebate of 1% of what they guess I spent with my credit card based on some formula they do not disclose. Key to that formula is whether I characterize my travel as sometimes/often/mostly “business,” “visiting friends or relatives,” or “vacation or leisure”. (In fact it was some of each.)
Provide detailed receipts of my credit card usage abroad in that period and get 3% back.

Option 3 is out — too much work.

But I think I can figure out how much I was abroad by going over my back calendar files. It was a lot.

Posted in Law: Everything Else | 46 Comments