Jim Murren is optimistic about Las Vegas’ recovery. [RJ]
Local business owners are hoping capacity restrictions are lifted or reduced next week. [News3LV]
Indian drug maker to plead guilty in Nevada case, pay $50 million. [RJ]
Did you see the story of how Judge Rhonda Forsberg swore in Judge Michele Mercer where the latter was hospitalized for COVID? [eighthjdcourt blog]
Here’s how lobbyists are dealing with the virtual legislative session in Carson City. [Las Vegas Sun]
Rod Ponton, the lawyer who had the problem with the Zoom cat filter, is doing media rounds today and says the judge was in good humor about incident. [RTE News via YouTube]
Laughlin Constable (and regular blog commenter) Jordan Ross is now listed on the pro bonowebsite for the Southern Nevada Legal Aid Center as an official support service for attorneys donating their timepro bonoto assist needy clients in civil cases. His office will provide service at no cost to attorneys working officially onpro bonocases through the Center. Deputy Constables and Inspectors who carry out such service will still be paid, but the Agency will not charge for the service. The Agency will provide this service throughout all of Clark County.
I finanlly watched the abo gato video last night. It was certainly nice to be able to laugh my a off considering all the crap we are having to go through right now.
Por que? El es abogado.
I think "lo es abogado" translates as "it is a lawyer"
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 6:52 pm
Good for Ross. I long ago stopped doing pro bono because of the nature of the cases and clients, but good for those who continue.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 7:03 pm
I have taken litigation cases from LACSN that require filing in the District Court. The problems arise when the indigent clients cannot pay court reporter and other costs associated with moving a case to trial. I have had been able to settle all, but dread the day when I can't move a case forward. For that reason I will likely stop taking pro bono litigation cases, at lease in the District Court.
PS LACSN does not advance of cover costs.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 7:19 pm
Kudos to Judge Rhonda Foresberg and Judge Shell Mercer — two responsible adults.
I seriously disagree. I cannot visit my wife who is hospitalized, or bring our children to see her, but Forsberg can pull strings and take advantage of her position to conduct a completely non-essential swearing in ceremony for an infectious new judge? This is not "kudos", but "jeers". They are not responsible, but are abusing their authority and privilege.
On January 4, Judge Rhonda Forsberg was in a big hurry. This was the day that the entire Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court bench was required to swear their oath to uphold justice for the new term. The day before, Judge Forsberg took the oath of office from another judge in a park who lived near her because she tested positive for the coronavirus. It was outdoors, they had on masks and they kept their distance. That colleague wasn’t showing symptoms and it seemed fairly safe.
Upon arriving at the family courthouse on Monday morning, Judge Forsberg learned that there was a need for a volunteer to do a very special mission to swear in the newly elected department Z Judge Michele Mercer at the hospital. Judge Mercer had been admitted for the coronavirus on New Year’s Eve, and she was now on oxygen, surrounded by care-givers dressed in full hazmat suits.
Nevada law requires that judges must give their oath before another judicial officer in-person. When Judge Mercer learned she had to do the oath in-person, she said that she hoped the hospital would allow her to go to her car where envisioned someone empowered to take her oath would meet her, at least six feet away. But it quickly became clear that the hospital couldn’t release her – even for just a few minutes to solemnly swear that she would faithfully execute the duties of her new office. “I hoped and prayed that someone would come and swear me in,” said Judge Mercer. She remembered feeling understandably powerless and anxious.
Judge Forsberg knew what had to be done. Judge Mercer only had a hospital gown, so her husband met Judge Forsberg in the hospital parking lot and gave the judge his wife’s new judicial robe that he had just lovingly ironed. She took the robe and headed into the hospital, where the staff prepped her with plastic protective covering.
Judge Forsberg stopped short of the opened hospital room door and handed the robe to a nurse who transported it approximately 12 feet away, to soon-to-be-Judge Mercer, waiting nervously in the room. Judge Forsberg stood in the hallway near the entrance of the room, with Judge Mercer in her line-of-sight, as the latter hurriedly zipped up the brand new, freshly-pressed robe over her worn and wrinkled hospital gown. The nurse stood behind Judge Mercer and started recording the miniature ceremony. “OK, raise your right hand,” said Judge Forsberg.
Despite being in the throws of fighting the deadly virus, Judge Mercer rallied herself to robe up, put her hand on the Bible and swear her oath. Once it was over, she collapsed back onto her hospital bed, exhausted from the ordeal.
She was released from the hospital three days later, still on oxygen. After a few more weeks, she beat the virus. She has since taken the bench and is working in full swing. Judge Mercer expressed tremendous gratitude for Judge Forsberg’s willingness to brave the hospital so she could take her oath to serve on the District Court bench. “It was so incredibly kind of her and so brave,” said Judge Mercer. “She probably thought it was going to be OK until she arrived and saw the hospital staff suited up with full hazmat uniforms. It looks like they’re going to the moon. I think she was pretty terrified once she got there. This is a disease that is taking people’s lives. I was very grateful.”
Wtf? Who does this? While Allf is getting botox, Shell is risking other judges' lives for a Broadway dream . Got it. I am an idiot
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 7:22 pm
I've had some terrible pro bono cases. We had a partner that thought all landlords were scum, so he'd agree to take on a ton of landlord tenant cases, and then he'd farm them out to junior associates (who, by the way, still had to hit their 2000 hour billable requirement). I'm sure there are absolute slum lords out there, but let me tell you that it's miserable to try to explain to some irresponsible bum pro bono client that he/she can't just totally destroy the house they're in without consequences, and it's equally miserable to stand in front of a judge and make the lame arguments you have to make when a client steadfastly believes it's totally acceptable to do so. Since they're not paying you, they have no qualms with standing you up for appointments or doing other things that totally waste your time. And since they didn't actually choose you to be their lawyer, anything you say is taken as a mere thought for debate and consideration. Every time I told one client something, she'd say I was wrong because "my auntie says…" Well get your fucking auntie to take over your disaster of a case.
Hallmark movies and Christmas charities have left us with the false impression that poor people are innocent victims of chance waiting for us to swoop in and be their heroes. Sometimes that is the case, but most often not. Being poor sucks and conditions a person to be a little rough, as you all describe. Still, our system is rigged against them and no amount of ingratitude or difficult personality changes that otherwise. So I will continue to help where I can, accepting the fact that for some of the work I do, the only person who will ever understand or appreciate my efforts is the Lord. And that is OK.
Don't give up due to one bad experience. Access to Justice to those less fortunate is lacking in Nevada. Nevada ranks 49 out of 51 according to the NJAJ. Not all clients, paying or otherwise are easy. Do you best and you can change a person's life. I once helped an elderly couple get their money back after being ripped off and it changed my life. With the right client, representing pro bono clients can change your life too. Don't give up. 🙂
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 7:31 pm
No more LACSN pro bono for me either.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 8:16 pm
I feel like pro bono work is the classic example of no good deed going unpunished.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 8:22 pm
And you if you spend enough money, you can be an expert on instagram and snapchat.
Battleborn PI lawyers, Matt Hoffman. He is also a parenting expert. LMFAO.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 8:27 pm
11:22 and 11:31 demonstrate the dark flip side of pro bono–the part that is never amplified, or even discussed, at the annual banquet, or in promotional materials, internet info., etc.
At the annual luncheon banquet we are treated to endless platitudes of how wonderful and rewarding it is. And, yes, it can be. But they never mention that they understand that on some cases our patience will become stretched to the limit, we will undergo undue stress, and that the client will have no motivation to agree to a reasonable settlement, but instead will be fixated on continuing some hyper-aggressive fight which they do not have to pay for.
I think if even just one speaker, at the banquet, acknowledged that, it would not deter people from signing up for pro bono. If anything it would show a respect for our intelligence, our time, and out professional services–and even more so if they let it be known that if it is a particularly egregious case where the attorney is being exploited that it is quite understandable if the attorney seeks to withdraw, and that such would in no way be viewed as a failure or an abdication of responsibility.
11:22 references landlord/tenant matters, and certainly there are a lot of problems there. But,truth be told, Family Court matters can be the most horrific and exploitive of the attorneys and their time when the attorney is assigned a bad case with someone who will not even agree to the most basic, innocuous matters, and always demands a pound of flesh on everything.
But, that all said, most pro bono case are reasonably manageable, and it is absolutely critical that we all continue to do our part. Yet, again, no one(aside from private conversations between attorneys) ever discusses the other side of it.
Thanks 12:27 – I thought I'd just echo some support for your sentiment. I do a fair bit of pro bono (I typically hit 100 hours / year, which I think is a magic goal for LACSN) and I have been able to do that only by taking on what I want and being disciplined about saying "no" to other stuff that is probably very needy but risks the very problems that 11:22 and 11:31 point out. I do think there's a middle ground between "it's all rainbows" (since it's not) and "no more" since the need is terribly great. If more folks could do something that they want to do (or stretch a little to do), the overall need would come down. Wouldn't solve all that pro bono is trying to solve for, but would be better than nothing.
There is a compelling need, but having just one or two bad pro bono cases can eat you alive and devour many hours of your time which could otherwise be billed elsewhere, and also forces you to largely ignore your meritorious, paying clients for long periods of time.
And, yes, these nightmare situations are often in the Family Law arena.
And there are never property or financial issues which justify such huge expenditures of time, as cases with significant financial holdings would never qualify for pro bono services.
It is always behavioral/psychological issues. Problem is, even if behavioral issues are making the case very protracted, and a huge expenditure of attorney time, if your client is essentially a blameless victim(like a victim of spousal abuse) the abuser will use the system to make the case an extremely expensive nightmare, but you can't dump the case as your client is a victim.
But in cases where someone is not clearly a victim, but both sides just want to use the court system to fight about every little thing, those are the type of pro bono case I understand if attorneys seek to withdraw on.
I have put a ton of hours into pro bono cases. At the conclusion when the client has obtained a favorable result, I sometimes get a short "thank you", about same kind of "thank you" you might say to a barista at Starbucks. Sometimes no acknowledgment at all. Once I got a hug. That was nice. Otherwise pro bono has been a let down.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 11:05 pm
Question: How long should you practice before you are competent to take a pro bono case? I would love to volunteer my time and help people out, but I am a pretty new attorney and honestly do not feel I am competent/qualified/knowledgeable on anything other than the very narrow area of law I have been exposed to at my firm.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 11:19 pm
I took a Family Law Pro Bono case once. Client told me toward the end "I'm a good shot. If you run across the street, I bet I could hit you." I took that as a threat but tried to laugh it off. I won him everything except, of course, he did not get her wedding ring back. So his harassment of me took the form of repeatedly asking for copies of records I had given him via email with proof. So I thought I'd wear him out and gave him many copies. Eventually I wrote back an email and said basically go to Family Court and get it yourself – I was nice and polite. Sure enough he filed a Bar Complaint. We had a meeting an in walks some goofy guy (not sure if he ever practiced who said "I don't buy it that he could have gotten it himself." Huh? WTF? So I got a Letter of Caution for what I don't remember – communication or something. All the poor people of Nevada should thank the NSB (sarcastic) as I will never take another one. Now you can think there was more to it than I am saying or, as you should, be rightly concerned about the shitshow, Star Chamber over there.
I've heard similar horror stories re: pro bono cases and I totally believe you. I won't take pro bono for this reason and because I find LACSN repulsive.
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 11:22 pm
How many cases is too many? I'm in ID and I have over 50 cases. All but 5 or so are in litigation and most have damages of at least ($100k). I'm not a partner either.
I am in ID as well – as a partners I have over 200 lit cases, most are large loss or catastrophic. My associates typically carry a case load of 40-60 files – so that's about right…
Guest
Anonymous
February 10, 2021 11:37 pm
Ever since LACSN has changed its business model to libeling attorneys in their pleadings to screw them out of attorneys fees, I will never take a case from LACSN again. Only Nevada Legal Services.
Remember how Michelangelo would go to the morgue and study cadavers to learn to accurately draw the human form? That is how I look at Pro Bono cases. Each one is a learning experience (even if I have learned the lesson before). The clients are my cadavers. I expect nothing from them, so I am rarely disappointed.
@ 4:41 – you are spot on how pro bono cases should be looked at. They are great learning experiences. I just will no longer take pro bono matters from the grifters at LACSN.
Guest
Anonymous
February 11, 2021 3:40 am
Mr. Murren is doing for Nevada what his wife did for NCI. A great team.
En Espanol, Rob Ponton es uno abogato.
Lo es abogado idiota
What he needed was a 12 year old in the building who could have taken charge of the situation.
I finanlly watched the abo gato video last night. It was certainly nice to be able to laugh my a off considering all the crap we are having to go through right now.
Por que? El es abogado.
I think "lo es abogado" translates as "it is a lawyer"
Good for Ross. I long ago stopped doing pro bono because of the nature of the cases and clients, but good for those who continue.
I have taken litigation cases from LACSN that require filing in the District Court. The problems arise when the indigent clients cannot pay court reporter and other costs associated with moving a case to trial. I have had been able to settle all, but dread the day when I can't move a case forward. For that reason I will likely stop taking pro bono litigation cases, at lease in the District Court.
PS LACSN does not advance of cover costs.
Kudos to Judge Rhonda Foresberg and Judge Shell Mercer — two responsible adults.
I seriously disagree. I cannot visit my wife who is hospitalized, or bring our children to see her, but Forsberg can pull strings and take advantage of her position to conduct a completely non-essential swearing in ceremony for an infectious new judge? This is not "kudos", but "jeers". They are not responsible, but are abusing their authority and privilege.
I am an idiot, can someone please explain to me the background of this story.
On January 4, Judge Rhonda Forsberg was in a big hurry. This was the day that the entire Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court bench was required to swear their oath to uphold justice for the new term. The day before, Judge Forsberg took the oath of office from another judge in a park who lived near her because she tested positive for the coronavirus. It was outdoors, they had on masks and they kept their distance. That colleague wasn’t showing symptoms and it seemed fairly safe.
Upon arriving at the family courthouse on Monday morning, Judge Forsberg learned that there was a need for a volunteer to do a very special mission to swear in the newly elected department Z Judge Michele Mercer at the hospital. Judge Mercer had been admitted for the coronavirus on New Year’s Eve, and she was now on oxygen, surrounded by care-givers dressed in full hazmat suits.
Nevada law requires that judges must give their oath before another judicial officer in-person. When Judge Mercer learned she had to do the oath in-person, she said that she hoped the hospital would allow her to go to her car where envisioned someone empowered to take her oath would meet her, at least six feet away. But it quickly became clear that the hospital couldn’t release her – even for just a few minutes to solemnly swear that she would faithfully execute the duties of her new office. “I hoped and prayed that someone would come and swear me in,” said Judge Mercer. She remembered feeling understandably powerless and anxious.
Judge Forsberg knew what had to be done. Judge Mercer only had a hospital gown, so her husband met Judge Forsberg in the hospital parking lot and gave the judge his wife’s new judicial robe that he had just lovingly ironed. She took the robe and headed into the hospital, where the staff prepped her with plastic protective covering.
Judge Forsberg stopped short of the opened hospital room door and handed the robe to a nurse who transported it approximately 12 feet away, to soon-to-be-Judge Mercer, waiting nervously in the room. Judge Forsberg stood in the hallway near the entrance of the room, with Judge Mercer in her line-of-sight, as the latter hurriedly zipped up the brand new, freshly-pressed robe over her worn and wrinkled hospital gown. The nurse stood behind Judge Mercer and started recording the miniature ceremony. “OK, raise your right hand,” said Judge Forsberg.
Despite being in the throws of fighting the deadly virus, Judge Mercer rallied herself to robe up, put her hand on the Bible and swear her oath. Once it was over, she collapsed back onto her hospital bed, exhausted from the ordeal.
She was released from the hospital three days later, still on oxygen. After a few more weeks, she beat the virus. She has since taken the bench and is working in full swing. Judge Mercer expressed tremendous gratitude for Judge Forsberg’s willingness to brave the hospital so she could take her oath to serve on the District Court bench. “It was so incredibly kind of her and so brave,” said Judge Mercer. “She probably thought it was going to be OK until she arrived and saw the hospital staff suited up with full hazmat uniforms. It looks like they’re going to the moon. I think she was pretty terrified once she got there. This is a disease that is taking people’s lives. I was very grateful.”
That was touching. Thank you.
Wtf? Who does this? While Allf is getting botox, Shell is risking other judges' lives for a Broadway dream . Got it. I am an idiot
I've had some terrible pro bono cases. We had a partner that thought all landlords were scum, so he'd agree to take on a ton of landlord tenant cases, and then he'd farm them out to junior associates (who, by the way, still had to hit their 2000 hour billable requirement). I'm sure there are absolute slum lords out there, but let me tell you that it's miserable to try to explain to some irresponsible bum pro bono client that he/she can't just totally destroy the house they're in without consequences, and it's equally miserable to stand in front of a judge and make the lame arguments you have to make when a client steadfastly believes it's totally acceptable to do so. Since they're not paying you, they have no qualms with standing you up for appointments or doing other things that totally waste your time. And since they didn't actually choose you to be their lawyer, anything you say is taken as a mere thought for debate and consideration. Every time I told one client something, she'd say I was wrong because "my auntie says…" Well get your fucking auntie to take over your disaster of a case.
Sounds like we walked in the same moccasins for a while. Ditto.
Hallmark movies and Christmas charities have left us with the false impression that poor people are innocent victims of chance waiting for us to swoop in and be their heroes. Sometimes that is the case, but most often not. Being poor sucks and conditions a person to be a little rough, as you all describe. Still, our system is rigged against them and no amount of ingratitude or difficult personality changes that otherwise. So I will continue to help where I can, accepting the fact that for some of the work I do, the only person who will ever understand or appreciate my efforts is the Lord. And that is OK.
Don't give up due to one bad experience. Access to Justice to those less fortunate is lacking in Nevada. Nevada ranks 49 out of 51 according to the NJAJ. Not all clients, paying or otherwise are easy. Do you best and you can change a person's life. I once helped an elderly couple get their money back after being ripped off and it changed my life. With the right client, representing pro bono clients can change your life too. Don't give up. 🙂
No more LACSN pro bono for me either.
I feel like pro bono work is the classic example of no good deed going unpunished.
And you if you spend enough money, you can be an expert on instagram and snapchat.
Battleborn PI lawyers, Matt Hoffman. He is also a parenting expert. LMFAO.
11:22 and 11:31 demonstrate the dark flip side of pro bono–the part that is never amplified, or even discussed, at the annual banquet, or in promotional materials, internet info., etc.
At the annual luncheon banquet we are treated to endless platitudes of how wonderful and rewarding it is. And, yes, it can be. But they never mention that they understand that on some cases our patience will become stretched to the limit, we will undergo undue stress, and that the client will have no motivation to agree to a reasonable settlement, but instead will be fixated on continuing some hyper-aggressive fight which they do not have to pay for.
I think if even just one speaker, at the banquet, acknowledged that, it would not deter people from signing up for pro bono. If anything it would show a respect for our intelligence, our time, and out professional services–and even more so if they let it be known that if it is a particularly egregious case where the attorney is being exploited that it is quite understandable if the attorney seeks to withdraw, and that such would in no way be viewed as a failure or an abdication of responsibility.
11:22 references landlord/tenant matters, and certainly there are a lot of problems there. But,truth be told, Family Court matters can be the most horrific and exploitive of the attorneys and their time when the attorney is assigned a bad case with someone who will not even agree to the most basic, innocuous matters, and always demands a pound of flesh on everything.
But, that all said, most pro bono case are reasonably manageable, and it is absolutely critical that we all continue to do our part. Yet, again, no one(aside from private conversations between attorneys) ever discusses the other side of it.
Thanks 12:27 – I thought I'd just echo some support for your sentiment. I do a fair bit of pro bono (I typically hit 100 hours / year, which I think is a magic goal for LACSN) and I have been able to do that only by taking on what I want and being disciplined about saying "no" to other stuff that is probably very needy but risks the very problems that 11:22 and 11:31 point out. I do think there's a middle ground between "it's all rainbows" (since it's not) and "no more" since the need is terribly great. If more folks could do something that they want to do (or stretch a little to do), the overall need would come down. Wouldn't solve all that pro bono is trying to solve for, but would be better than nothing.
With my treatment by DETR, I no longer volunteer with LACSN. I will volunteer with Nevada legal, Barbaa Buckley.
It's Babs Buckley.
Strongly agree with 12:27 and 12:45.
There is a compelling need, but having just one or two bad pro bono cases can eat you alive and devour many hours of your time which could otherwise be billed elsewhere, and also forces you to largely ignore your meritorious, paying clients for long periods of time.
And, yes, these nightmare situations are often in the Family Law arena.
And there are never property or financial issues which justify such huge expenditures of time, as cases with significant financial holdings would never qualify for pro bono services.
It is always behavioral/psychological issues. Problem is, even if behavioral issues are making the case very protracted, and a huge expenditure of attorney time, if your client is essentially a blameless victim(like a victim of spousal abuse) the abuser will use the system to make the case an extremely expensive nightmare, but you can't dump the case as your client is a victim.
But in cases where someone is not clearly a victim, but both sides just want to use the court system to fight about every little thing, those are the type of pro bono case I understand if attorneys seek to withdraw on.
I have put a ton of hours into pro bono cases. At the conclusion when the client has obtained a favorable result, I sometimes get a short "thank you", about same kind of "thank you" you might say to a barista at Starbucks. Sometimes no acknowledgment at all. Once I got a hug. That was nice. Otherwise pro bono has been a let down.
Question: How long should you practice before you are competent to take a pro bono case? I would love to volunteer my time and help people out, but I am a pretty new attorney and honestly do not feel I am competent/qualified/knowledgeable on anything other than the very narrow area of law I have been exposed to at my firm.
I took a Family Law Pro Bono case once. Client told me toward the end "I'm a good shot. If you run across the street, I bet I could hit you." I took that as a threat but tried to laugh it off. I won him everything except, of course, he did not get her wedding ring back. So his harassment of me took the form of repeatedly asking for copies of records I had given him via email with proof. So I thought I'd wear him out and gave him many copies. Eventually I wrote back an email and said basically go to Family Court and get it yourself – I was nice and polite. Sure enough he filed a Bar Complaint. We had a meeting an in walks some goofy guy (not sure if he ever practiced who said "I don't buy it that he could have gotten it himself." Huh? WTF? So I got a Letter of Caution for what I don't remember – communication or something. All the poor people of Nevada should thank the NSB (sarcastic) as I will never take another one. Now you can think there was more to it than I am saying or, as you should, be rightly concerned about the shitshow, Star Chamber over there.
I've heard similar horror stories re: pro bono cases and I totally believe you. I won't take pro bono for this reason and because I find LACSN repulsive.
How many cases is too many? I'm in ID and I have over 50 cases. All but 5 or so are in litigation and most have damages of at least ($100k). I'm not a partner either.
I am in ID as well – as a partners I have over 200 lit cases, most are large loss or catastrophic. My associates typically carry a case load of 40-60 files – so that's about right…
Ever since LACSN has changed its business model to libeling attorneys in their pleadings to screw them out of attorneys fees, I will never take a case from LACSN again. Only Nevada Legal Services.
@ 3:37
This I did not know. Can you share more information?
Ask any attorney who handles guardianship matters. Barbara and her minions should be ashamed of themselves.
Huh, please explain.
Remember how Michelangelo would go to the morgue and study cadavers to learn to accurately draw the human form? That is how I look at Pro Bono cases. Each one is a learning experience (even if I have learned the lesson before). The clients are my cadavers. I expect nothing from them, so I am rarely disappointed.
YES! Thank you. I was trying to get up the nerve to write a comment conveying this exact sentiment.
addendum: I was referring to the 3:37 p.m. comment. And 4:22 p.m. is correct as well.
@ 4:41 – you are spot on how pro bono cases should be looked at. They are great learning experiences. I just will no longer take pro bono matters from the grifters at LACSN.
Mr. Murren is doing for Nevada what his wife did for NCI. A great team.
I see what you did there.