Visit Lake George in 2005? Be advised: you might get sued

The civil court system sure ain't working. Just ask anyone who's had the misfortune of going through it. I have, and it wasn't a pleasant or pretty experience.

A minor disagreement over an equity stake in a small local enterprise (an issue that likely could have been argued and settled in about two weeks) was approaching its four-year mark when I finally said "enough," picked up the phone to directly call my adversaries and got agreement on the matter in, oh: two weeks.

The problem, of course, is that we had leeches involved in the process; aka lawyers. Four years of trading fax's and phone calls, struggling to come up with jointly convenient calendar dates and a complete unwillingness to even come to a competent understanding of the basic issues of the case had this thing looking like it could easily go another four years until I decided to blow the whistle and end the madness. Naturally, invoices were generated all along the way for this useless activity, and my team of leeches still had the nerve to hold their hand out at the end for their full cut of my award settlement --- the one that I had ended up negotiating.

The whole system is plugged with this incompetence and systemic theft (yes; I consider it theft). As long as there is some sort of motion and activity, this transfer of wealth keeps rolling into the checking accounts of a profession that is delvering more harm than good to the greater society. Then we get into the concept of frivilous suits and the basic legal tenet of chasing the deepest pockets...

Nothing could highlight this aspect of The Great Scam better than the final civil matter concerning the Ethen Allen tragedy on Lake George in 2005, where a small tour boat capsized and sent twenty elderly visitors to their drowning deaths.

Still unresolved is the claim that one of the causes of this vessel's overturning was because a wave from the larger tour ship the Mohican, on its usual journey that it had been undertaking for several decades, knocked it over from several hundred yards away.

Why the owners of small crafts that were in much more closer proximity were not sued has an obvious answer (see the deep pockets thing). But how about the individual passengers on the Mohican? Rumor also has it that a couple kayakers were seen in the vicinity, does anyone know who they are? Don't be surprised to see just this type of action in the future, if there are no statute of limitations preventing it.

Let's name some names here: Attorney James Hacker of Latham is the gentleman reported to be the one adding disgrace to his profession (in my humble opinion) by acting as lead counsel to the defendanats (passengers) in this matter. Read the latest update as reported by the Free Press here.

The heros -- if there can be such a thing in all this -- are the owners of the Mohican. The usual "I surrender" on these matters is to turn it over to the insurance company and let them settle with a check of their own. But these folks are saying "screw that" and fighting back with a "It wasn't our fault, now get over it" attitude--at great personal cost and risk.

For their taking that stance, they should be applauded. Hopefully, this thing will get tossed out (but that would have likely happened by now) or a jury sends Mr Hacker away with his tail between his legs.

Better yet, let's hope that the judge then has some sort of remedy (and willingness)to punish someone for having let this nonsense delay the resolution of some unreleated and legitimate matters on the dockets that deserve a swift and proper resolution.

Somebody needs to fix this system...



RM