Pluto is no longer a Planet

Well one thing is always for certain in an uncertain world, things are constantly changing. Yes DWI law and the New York DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) are dynamic entities. Just today I was surprised, and not in a Happy Birthday! way. 

I represent many people just passing through New York State. I got phone calls from three clients. They are from PA, NJ, and CA. The New York DMV has decided to require that out of state (foreign) license holders to provide a copy of their Home State's driving abstracts (records) prior to obtaining a pre-conviction conditional license privilege in New York State. Now why wasn't I told? Why no advance Notice of this to the general public and especially the legal community?

What impact will this have you ask? Well not much for those from NJ who can get an online abstract within usually a few days. Well for those with a license from say California, they will have to mail (snail mail) a request to get a copy of their driving record, and that particular state with the Terminator in charge (no online requests or fax requests thank you) it takes six to eight weeks. So potentially no driving privileges in New York for SIX to EIGHT weeks, that could be harsh if you have to travel for work or have to go to school or have to shuttle your kids to childcare.

I am in the process of asking a Judge to consider extending the hardship driving privilege (normally a thirty day bridge privilege) with cases such as this. So what to do if you are from a foreign jurisdiction (any state or place other than NY), and facing a New York DWI charge, get a copy of your home state's driving record immediately. 

It could mean the difference between being in limbo, and having at the minimum a conditional privilege to drive while your case is pending and BTW Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Lexolution's Southern Sweatshop

Lexolution is using a legal loophole to exploit desperate, unemployed legal workers, carrying enormous student loan debt and attempting to make a living somehow, because Lexolution DOES NOT PAY OVERTIME TO ITS WORKERS IN VIRGINIA and may not in DC – this is EXPLOITATION AT BEST AND ALL FIRMS DOING BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY UNDER THESE CONDITIONS SHOULD BE EXPOSED AND BOYCOTTED by their clients. Any firms outsourcing to foreign workers abroad should also be boycotted because they are taking legitimate jobs away from Americans. The laws allowing this continued exploitation must be changed immediately. PASS THE WORD.

In the heart of the confederacy and the slave capitol, you will be low balled and paid less than in the DC market always. You will never get $35 - $40 an hour, plus overtime down here.

To be avoided at all costs LeClair Ryan in Richmond, VA unless you are truly, truly desperate and can endure slave-like working conditions. Some allegedly brilliant, clueless idiot thinks people are more productive working 10 – 12 hour days if they are not allowed to talk, have no access to their cell phones (to view, answer or make any calls), and are limited to a 30 minute, unpaid lunch break in which to conduct any of their own personal affairs and eat a lunch when they are working through the regular business hours of all legitimate companies and businesses. If you are off the computer for more than a six-minute interval you are required to bill it administrative time, so if by law you are entitled to a fifteen (15) minute break for every four (4) hours you work (IN ADDITION TO YOUR 30-MINUTE LUNCH), how does that equate to being legal??? Furthermore, their database and computer systems are a complete disaster because they never seemed to work properly causing workers to do the same work over and over, or be aware of the latest changes (occurring every 5 minutes it seemed and if you happened to be out of the room at that moment, you were out of luck and doing the document review incorrectly and ever so slowly).

They have so many petty, juvenile rules you feel like you are back in elementary school where the teacher is watching over you every minute and admonishing you for the least infraction, like eating a non-candy item while sitting at your computer. There is no parking provided in the downtown area and you are strictly forbidden from entering certain areas of their offices (as if anyone wanted to go anywhere, but home once they arrived at this office). Their total disregard for the intelligence and professionalism of contract attorneys working there was made evident by the fact that they announced at the end of the work day when many attorneys had already left for the day that they would not begin working until 9:00am the next day, instead of the regular 7:00am starting time, so anyone coming two hours early (and many people did) they would not be paid and were forced to wait around without pay for two hours. Note that the firm did apologize for failing to notify Lexolution to call their people and inform them of the change in starting time --- great consolation to people who lost money, sleep and were enormously inconvenienced by that oversight!!! But that wasn’t the final icing on this cake folks, after being assured that all of the contract attorneys would be coming back to work the following day by a LeClair employee and relying to their detriment on that assurance, Lexolution emailed most people the very same evening and instructed them not to return to LeClair, to mail in their security card and that they would make arrangements to meet us to get any items we may have left at LeClair.

Loss of Health Insurance Benefits Added As a Factor

Laws of 2009, Ch 229 amends the domestic relations law, in relation to maintenance and equitable distribution of marital property, effective September 14, 2009 to add "the loss of health insurance benefits upon dissolution of the marriage as a factor to be considered by the court in making a maintenance award and in making a property distribution.

Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B][5][d],subparagraphs 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of are renumbered subparagraphs 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, and a new subparagraph 5 is added to read as follows: (5) the loss of health insurance benefits upon dissolution of the marriage;

Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B][6][a][10] is amended to read as follows: (10) any transfer or encumbrance made in contemplation of a matrimonial action without fair consideration;

Domestic Relations Law 236 [B][6][a][11] is renumbered subparagraph 12 and a new subparagraph 11 is added to read as follows: (11) the loss of health insurance benefits upon dissolution of the marriage; and

The amendments apply to any action or proceeding commenced on or after the effective date of September 14, 2009. See Laws of 2009, Ch 229, § 4.

Scumbag Slave Driver Elli Gottesdiener Is At It Again

This time he is incognito.

This is based on communication from Eli Gottesdiener ( www.gottesdienerlaw.com ) based on a blind craigslist ad.

In subject line, he wants to know your school, your degree, your graduation date

Then Eli wants to know what you are doing, what you did at work, what your earning was (hourly or salary), and why the opportunity is appealing.

In follow up to this, he was silent on a raise timeframe, silent on benefits, and silent on O.T.

Salary starts at $20/hr. Work is in Brooklyn.

Obviously uninterested.

Oh Canada! DWAI and Visiting Canada

Well, they say (those weather people) that it has been the coolest New York July on record in like 30 years. A big Wow! I loved the excellent Ithaca/Lake Cayuga breezes in Ithaca this summer.

August reminds me of Canada, our close neighbor and friend. Toronto Island is incredible except for the mosquitoes (they bite hard). 

I recently had an inquiry (to my blog) about visiting Canada if you had a prior DWAI (driving while ability impaired) on your record. The person asking figured that since DWI here is a BAC of .08 or higher and Canada doesn't have a DWAI, and DWAI is a traffic violation (not criminal charge here) then he was good to go. 

I have blogged about this before, playing lawyer. Reading statutes, laws, and assorted codes and then trying to understand all of this. Even lawyers have a hard time understanding all the nuances of New York DWI. 

First off, there are two main types of DWI, DWI per se (requiring a BAC), and DWI common law (sans BAC). You can still be found guilty of DWI without a BAC number. Harder for the government to prove but still possible. DWAI is legally defined as "any extent of impairment", it doesn't need a BAC number either. Yes, a BAC makes it more likely to be found guilty, even low BACs, but all the government needs to prove is "any" impairment.

In Canada they have law that also states a common law DWI or DWAI:

 

section 253

Criminal Code of Canada

Impaired Driving Sections

Operation while impaired

253. Every one commits an offence who operates a motor vehicle or vessel or operates or assists in the operation of an aircraft or of railway equipment or has the care or control of a motor vehicle, vessel, aircraft or railway equipment, whether it is in motion or not,

(a) while the person's ability to operate the vehicle, vessel, aircraft or railway equipment is impaired by alcohol or a drug; or   (this is the Canadian "Common law" charge)

(b) having consumed alcohol in such a quantity that the concentration in the person's blood exceeds eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood. (this is the Canadian "per se" charge)

R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 253; R.S., 1985, c. 27 (1st Supp.), s. 36, c. 32 (4th Supp.), s. 59.

This is how a NY DWAI is considered a "criminal" offense in Canada regardless of BAC numbers. So you have a few options, wait five years (after the end date of your original imposed sentence) and apply for a Approval of Rehabilitation OR Apply for a Minister's Permit by phoning Canadian Customs at 1-888-242-2100. See my original blog of April 23, 2009.

 

FirstLawJob.com Is A Scam, Scam, Scam

Hey Tom, a new company has opened to prey on the hordes of TTT losers who just took last week's NY Bar. There name is FirstLawJob.com and they spamming the job boards.

These scammers have been around in various mutations and forms since the late 1990s. Here's the deal: They tweak your TTT resume and cover letters a bit (like putting your Touro Sports Law Journal experience in boldface type), pull a 1996 Martindale directory out of a dumpster, and mail-bomb a bunch of marginal (and often defunct) shitlaw firms, many of whom haven't hired anyone since the Nixon administration. Of course, they've never actually gotten anyone a job, but the desperation and hopelessness of this market often lulls TTT grads into falling for this scam. They're a bit like the "after-scammers" who phone Ponzi scheme victims and claim to be able to recover their lost investments for an upfront fee. Smart move. After all, if someone was dumb enough to fall for the law school scam, why wouldn't they also fall for this "secondary" charade? This website was alive and well in 2006 when this year's crop of lemmings marched off to the NYC diploma mills. They all thought they'd "beat the system," and now are stuck in a lifetime of non-dischargable debt with no hope of finding ANY job, period. Ain't happening in this market.

Actually, the word "market" is a misnomer when applied to TTT grads, or even bottom half of marginally decent schools like Fordham. There is no non-biglaw legal "market" and hasn't been for years. All there is is hordes of desperately indebted losers begging for whatever gutter job they can scrounge, often under-bidding each other in the process. It's like a reverse auction: "I'll do no-fault for 35 K, 35 K going once, going twice...wait, I'll do it for 33 K. 33 K! Gavel bangs. "Sold!" One no-fault job at Melli Guerin to the 'Bozo grad in the red necktie for 33 K!"

The recent agency postings here calling for unadmitted 2009 grads are telling. These sweatshops want to exploit the false hope of the recent group of lemmings, lulling them into thinking doc review is a "resume booster" and shows initiative, etc. As the old saw goes, "if you're afraid of getting a rotten apple, don't go to the barrell. Get it off the tree. If they let anyone other than 2009 grads into this gulag, word would quickly spead about the dead-end nature of the job and kill morale like a pestilience.

We are at the end of times. Back in 2005, an unadmitted JD could toil in the Paul Weiss cockroach pit for $21 an hour + unlimited OT and $10 a day for food. Now, almost 5 years later, the same shitwork is paying $1 an hour LESS. Just you wait. There's nowhere left to stash these over-leveraged lemmings anymore, and a shitstorm of very pissed-off people are going to start speaking out more and more. You can't have 85-90% of a law school class unemployed and not expect some serious repercussions to follow.

American Bar Association Annual Meeting

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