higginsfirm asked:

The Higgins Firm 116 Third Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37201 (615) 353-0930 ‎

Shana Samela

dolphin314etc asked:


I’ll offer three possibilities very briefly, and would appreciate your comments on those, and all your other respectful, germaine, serious comments.

#1 Big Banks are a bad idea

This seems to me unlikely to be what we should learn. If the rest of the world had Big Banks, and we had none, it would put USA at a serious disadvantage in world markets.

#2 Laissez-Faire Capitalism applied to Big Banks is a bad idea.

This seems plausible as a possible lesson we might learn. I’m talking here about the Capitalism wanted by Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, Phil Gramm, Milton Friedman, CATO Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Ayn Rand, and the Deregulatory Zealots. We might decide that for big banks there’s no capitalism like regulated capitalism, and there really should be regulators, and they really should do their jobs, not just watch porn on the internet (like SEC regulators did).

#3 Government of Laws and not of Men needs to be Moderated to a Degree for Big Banks.

We already have begun to explore what “Government of Men” would be like in the person of Ken Feinberg who did a creditable job on the compensation of the 9/11 victims, and on employee compensation at the Big Banks, and most recently on the Gulf Oil spill victims. When Ken gets commissioned by the AG he has unfettered discretion and can’t be fired by the AG or anyone else. It’s absolute power. It’s the government of men (and not of laws).

This approach may be what’s needed on Wall Street and throughout the financial industry. The big banks and mortgage companies take every new law, assign 1000 teams of lawyers to it, broken down by sections, and within 6 to 8 weeks they find 10,000 ways to completely avoid, circumvent, and engineer around the law so it has absolutely no impact on them apart from minor shifts in their business model.

The way this could stop is if the USA had some sort of Star Chamber Magistrate in charge of monitoring what goes on in the financial industry and issuing injunctions to put an instant stop to sleazy, smarmy, rotten, unacceptable conduct as soon as it appears. These injunctions would not be based on violations of law, they would be based on the unfettered discretion of the Star Chamber Magistrate. Whatever he/she says all players in the industry have to do, or be closed down, by the full force of the US government. Rule of men sometimes works when rule of law fails. Lincoln knew this. He knew that he had to declare Martial Law and he had to be the source of injunctions that could not be disobeyed. We may need something like Martial law to control Wall Street, Payday Lenders, and the Mortgage industry. 2000 page bills out of Congress are extremely unlikely to have any impact whatsoever. Washington writes 2000 pages, New York assigns 1000 lawyers, every lawyer gets 2 pages, and comes up with 200 ways to work around the law, in about 12 weeks, so the Big Doorstop mostly just gives sore backs to Law Library employees — it has no actual effect on the financial industry, or on the Evil-Doers therein (except for Skilling, who now says he should get out of jail, and Lloyd Blankfein who walks down Park Avenue giving everybody raspberries and bronx cheers and yelling — Look, I’m not in jail!).

In ancient Egypt, a very conservative culture, if three of the Great pyramids at Giza suddenly fell over and crushed a few hundred thousand people, somebody in the Phahrao’s office would probabaly have asked, “Are we doing anything wrong, should we consider making some changes in how we do business?” I’m just asking —- How about us — is there anything we should learn from our Economic Collapse on Wall Street?

Andrea

asked:


I am currently in the midst of a workers compensation claim and I am seeking only medical expenses from my former employer. My deposition and hearing are coming up soon and I am looking for a lawyer in the Leesburg, VA area. However, I have talked to several lawyers and since I am not seeking money from my previous employer, they will not take my case. Is there another way I can get a lawyer to take my case? Are their alternative routes for me to take? Any help is appreciated.

Byron Neaves

SandraPandra asked:


two years ago, my dad was installing a satellite dish when his friend unexpectedly stopped by, he was curious as to what my dad was doing and stepped on the ladder after my dad got off (without permission). he then, fell off the ladder and broke his leg. a month ago we received a letter from his lawyer stating that he was seeking compensation through out insurance company (understandable, as he needed surgery and was not able to work) but NOW we received ANOTHER letter saying that we had to get a lawyer because he was taking us to court and holding us liable. can he do this??

Felix Paulic

D’Wayne Wave asked:


So I was driving on the highway in the company truck coming back to the store and this lady switch lanes last second and I hit her. She admitted it was her fault, but now I’m in pain (lower back). I got to got to therapy for like three weeks, what’s going to happen now that I have my lawyer involve and how much am I expecting to receive from compensation? I’m on worker comp right now btw.

Fred

asked:


but I didn’t get better so I hired a lawyer and he send me to the doctor for treatment , MRI and ,…… just yesterday I got a mail from Insurance company that said that “we denied you case and you will receive lien/bill for self- proceeding”. I want to know that can an insurance company do that with an employee who got injury at work? And what’s happened to my injury? who will take responsibility for that? Because when i went to the doctor for treatment after he saw my MRI photo said that one of my disc was damaged and probably I’ll need a surgery.

Craig Fetner

chocdog7 asked:


you go to court for something really small and end up paying more court and lawyer fees then the compensation you receive…

i can’t figure it this word…it is on the tip of my tongue and it is driving me insane
please help

Neil Vanier

sweet_emotion asked:


At a congressional hearing last month, Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., said the average federal worker earns $101,628 in total compensation — including wages and benefits– compared with $60,000 for the average private employee. He was citing data from the federal Office of Personnel Management.

Seems like the private sector isn’t tricklin’ like it oughta. Bet the CEO’s know where the dollars are.

But federal employee advocates claim a straight-up comparison of average total compensation is misleading. A disproportionate number of federal employees are professionals, such as managers, lawyers, engineers and scientists. Over the years, the federal government has steadily outsourced lower-paying jobs to the private sector so that blue-collar workers cooking meals or working in mailrooms now make up just 10 percent of federal employees.

That argument is backed up by a 2002 study of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It found that federal salaries for most professional and administrative jobs lagged well behind compensation offered in the private sector.

The CBO study concluded that the best way to measure the difference is to compare government jobs with those in the private sector that match the actual work performed. The CBO found that salaries for 85 percent of federal workers in professional and administrative jobs lagged their private sector counterparts by more than 20 percent.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/FACT-CHECK-Are-federal-apf-3113687231.html?x=0

Craig Armon

takenitintheshorts asked:


My husband agreed to take in his 15 year old son because his mother was having problems with him June of last year. We got a lawyer in June of last year, to have custody switch over to us. We continued to pay child support while we had him. Almost a year later (after he has moved back in with his mother because he didn’t like having rules) we are now going to court. It has taken way to long which is No fault of our own. She lied and said she was working on getting the support changed. She wouldn’t answer our lawyers phone calls. Our lawyer dragged his feet. And now we are told we won’t get any compensation for the time that he spent with us. WE HAVE TO PAY CHILD SUPPORT ON A CHILD THAT WE HAD IN OUR HOME, plus one that graduated high school. Does this seem fair. They told us that child support can’t be corrected after the fact, however, they increased it after his older son graduated high school last June. We will get partial credit for the child who graduated.

Emmitt Matsoukas

Aimee’s Mummy & Boy on Board asked:


Hi everyone, this may be a bit long so sorry in advance.

Ok, I was the victim of domestic violence for nearly one a half years and I am still with my boyfriend. He has had help and has really changed. There has been no violence for nearly 6 months. However, at the start of our relationship I was so scared when he used to beat me that I lied that I was owed a lot of money (nearly £50,000) from my employer for bonuses. I did this because I thought it would make him not hit me and thought it would mean that he wouldn’t kill me. This has escalted over the last two years and I have just kept lying and lying about it. Now I have said that my lawyers managed to get me a £800,000 compensation out of court settlement! I can’t believe that I have let it get this far. Everytime I kept going to tell him, he said that he would kill me if I was lying. Now he is expecting the money and I am so scared. Any suggestions what I can do? Please don’t say tell him the truth as I really believe he wil hurt me. Can anyone come up with any suggestions to get out of it?

Sterling Dove