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The post Once-prominent Bakersfield attorney pleads guilty to insurance fraud – The Bakersfield Californian appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

By Magaly Muñoz

Rising numbers of unbanked or underbanked individuals, largely due to unmet minimum balance requirements, have become a growing concern. However, organizations across Oakland are stepping up, waging a war against the financial illiteracy that’s plaguing some residents.

Up to 4% of Alameda County’s residents lack access to basic banking services, with Black and Hispanic communities making up the majority of that unbanked or underbanked population. The term ‘unbanked’ describes people without a checking or savings account, while ‘underbanked’ describes people who have checking or savings accounts but often rely on alternative financial solutions like money orders and payday loans rather than conventional loans and credit cards.

Recently, the downtown Oakland Wells Fargo branch redesigned their bank to include a Hope Inside center in partnership with Operation HOPE, an organization centered around expanding economic opportunities for underserved communities.

The center features free access to financial coaches who work with individuals to gain financial assistance and guidance, such as helping improve credit scores.

Dr. Joaquin Wallace is one of the financial coaches at the Oakland branch who meets one-on-one with clients to provide credit money management solutions and develop strategic plans to assist them with reaching their financial goals.

He’s created a seven-step blueprint for attaining generational wealth. This includes acknowledging that your background and culture have significant influence on how you view finances, focusing on reprogramming financial trauma and gaining financial edification through literacy programs.

TrendingBloomberg’s Greenwood Initiative Aims to Create One Million New Black Homeowners

He shared that it can be difficult for some to accept their financial struggles because their environment might not allow for these immediate understandings because for many, money is not openly discussed in their communities.

“Money is a topic that is not communicated about — it’s taboo. And so first, you have to at least feel comfortable enough to have this conversation,” Wallace said.

Despite the initial roadblocks, the branch is seeing success with the program. Fifty-seven percent of the clients at the Hope Inside center have increased their credit score by an average of 19 points; 47% of the clients increased their savings by a median of $141; and 50% of clients have successfully reduced their debt by a median of $364.

Sonya Verdine, an Oakland resident of four years, is one of the success stories that Oakland Wells Fargo has helped since their soft launch in 2022.

Verdine’s life has been a rollercoaster of challenges including homelessness, mental health struggles and health scares that ultimately pushed her to improve her life, starting with attempting to correct the financial choices she’d made up to that point.

She was introduced to Wallace’s seven-step generational wealth method which provided her with a roadmap to get her on the right track to financial stability. Since visiting the Hope Inside center, Verdine has seen her credit score go up 200 points and she’s saving almost 10% of her income every month with a goal to someday buy her own home.

“You can take this program, you can start from literally nothing, and the program can help you build because they offer a variety of other services,” Verdine said. “It will be time well spent to participate in this program.”

Another organization that has long taken the reins to combat financial illiteracy and break the cycle of poverty is United Way Bay Area (UWBA), a program that assists families in the region to find financial stability.

Nicole Harden, Vice President of Economic Success at UWBA, says that their Sparkpoint program, which features centers scattered across the Bay Area that help low to middle income families establish financial goals, has grown tremendously since its inception in 2009. Anyone can come into one of their 23 centers to consult with a financial coach to receive guidance on how to increase their income, boost their credit, augment their savings, or reduce their debt.

She shared that it’s important for people to not feel embarrassed when talking about their financial struggles. Organizations like UWBA exist to help provide resources that they know are often inaccessible to underserved communities.

Harden explained that their centers not only cater to low-income families but see a significant number of women of color seeking assistance. As a result, they’ve taken the steps to ensure their programs are culturally competent to make conversations easier and more comfortable.

“We operate from the assumption that folks are creative, resourceful and whole. People have been making it all along, people aren’t broken. There’s systems that are broken, but this is an opportunity to work within the systems and help folks figure out how to navigate that,” she said.

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The post California Attorney General Announces $700 Million Multistate Settlement Agreement with Google appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

For all the progress she’s seen in a year-old campaign to counter a local surge in illegal pot shops — 24 shut down in recent months with perhaps twice that many still operating, mostly in Oildale and Rosamond — Kern County District attorney Cynthia Zimmer said it remains an uphill fight.

Sheriff’s deputies go in with search warrants one day, arresting employees and seizing cannabis, psychoactive mushrooms, cash and firearms, she said. Then the shop reopens, sometimes the same day, typically in the same storefront.

Zimmer’s trying something different lately. Her office now goes after landlords who rent to illegal cannabis dispensaries, in civil court instead of criminal, pursuing penalties of $2,500 per day the shop operates.

The strategy is new to Kern but not unique in California, where it’s seen as a way to enlist landlords who may not be aware of their tenants’ illegal operation. Prosecutors save time and money, even as landlords sometimes have trouble evicting criminal tenants and, in some cases, the shop ends up relocating a few blocks away.

So far, Zimmer’s civil division, normally focused on consumer fraud and the like, has filed seven lawsuits against commercial property owners. She said one case led to a $2 million judgment against the landlord.

“We’re very excited about this and we’re moving forward,” she said.

The lawsuits open a new front in the county’s battle against illegal marijuana sellers in unincorporated Kern. Although 24 pot shop workers have been arrested since the start of September, Zimmer said, local law enforcement has had less success bringing charges against actual operators.

Los Angeles cannabis law lawyer Seena Samimi agreed government in general is “always one step behind the operator,” who he said may just set up shop five blocks away. But that’s also why it makes sense to work with landlords, he added.

Property owners renting to an operation without a license to sell marijuana, Samimi said, are “just as guilty as the tenant is” because they are allowing a use that’s not permitted.

Some landlords in Southern California protest that the government’s actions are unconstitutional, in effect buying time to keep collecting highly profitable rents, he said. But others comply, allowing law enforcement to save substantial work.

A Beverly Hills lawyer recognized for his expertise in cannabis matters, William S. “Bill” Kroger, said he has a client with a series of shopping malls who was levied a $36 million fine by the city of Los Angeles for renting space to a series of dispensaries.

Landlords receiving twice normal rent, in some cases, often don’t understand they’re breaking the law, Kroger said. He added that enforcement against property owners in Southern California has been “kind of hit and miss.”

But even after landlords get “woken up” by prosecutors, he said, successfully kicking out tenants is another matter. Some fight back, he said, and some just don’t follow the law.

“It’s a battle to get them out,” Kroger said.

David Michaels knows the feeling.

After inheriting a shopping center in east Bakersfield, he fell ill from diabetes last summer and ended up under medical supervision for more than three weeks. When he got out of a rehabilitation hospital in early September, Michaels said, he found out someone had entered a long-vacant barbershop on his property, changed the locks and opened an unlicensed pot shop.

The operator has no lease and has paid no rent, he said. But when he called the Kern County Sheriff’s Office to remove the store, Michaels said, the responding deputy didn’t believe he owned the property. No action was taken, he added, even after his lawyer offered the deputy a copy of the deed.

Michaels called Zimmer’s office, he said, but was referred to the Better Business Bureau.

“Nobody will help me,” he said. “I’m very frustrated about this.” Michaels noted he has listed the shop for sale and plans to use the proceeds to buy a home in Los Angeles.

A KCSO spokeswoman said the agency has authority to help landlords remove illegal pot shops, but that how the process works depends on particular circumstances. She declined to comment on Michaels’ case without knowing details such as when exactly calls for service came in.

“It’s a case-by-case basis,” Public Information Officer Lori Meza said by email, “and if KCSO were to help a landlord facilitate the removal of a tenant, that would become a civil issue that gets referred to the civil unit, and that process could take months.”

Zimmer was unfamiliar with Michaels’ case but said a situation like he described would probably lead her office to give him additional time to remove a tenant before filing suit.

“We do understand that sometimes it is hard for the landlord to evict the client,” she said.

The county is concerned about illegal dispensaries because, Zimmer said, they often attract criminal behavior to surrounding neighborhoods and they sell marijuana that may contain illegal, carcinogenic pesticides.

Working with the KCSO and state authorities, the District attorney’s Office files for search warrants that, besides turning up hundreds of pounds of cannabis since August, also yield information her staff uses to send landlords a letter warning they may face penalties if they do not cease and desist.

Some cooperate, others get additional search warrants, Zimmer said. Whether they get hit with a lawsuit depends on how cooperative they are, she added.

Her office’s specific approach, developed in cooperation with Riverside and San Diego counties, accuses property owners of unfair competition violations, basically asserting they’re stealing business from licensed dispensaries elsewhere. The lawsuits her office files also accuse property owners of allowing a public nuisance and of breaking state cannabis regulation and drug abatement laws.

It’s only been a few months, but she said combining search warrants with arrests of pot shop employees with civil suits “seems to be an effective combination.”

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The post Kern district attorney targets landlords of illegal pot shops | News appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

St. Louis’ largest health system, BJC HealthCare, plans to merge with Kansas City’s second-largest, Saint Luke’s Health System, uniting more than 28 hospitals on both sides of Missouri by the end of this year.

The merger, which would span markets 250 miles apart and include facilities in neighboring Kansas and Illinois, is just one of the latest in a quickly consolidating hospital industry. Cross-market deals accounted for more than half of all hospital mergers and acquisitions during the last decade, according to a paper from experts on antitrust law. Today, nearly 60% of health systems operate multiple hospitals in different geographic markets.

Not only are such deals more common, they can increase costs for patients. Merged hospitals in the same state but in different markets raised prices as much as 10% compared with other hospitals, researchers found after analyzing past deals. A separate study found stand-alone hospitals raised prices 17% after they were acquired by a hospital company in another market.

But for some 50 years, federal regulators have not stepped in to prevent hospitals from merging with systems in other markets, according to antitrust law experts. Without federal intervention, states that have seen such megamergers, such as Michigan and California, are often left to wrestle with the complex question of how to respond, given the likelihood of higher prices for their residents.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department are reviewing public comments on draft merger guidelines designed to crack down on mergers in multiple sectors, including health care. It’s not yet clear if or how cross-market hospital mergers within a state could be affected. Still, the draft says consolidation should not “entrench or extend a dominant position” by extending into “new markets.”

But such cross-market mergers aren’t quite a textbook case of a monopoly. When hospitals have bought up local rivals, knocking out their competition, federal regulators have intervened to block these traditional mergers to protect patients from the resulting loss of competition. In recent years, they helped stop proposed mergers in New Jersey, Utah, and Rhode Island. The thinking is that without local competition, prices increase and the quality of care decreases.

It’s harder to prove how cross-market mergers, like the one planned in Missouri, reduce competition if the hospitals do not operate within a single market, said Chris Garmon, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, who researches hospital mergers. Regulators would have to prove the mergers don’t just raise prices but also run afoul of the law by suppressing competition.

“That’s why we haven’t seen a cross-market merger challenge yet. It’s because it’s hard to tell the story of why this would be a problem,” he said.

The Federal Trade Commission did not answer questions from KFF Health News on its broader strategy around such deals or the BJC-Saint Luke’s merger. Whether an investigation is underway is not public information, said Mitchell Katz, an agency spokesperson.

After the FTC didn’t stop cross-market hospital mergers in California and Michigan, those states landed poles apart in handling the deals. California won concessions after challenging a deal, while Michigan did not intervene.

The FTC did closely examine the 2020 deal in Michigan between Spectrum Health, based in Grand Rapids, and the Detroit area’s Beaumont Health. Still, it ultimately didn’t oppose the marriage that created the state’s largest hospital chain, Corewell Health, with 22 hospitals in regions more than 150 miles apart.

The lack of intervention frustrated some, including Bret Jackson, CEO of the Economic Alliance for Michigan, a nonprofit that helps employers wrangle health costs. Spectrum was already the more expensive operator, said Jackson. He worries Beaumont prices will rise to match Spectrum’s once the insurance contracts with the individual hospital systems expire.

“They’re not going to want to take a pay cut,” Jackson said of Spectrum. “We’re really concerned about it.”

Jackson said that he was already fed up with rising hospital prices and that so are the automotive companies and laborers he represents. Health costs consume about 10% of a typical U.S. family’s income.

Ellen Bristol, a Corewell Health spokesperson, did not address KFF Health News’ questions about patient costs but said that the collaboration is improving quality statewide and creating efficiencies that help the company navigate economic headwinds.

Even though regulators did not step in, FTC staffers and Michigan’s Department of the attorney General volleyed emails back and forth for months, according to communications obtained by KFF Health News through a public records request from the state.

The FTC asked the attorney general’s office to connect its staffers to employers and state officials, plus provide information and data on the health care landscape in the state, the emails show. The FTC interviewed executives from BorgWarner, an automotive supplier, and CMS Energy, a utility company.

Jackson said he, too, was interviewed by the FTC, which he said was less interested in his thoughts on the deal than in Michigan’s market dynamics.

Story continues below video

It’s hard to glean much from the FTC’s assessment of the merger because many of the emails the state supplied to KFF Health News are redacted. But they do illustrate what information and which people the FTC consulted to reach a decision.

The emails also suggest state officials were made aware of the FTC’s findings. On the evening of Jan. 13, 2022, an assistant AG sent a lengthy email to Michigan attorney General Dana Nessel about the FTC’s review of possible antitrust implications, according to the subject line. In the version provided to KFF Health News, though, the entire email — except for the greeting and the signature — was blacked out.

The next day, other emails show, hospital officials began discussing final language with the AG’s office for a press release announcing the deal would soon close.

Michigan did not move to block the deal or investigate further. Danny Wimmer, a spokesperson for Nessel, a Democrat, said the deal fell outside the authority of her office, further frustrating Jackson, of the Economic Alliance for Michigan.

“We need to give state regulators the tools to at least assess mergers in the health care system,” Jackson said.

Nessel’s position is not the attitude taken in all states. A 2020 merger agreement in California between Huntington Hospital in Pasadena and Cedars-Sinai Health System, with its flagship hospital in Los Angeles, attracted the attention of then-state attorney General Xavier Becerra, who imposed conditions, such as price caps to protect consumers.

Becerra, a Democrat who is now Health and Human Services secretary, had argued the cross-market merger would lead to higher prices.

Employers relied on having both Cedars-Sinai and Huntington Hospital in their networks to ensure adequate access to all employees scattered across the massive Los Angeles region — with a population larger than that of most states — which California officials said has several distinct markets serving patients. If the two were to combine, employers would have to accept price hikes to maintain access to both entities, according to an analysis the AG’s office commissioned. Health systems can “threaten to create important holes in a health plan’s provider network,” the analysis said, by refusing to include all hospitals, giving the system greater leverage to extract higher prices from the health plan.

Cedars-Sinai and Huntington sued the AG over the conditions imposed on the merger.

Ultimately, the parties settled on revised conditions, which included a 10-year ban on all-or-nothing contracting with insurers and a cap on price increases for five years.

The settlement allowed Cedars-Sinai to expand access while reflecting a shared goal of “keeping healthcare affordable,” said Duke Helfand, a spokesperson for Cedars-Sinai. Still, it was considered a win for antitrust enforcers, with implications that could reverberate across the country, some health economists said.

In Missouri, the key question is whether state officials will intervene. attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, is reviewing the merger, which requires his office’s approval before it can close, said Madeline Sieren, a spokesperson for the AG.

Neither BJC nor Saint Luke’s answered questions from KFF Health News about potential price increases or plans to improve quality. The hospitals have estimated the merged system will generate annual revenue topping $10 billion.

The Missouri systems ought to explain how this merger will benefit patients by lowering costs and improving quality, Garmon said.

“Whether they actually do them or not depends on whether they actually have the incentive to do them,” Garmon said.

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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Time was when getting caught in a malicious lie about a rival would have ended an American politician’s career. We no longer live that way. Just the other day, Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of falsehoods attacking President Joe Biden that would have shamed a carnival barker.

Speaking to a rally in South Dakota, Trump delivered a series of mocking claims, beginning with the allegation that the administration was using made-up jobs numbers: If you ask Trump, only 2.1 million jobs have been created during the president’s 30 months in office. The actual statistics show somewhere over 13 million jobs — along with near-record growth in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) during the recovery from the 2020 COVID slump.

Then Trump got personal. “He makes up these stories, like there’s a picture of a fighter jet … [mocking] ‘I used to be a fighter jet pilot.’ Then there’s a picture of a truck. ‘I used to drive a truck.’ The worst is, did you ever see his golf swing? He said he’s a 6-handicap! A 6-handicap is a good golfer. This guy can’t hit a ball … I think that’s the greatest lie of all, if you want to know the truth.”

Trump shakes his head in feigned disbelief as the crowd laughs and applauds. (Never mind that there’s a bestselling book by veteran sportswriter Rick Reilly called “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump,” describing how he races down fairways in his golf cart, kicks opponents’ balls into ponds, drops his own onto the green, etc. Filled with interviews of golf pros and caddies, it’s actually quite funny.)

So is Trump’s performance, or it would be if you didn’t know — South Dakota isn’t exactly a golfing hotbed — that every single word of it is a malicious lie. Biden has never claimed to be a truck driver or a fighter pilot. Don’t you think you’d have heard?

Biden has mostly made self-deprecating jokes about his golf game, commenting that “the course record remains intact” after his initial outing as president. Back in 2018, he carried a USGA handicap of 6.7, according to Golf News Net, which is pretty good — no surprise, as Biden was an accomplished athlete as a young man. But he’s never boasted about it.

Anyway, who cares? As a politician, Trump himself is treated by audiences and reporters alike as a stand-up comic, which would be fine if he stuck to stage performances. Alas, polls show that millions of gullible Americans believe even the most absurd of his inventions. Deep-thinking pundits are writing columns about Biden’s great unpopularity, which reality-oriented blogger Kevin Drum shows is largely a function of false memories.

I like Drum because he’s an engineer by training who lives in Orange County, California, and he’s congenitally immune to inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom. Recently he posted a graph comparing the favorability ratings of the last several presidents at the equivalent points in their respective administrations. It turns out that they all hovered in the 40s. It comes with the territory. Biden’s in no worse shape politically than Clinton, Obama or Trump.

Only George W. Bush, thanks to the strong patriotic surge in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was in better shape. However, Dubya’s disastrous second term drove his approval down to 24% by 2008.

So, no, President Biden isn’t deeply unpopular with the public, and certainly not in comparison with Trump, whose negatives are markedly worse even in Fox News surveys. That said, polls mean very little at this point in the election cycle and have largely failed to predict the results in any of the last several national contests.

Remember the vaunted “red wave” in 2022? Never happened. People don’t answer their phones anymore unless they know who’s calling. The whole business of public opinion polling is an increasingly shaky enterprise.

I suspect it’s the same with the Fox News-generated Hunter Biden saga. Supposedly, a majority of Americans believes Joe Biden has violated the law in his dealings with his wayward son. Apart from not paying his taxes on time, however, it isn’t even clear what crimes the younger Biden is alleged to have committed. It’s not against the law to work for a foreign corporation, nor to drop Daddy’s name in business meetings.

If it were, there wouldn’t be a Trump in-law walking around free, much less cashing humongous checks from Saudi Arabia.

Doting father that he is, I quite doubt that Joe Biden fills out Hunter’s IRS form 1040. Nor that after decades in public life with no sign of financial impropriety, he suddenly got greedy in his 70s.

However, the Fox News imagineers appear to have persuaded millions of viewers that with all the manure they’ve shoveled, there must be a pony.

Gullible cynicism regarding politicians is always tempting. But if they go ahead and impeach the president, they’d damned well better produce that pony.

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The post NATIONAL COLUN: Trump and his minions just keep shoveling | Opinion appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

Kern County’s specific legal needs, which differ vastly from those of California’s other regions, will be represented at the State Bar’s highest level after a local prosecutor was appointed last week to chair its board of trustees — the first time a Bakersfield attorney will preside over the organization.

Deputy District attorney Brandon Stallings was appointed by the California Supreme Court to become chairman of the State Bar Board of Trustees. The board’s duties include creating policies to regulate lawyers’ conduct and determine which programs to fund. He has been a trustee since 2015 and served most recently served as vice chairman.

Stallings, who said Friday many qualified applicants applied, was excited to be appointed.

“My emotion was excitement (after hearing of my appointment) for the job ahead, excitement to serving in this new role and really just gratitude — very thankful for being entrusted with this responsibility,” Stallings added in a phone interview.

As a prosecutor since 2009, Stallings said his recent appointment aligns with a prosecutor’s responsibility to seek justice in service to the community. Stallings serves in the Office of Traffic Safety, which prosecutes DUIs causing murder and other intoxicated driving incidents.

Kern County District attorney Cynthia Zimmer said in an email Stallings can represent local values and a prosecutor’s ethics while serving in groups like the State Bar Board of Trustees. He operates at the highest ethical standard, which she said makes him a naturally good fit for public service.

“Mr. Stallings’ commitment to justice and the practice of law is evidenced not only in his work as a prosecutor handling serious DUI cases, but also his longstanding and continuing work with the Board of Trustees,” she added.

A spokesman for the Judicial Council of California said the California Supreme Court, which appointed Stallings, doesn’t comment beyond the appointment action.

Locally, Stallings has served as director of the Kern County Bar Association. His volunteer work showed him the need for young lawyers to have a voice at the county and state level.

In his prior service on the bar, Stallings was vice chair of its Civility Commission. There seemed to be instability in law practice and attorneys “doing bad things” or being uncivil in front of judges, he said.

The commission learned incivility is tied to bias, appearing implicitly or explicitly toward women, minorities and people of different sexual orientations, Stallings said. The board took input from experts and the general public, culling through proposals to approve rules attorneys must follow. The state Supreme Court must now decide whether to approve those rules, he added.

He’d like to take a look at recruiting more lawyers in rural areas in hopes of remedying the lack of access for migrant and low-income communities.

“I’m really, really happy to have that voice to be able to advocate for representation,” Stallings added.

It seemed the board chair’s position always went to attorneys from the Bay Area or Southern California, leaving out the Central Valley, Bakersfield defense attorney David Torres said. He sits on a committee within the California State Bar and is Stallings’ father-in-law.

A Bakersfield-based attorney can perhaps advocate for funds to build another courthouse in Kern County or divert money to projects helping underrepresented individuals, Torres said. Stallings understands the system through his long involvement with the State Bar and he understands lawyers’ needs, Torres said.

“He … is a fair leader with the wisdom and knowledge … to execute plans (that are) fair and balanced,” Torres said of Stallings.

Stallings hopes to ensure the public has confidence in the board’s decisions and that the state bar’s employees are equipped to protect the public.

“(I hope to leave) behind a (state) bar that’s in a better position than when I took over,” Stallings said.

You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter. 

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The post Bakersfield prosecutor appointed chairman of California’s State Bar’s board of trustees | News appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

A Kern County Superior Court judge ruled attorneys representing Tastries Bakery Owner Cathy Miller should be paid $3.62 million after she encountered a financial burden placed upon her by the government “aggressively” pursuing legal enforcement.

Lesbian couple Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio walked into Tastries Bakery in 2017 hoping to get a wedding cake. Miller denied the women the product, saying their wedding violated her fundamental Christian beliefs.

That refusal kicked off a yearslong legal fight in which the California Department of Civil Rights sued Miller, saying she discriminated against the Rodriguez-Del Rios. Another judge ruled against the government and said Miller’s First Amendment rights are protected in 2018. The Fifth District Court of Appeal vacated that decision and sent it back to Superior Court to be relitigated.

Kern County Superior Court Judge Eric Bradshaw ruled in favor of Miller last year and said the California Department of Civil Rights — formerly known as the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing — couldn’t prove she intentionally discriminated against the couple.

In Friday’s ruling about attorney’s fees, Bradshaw noted lawyers Charles LiMandri and Paul Jonna represented Miller for free and they “vindicated the liberties and rights of constitutionally-protected speech and religion, which are important rights affecting the public interest.” They spent a total 3,501.4 hours on this case, the ruling said.

The California Department of Civil Rights promised to appeal Bradshaw’s ruling and added it shouldn’t have to pay attorneys’ fees. Their written statement added that a defendant sued under an act protecting individuals from discrimination must prove the government’s action was “frivolous” and Kern Superior Court determined this particular decision was not “frivolous.”

“The Department disagrees with the trial court that Defendants can recover attorneys’ fees under any other law,” the statement finished.

Judge Bradshaw also said the defendants incurred legal fees for engaging with the news media. Miller received death threats and gay pornography, showing attorneys needed to engage with reporters to talk about their side, the ruling said.

You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter. 

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The post Kern judge orders state to pay $3.6M to Tastries Bakery’s attorneys | News appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

A Kern County Superior Court judge ruled attorneys representing Tastries Bakery Owner Cathy Miller should be paid $3.62 million after she encountered a financial burden placed upon her by the government “aggressively” pursuing legal enforcement.

Lesbian couple Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio walked into Tastries Bakery in 2017 hoping to get a wedding cake. Miller denied the women the product, saying their wedding violated her fundamental Christian beliefs.

That refusal kicked off a yearslong legal fight in which the California Department of Civil Rights sued Miller, saying she discriminated against the Rodriguez-Del Rios. Another judge ruled against the government and said Miller’s First Amendment rights are protected in 2018. The Fifth District Court of Appeal vacated that decision and sent it back to Superior Court to be relitigated.

Kern County Superior Court Judge Eric Bradshaw ruled in favor of Miller last year and said the California Department of Civil Rights — formerly known as the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing — couldn’t prove she intentionally discriminated against the couple.

In Friday’s ruling about attorney’s fees, Bradshaw noted lawyers Charles LiMandri and Paul Jonna represented Miller for free and they “vindicated the liberties and rights of constitutionally-protected speech and religion, which are important rights affecting the public interest.” They spent a total 3,501.4 hours on this case, the ruling said.

The California Department of Civil Rights promised to appeal Bradshaw’s ruling and added it shouldn’t have to pay attorneys’ fees. Their written statement added that a defendant sued under an act protecting individuals from discrimination must prove the government’s action was “frivolous” and Kern Superior Court determined this particular decision was not “frivolous.”

“The Department disagrees with the trial court that Defendants can recover attorneys’ fees under any other law,” the statement finished.

Judge Bradshaw also said the defendants incurred legal fees for engaging with the news media. Miller received death threats and gay pornography, showing attorneys needed to engage with reporters to talk about their side, the ruling said.

You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter. 

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The post Kern judge orders state to pay $3.6M to Tastries Bakery’s attorneys | News appeared first on Attorney Legal Counsel.

All local private attorneys may be assigned to represent indigent clients as soon as next Friday, whether they like it or not.

In a letter sent to the Scott County Bar Association late this week, Seventh District Judge Henry Latham said the court will begin assigning private attorneys in Scott County to defend people who cannot afford an attorney as soon as March 17.

“If there is not a significant increase in the number of contract attorneys by March 17th, the Court will have no choice but to appoint all licensed attorneys to cases to meet the need of the indigent defense in this district the following week,” Latham said in the letter.

The county uses full-time State Public Defenders and other attorneys under contract with the county to represent the indigent and to meet the demand. The private-practice attorneys would be required to represent indigent defendants on a case-by-case basis.

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Latham’s decision comes after he put out a call for contract attorneys in October of 2022. He sent the letter to all attorneys in the Seventh District Bar Association, detailing how the State Public Defender notified all the judges in the district that the Davenport Public Defender’s office would represent defendants only in the most serious felony and misdemeanor cases.

According to the judge, public defenders in Davenport can handle Class A and B felonies, but there are not enough of them to represent defendants in lower-class C and D felonies. Making the matter worse is a lack of contract attorneys in Scott County, which are private attorneys who are paid by the State Public Defender.

The reactions to Latham’s letter have been mixed.

Eric Tindal, a contract attorney who handles some cases in Scott County, said he understands the need for Latham’s letter. Local private attorney Eric Puryear said he will not accept contract work, because he finds it “morally offensive.”

Both attorneys agreed the state faces a number of intertwined issues when trying to find representation for poor clients and must take a hard look at how much contract attorneys are paid.

Eric Tindal is part of the firm Keegan, Tindal & Jaeger, which has offices in Iowa City and Davenport. He is a contract attorney who in 2022 represented indigent clients in four judicial districts and approximately 25 counties, including Scott.

“I was not surprised to get Judge Latham’s letter,” Tindal said. “Indigent defense is a national crisis.”

He offered some numbers for perspective.

“There are 370 attorneys on the contract list in Iowa,” Tindal said. “Now exclude the contract attorneys in Des Moines and in the Johnson County and Linn County corridor, and you have 311 attorneys for the rest of the state.

“Last year there were right about 47,000 claims. That means, basically, the number of bills attorneys sent to the state for services — (were) sent to the State Public Defender’s Office by less than 400 attorneys.”

That’s 127 services-for-clients claims per contract attorney in the state.

“There is an incredible strain on the public defense system in Iowa,” Tindal said. “And the situation in Scott County is one of the worst in the state.”

Because of that strain, he understands the need for Latham’s decision and added “the reasons for a lack of contract attorneys in Scott County are complex.”

“It goes beyond not having enough attorneys,” Tindal said. “Historically, the Scott County attorney‘s office has been difficult to deal with in terms of the discovery process — being able to easily see video evidence is just an example.”

He said “progress has been made” on that issue.

“The other issue has been that Scott County’s scheduling and procedural system has not been conducive to attracting out-of-county attorneys to work on cases in that county,” he said. “It has simply been hard to see clients and work with the prosecutors.”

He again stressed “the situation has been improving.”

“The County attorney‘s office has definitely been making progress,” Tindal said. “Everyone is pulling in the right direction.”

There are three things that can be done in Scott County to improve the prospects of luring contract attorneys, he said.

“One, make processing discovery easier for the defense attorneys,” he said. “Two, make reasonable plea offers and make them earlier in the process. And three, it would be nice if the County attorney picked up the phone and talked with defense lawyers.”

Back in late December, Tindal sent a letter to Susan Larson Christensen, the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, outlining the complex issues threatening indigent defense in Iowa.

He touched on the issue of what contract attorneys are paid.

“There is no dispute: the hourly rate must be increased. There is no need to belabor this point. Briefly, however, we will note how important it is to put the rate issue into context … in 1979 the rate was $40 per hour, which was an increase from the pre-1978 rate of $25.00 per hour,” Tindal wrote. “The hourly rate has increased some over time, but it has come nowhere close to the rate necessary to maintain a business. By most calculations, $40.00 is worth approximately $145.00 today.

“To state the obvious, Iowa’s court appointed rates for contract attorneys requires us to operate at or near an operational loss.”

Contract attorneys representing clients charged with Class C and D felonies are paid $68 an hour. Those representing Class B felonies make $73 an hour, and attorneys handling Class A felony cases are paid $78 an hour.

Several former contract attorneys who worked for the the Iowa State Public Defender pointed out contract attorneys in Illinois make much more — at least $126 an hour — while attorneys contracted through the Federal Defenders program make $150 an hour.

According to a number of private attorneys in Davenport, hourly rates for most legal work start at $225 an hour. Most divorce cases land in the $350- to $400-an-hour range, and criminal defense can run even higher.

Private attorney Puryear said it is his opinion that the pay rate for contract attorneys in Iowa is so low because of basic “structural deficiencies” in the state’s public defense system.

“It’s a choice,” Puryear said. “State’s attorney‘s offices are budgeted much more than the Public Defender’s office. The police budgets of most cities are enormous.

“We have a system in Iowa where a person who makes, say, $15 an hour gets accused of a crime and has to bail out of jail. That alone will wipe out most bank accounts. And then you have to try and pay for an attorney. The system is set up to keep people in that system and puts them at a huge disadvantage.”

Tindal said he didn’t have hard numbers, but estimated upwards of 90% of the people arrested in Iowa qualify for a public defender.

“If Iowa cared about getting people good criminal defenders, they would pay for it,” Puryear said. “The pay rate sends a clear message to the clients of public defenders about just how important their rights are.”

‘This is akin to slavery’

Latham’s letter expressed frustration with the private attorneys in Scott County and the Seventh Judicial District.

“I am completely disappointed at the lack of response that the Court has received from the bar. To date there has been only one attorney who has contacted the Public Defender to become a contract attorney,” he wrote.

Puryear said he has no intention to volunteer for what he calls a “purposely broken system.”

“Here in my office, two attorneys have devoted about 100 hours so far in 2023 to representing people who cannot afford legal help,” he said. “But I’m not going to be compelled to support a purposely defective system.

“The state gives huge amounts of taxpayer money to those who investigate, arrest, prosecute, and jail citizens, and at the same time purposefully deprives those citizens of the means to have a fair defense.”

Puryear added: “The state doesn’t pay public defenders or contract attorneys enough, creating a shortage of defense attorneys for indigent clients. Then Judge Latham asks all of us to support this system by working for the state at rates way below what we would normally be paid. It’s ridiculous.”

It is “ironic,” he said, that the state wants attorneys to volunteer to serve as contract attorneys.

“Judges certainly don’t volunteer their time to help with cases,” he said. “Do prosecutors donate their time to help clients? Police officers aren’t asked to volunteer time to do their jobs.

“Why are defense attorneys asked to do this? This is a big problem. I’m not exaggerating when I say this akin to slavery. Slavery is compelling people to work against their will. That’s what this is.”

Puryear said he is much more interested in hearing how the state is going to fix what he calls “the system.”

That system is headed up by Jeff Wright. He is the director of Iowa’s State Public Defenders Office and reports directly to Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Under Wright’s office, 200 employees in 10 local Public Defender Offices and the Appellate Defender’s Office provide representation for poor and low-income people in all of Iowa’s 99 counties.

According to Wright, the Public Defender’s office in Davenport has a staff of eight, but three of them are not attorneys. The office is down three attorneys, and the state’s job board shows a listing for at least one — public defender fellow — open.

It pays between $55,000 and $85,000 per year.

“Maybe we can look at bail set so high people can’t afford an attorney,” Puryear said. “And look at the number of Public Defenders there are in the state and what they are paid.

“I’m tired of seeing the responsibility for the broken public defenders system placed on private attorneys. It’s not acceptable.”

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