Now here is someone wth a backbone, he is a true american for the american people.

[rhys 0]

Not a pseudo patriot that cares more about sealing the deal than what is right and what is wrong.

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Empathetic Judge in 9/11 Suits Seen by Some as Interfering
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: May 2, 2010

Over nearly three decades as a litigator at a downtown law firm, Alvin K. Hellerstein shared a view of the World Trade Center towers with dozens of other colleagues in an office building on Maiden Lane.
Yet as a United States District Court judge in Manhattan, he has had a singular perspective on the towers — specifically, the suffering that has lingered long after the terrorist attacks that leveled them in 2001.

As the federal judge who has overseen the wrongful death, property damage and personal injury lawsuits arising from 9/11, Judge Hellerstein, 76, has developed a visible empathy for both the families of the victims and for the workers who fell ill after the rescue and cleanup efforts.

“He had my clients in his chambers for over one hour to listen to them,” said Norman Siegel, a lawyer for families seeking to recover human remains from the debris that was carted off to the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island. “He, more than anyone, understands deeply the pain.”

Yet in eight years of 9/11 oversight, many who have appeared before him say that Judge Hellerstein has also grown determined to put his own stamp on financial settlements reached between a plaintiff and defendant. And recently the city and lawyers have been smarting over his clout.

On March 19, the judge stunned lawyers on both sides by rejecting a $657.5 million settlement reached in individual suits brought against New York City by more than 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers who say their health was damaged at ground zero.

Saluting the workers as “heroes,” he said that the compensation was inadequate, the terms were poorly understood by the plaintiffs and lawyers should not expect to extract their fees from the $657.5 million payout. He would also reduce those fees.

While some plaintiffs cheered, their lawyers and those for the city were dismayed to see a settlement that was two years in the making fall apart.

What is more, Judge Hellerstein had waded into untested legal waters: such intervention is not the norm in cases that are not a class action, legal experts say. Last month the city filed an appeal challenging his authority, even as it returned to the table to negotiate new terms.

The struggle over control of the settlement has underscored two different, but not necessarily contradictory views of the judge: the compassionate jurist driven by a sense of social responsibility and with a wealth of experience with victims’ suffering, and the aggressive judge unwilling to cede ground on cases he has shepherded for years.

Judge Hellerstein declined repeated requests for an interview. Still, his decisions and remarks on the bench appear to shed some light on his philosophy.

A Bronx native and Columbia Law School graduate who was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1998, Judge Hellerstein has shown independence and a strong adherence to the First Amendment and to transparency, for example. He ordered the government to release videos and photos from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq after the American Civil Liberties Union sued under the Freedom of Information Act. In a 1999 decision against the New York Police Department that was later overturned, he ruled that members of the Ku Klux Klan could wear their traditional masks at demonstrations.

Charles G. Moerdler, a friend and former co-partner at the firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, said that Judge Hellerstein, an Orthodox Jew who has been active on the board of several Jewish organizations, was motivated by “a very high standard of morality and decency.”

As a litigator representing banks and large corporations, he said, the judge was willing to tell a bank client being sued by an investor over money losses to reconsider its position. “He’d say, I can litigate this, and I can fight this, but in fairness, this person was injured,” Mr. Moerdler said.

Judge Hellerstein lost several former clients in the collapse of the twin towers on 9/11. But legal experts suggest that he has a bigger motivation for championing the ground zero victims: he may see his handling of the 9/11 cases as his legacy.

“This is history for him,” said Arthur Miller, a professor at New York University School of Law who specializes in federal procedure. “This is an awesome responsibility. He wants to be the person who brought peace to this entire situation. He would not be human if he didn’t feel a personal interest in this.”

At the March hearing, Judge Hellerstein called the ground zero cases he had handled his “greatest challenge.”

“This is different,” he told the lawyers in spurning the settlement terms. “This is 9/11.”

But lawyers who have sparred with Judge Hellerstein suggest that his moral compass and commitment to doing what he thinks is right have sometimes led him to overreach.

source

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[AggieDave 6]

So he also has a history of theft of service by buying something that he has no intention of keeping, using it then returning it?

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[rhys 0]

Instead of using tpyical tactics of not referring to the subject at all and referring to another that you seem to have no intention on disputing, I challenge you to explain yourself in the apropriate thread! you know what one it is dave

This thread has nothing to do with what you just said, keep on track please! That was no more than a pathetic personal attack and it shows you inability to explain yourself and discuss such topics diplomatically.

Quite a role model for a cop arent you!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[jakee 1,501]

Perhaps you could teach us how to be diplomatic?

Us poor sheeple have no idea how to construct a post as politely as the one above.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[AggieDave 6]

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Perhaps you could teach us how to be diplomatic?

Us poor sheeple have no idea how to construct a post as politely as the one above.

This pretty much sums it up.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[TrophyHusband 0]

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Not a pseudo patriot that cares more about sealing the deal than what is right and what is wrong.

i don't believe i'll be trusting your judgement as to what is right or wrong.

"Your scrotum is quite nice" - Skymama
www.kjandmegan.com

[funjumper101 15]

Right WingNuts jump in to whine about an empathetic judge. Who'd a thunk it?
Right and wrong are not as simple as black and white, HELLO get a clue!

I am happy to see that there is a judge who can take in the big picture and has the huevos to make tough calls.

Not like the right wingnuts on the SC, who performed one of the worst acts of "legislating from the bench" that has been seen in modern times. You can't put a corporation in jail, so they aren't entitled to fully be "people", in context of the law.

[rhys 0]

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i don't believe i'll be trusting your judgement as to what is right or wrong.

Don't ever trust anyones judegment other than you own, simply be honest with yourself and others and you should be fine.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[Andrewwhyte 1]

He is a prime example of what is wrong with the judiciary in most western countries. The judge has specific duties. When he expands those duties he is just as wrong as a cop delivering a beating in the ally.
When a deal is reached in a lawsuit the state should never insist that they remain the arbitrator; that service is not required in this case. Close the book.

[lawrocket 3]

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Right WingNuts jump in to whine about an empathetic judge. Who'd a thunk it?

From what did you conclude right wing nuts object? Perhaps I should inform you of who runs the class action plaintiffs' bar. Recall - it was the plaintiffs who cheered and not their lawyers.

I credit this judge for that.

Do you think left wing nuts were happy with his KKK decision?

[Reply]Right and wrong are not as simple as black and white, HELLO get a clue!

[rushmc 23]

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Right WingNuts jump in to whine about an empathetic judge. Who'd a thunk it?
Right and wrong are not as simple as black and white, HELLO get a clue!

I am happy to see that there is a judge who can take in the big picture and has the huevos to make tough calls.

Not like the right wingnuts on the SC, who performed one of the worst acts of "legislating from the bench" that has been seen in modern times. You can't put a corporation in jail, so they aren't entitled to fully be "people", in context of the law.

So empathy is now is a judges job description?

So much for the law

Oh, and your expample sucks here

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[champu 1]

$60,000 or so is quite a bit of money, more than a token amount anyway. Maybe if everyone dicks around for another decade they can get $90,000 each.

There are always going to be some portion of the people who don't "break even" and I think delaying compensation further is a cure that's worse than the disease.

[rhys 0]

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$60,000 or so is quite a bit of money, more than a token amount anyway. Maybe if everyone dicks around for another decade they can get $90,000 each.

There are always going to be some portion of the people who don't "break even" and I think delaying compensation further is a cure that's worse than the disease.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you do not understand the scope of the situation. I suggest you investigate a little about how much money lawyers are making out of these law suits from these desparate people, how many have died from helping the city clean up the mess, that are dying and that will end up dying.

He understands what is going on. he sees these peoples' plight day by day. He has a heart and a true sence of patriotism and freedom.

Some of you guys could learn alot from a guy like him!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[rhys 0]

Quote

He is a prime example of what is wrong with the judiciary in most western countries. The judge has specific duties. When he expands those duties he is just as wrong as a cop delivering a beating in the ally.
When a deal is reached in a lawsuit the state should never insist that they remain the arbitrator; that service is not required in this case. Close the book.

That is incorrect, he determines whether jusctice has been served!

Everybody wants cash now. Giving 'not enough cash' now does nothing to resolve the issue and ensure it doesn't happen again later.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[rhys 0]

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:

>Perhaps you could teach us how to be diplomatic?

Us poor sheeple have no idea how to construct a post as politely as the one above.

This pretty much sums it up.

Sums what up, your inability to explain yourself?

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix

[Andy9o8 2]

Quote

Quote

:

>Perhaps you could teach us how to be diplomatic?

Us poor sheeple have no idea how to construct a post as politely as the one above.

This pretty much sums it up.

Sums what up, your inability to explain yourself?

You're so clearly just yanking people's chains to piss them off.

On behalf of the entire membership: Would you just bugger off already?

[rhys 0]

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You're so clearly just yanking people's chains to piss them off.

Not at all, I am being completly honest. This is an excersise (for myself)in following your insticts and giving everybody an equal opportunity to convince me that my thoughts are incorrect.

You obviously cant differentiate between seriousness and taking the piss. I am being quite serious in this thread. I can have a bit of a laugh when I'm serious if that throws you off, but no winding going on here. cards on the table lets compare our ethic and understanding of them.

You just keep 'beating around the bush' with false accusations, until you can come up with any rational conversation, you might as well go and have a wank, you are not achieving anything but constructing a lie to yourself.

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On behalf of the entire membership: Would you just bugger off already?

Are you the grand poobah?



Nice debating skills dooooooooood!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix