Sunday, June 27, 2010

Further email to Catholic dioceses

From: RDShatt@aol.com
To: _______
Sent: 6/27/2010 ________.M. Central Daylight Time

Subj: Support for Archbishop Mansell and Bishops Lori and Cote

To Catholic Dioceses in the United States:

I, a lowly citizen, am writing to express my support of Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford, Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport and Bishop Michael R. Cote of Norwich, in their requesting the help of pastors in mounting a campaign opposing a measure in the Connecticut House of Representatives that would make Connecticut the only state without a statute of limitations for the filing of sexual abuse claims concerning minors. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1001542.htm

I think plaintiffs' lawyers have been wrongfully victimizing Catholic dioceses for many years. In 2005 I sent to Catholic dioceses in the United States the email that is set forth at this link: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2007/11/catholic-church-sex-abuse-scandal.html

The plaintiffs' lawyers have a "divide and conquer" modus operandi. I recently had occasion to write to the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations warning them about this. You may read my email to the OANO here. The Boy Scouts are now being victimized in the same way the Catholic Church has been, and I have written this email to Boy Scout councils in Ohio, which the dioceses in Ohio may have a special interest in.

My sense is that Catholic dioceses have a greater appreciation of how they have been victimized than they had five or ten years ago. I hope dioceses will become more vocal in objecting to their victimization by the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Sincerely,
Robert Shattuck
Birmingham, AL

Ohio Boy Scout Councils

The confluence of an $18,500,000 verdict against the Boy Scouts, my email to the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations, and a pending Ohio legislative bill, led me to send the following email to Boy Scout councils in Ohio.

From: RDShatt@aol.com
To: _________
Sent: 6/26/2010 ______.M. Central Daylight Time

Subj: Are the Boy Scouts being victimized by plaintiffs' lawyers?

Dear ______,

I think plaintiffs’ lawyers are victimizing the entirety of the United States. That includes the Boy Scouts (as exemplified by the recent $18,500,000 verdict against the Boy Scouts http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/24scouts.html ), and Catholic Church dioceses in the United States as well.As to the Catholic Church, in 2005 I sent to Catholic dioceses around the country the email that is set forth at this link: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2007/11/catholic-church-sex-abuse-scandal.html

Among other things, the plaintiffs' lawyers employ a "divide and conquer" strategy. While they go about victimizing one group, the plaintiffs' lawyers bribe other groups to avert the latter's eyes from what is going on against the first group. This is until something happens, and one of the other groups has become eligible to be attacked and victimized by the plaintiffs' lawyers

I am writing to you and other Boy Scount councils in Ohio because the Ohio legislature is currently considering legislation that will extend the plaintiffs' lawyers ability to implement their conquer and divide strategy. See this link: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=128_HB_0427

I have written an email to the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations to point this matter out to them. My email to OANO is appended below if you would like to read it.

I hope you will convery this message to other supporters of the Boy Scouts in Ohio, and that you and they will engage in discussion with other Ohio nonprofit organizations about how the plaintiffs' lawyers "conquer and divide," and further that all concerned will contact their Ohio legislators and tell them the plaintiffs' lawyers should not be further enabled in their "conquer and divide" methods by HB 0427.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
Birmingham, AL

Three Ohio nonprofits

After sending my email to the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations, I sent an email to three Ohio nonprofit organziations that had a video concerning themselves posted on the website of the plaintiffs' lawyers in question. The form of my email to the three Ohio nonprofits was as follows:


Dear ________,

I am writing you related to the video featuring _______ [organization] that appears on the Ohio Lawyers Give Back website http://www.ohiolawyersgiveback.org/ .

While I am sure that Dworken & Bernstein seems like a very good friend of __________ [organization] and of other Ohio charities, I think you should do soul searching and critical thinking about what kind of friend they really are..

For your information, I have written the below email to the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations about this. I hope _________ [organization] will give this matter serious consideration.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rob Shattuck
Birmingham, AL

Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations

From: RDShatt@aol.com
To: jenniferwilliams@oano.org
Sent: 6/15/2010 8:24:06 A.M. Central Daylight Time

Subj: The "friends" of charities who divide and conquer

Dear Ms. Williams,

Charities in Ohio should be careful about the friends they keep.

Some friends can be adept at cloaking themselves in empathetic human emotion, while having ulterior motives to enrich themselves at the expense of those they are befriending. These friends are practiced at victimizing some in your charities group and bribing others in the group to avert their eyes. That is until something happens and someone else in your group is eligible to be attacked and victimized (in other words, a divide and conquer strategy).

The hallmark of these friends is they can satisfy their greed for lots of money only by getting it in small amounts out of the pockets of thousands, even millions, of innocent bystanders, for whom the small amounts are too small to complain about and to stop what is going on.

Who are these "friends" of Ohio charities I am talking about?

You can find some of them here: http://www.ohiolawyersgiveback.org/

Have I caught your attention? I hope so.

If I have caught your attention, I would say that you will need to undertake soul searching, investigation and critical thinking to determine your own view about what I say.

If you are game for that, an excellent (but very difficult) starting point is to decide whether you believe, in your heart of hearts, that it is right and proper for Catholic Church dioceses around the country to be bankrupted as a result of the sex abuse scandal (which shows no signs of abating). If you wish to initiate soul searching, investigation, and critical thinking about that, you might look at this email I sent Catholic dioceses in 2005 http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2007/11/catholic-church-sex-abuse-scandal.html and the referenced appended document, which in its current form is this.

You also should check your heart of hearts about whether the Boy Scouts of America are deserving of being bankrupted by the plaintiffs' lawyers. ($18,500,000 judgment reported on April 23rd. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/24scouts.html)

I hope you will engage in the soul searching and critical thinking that I believe is needed to find out what you think or should think in your heart of hearts. If you would like my help in undertaking that exercise, I will be pleased to offer whatever assistance I can.

I will understand if you choose not to engage in the exercise.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Further emails to candidates

[below email sent to full candidate list]


From: RDShatt@aol.com
To:
Sent: 6/18/2010 ______.M. Central Daylight Time

Subj: Forbes article on BP fund, fraud and big legal bills

I have previously urged you to make plaintiffs' lawyers a campaign issue. It may now be full blown in the wake of the BP fund that has been created. Check out this Forbes article:
http://blogs.forbes.com/docket/2010/06/16/bp-fund-a-recipe-for-fraud-and-big-legal-bills/

Rob Shattuck


[below email sent to candidates who replied to above email]

From: RDShatt@aol.com
To: __________
Sent: 6/20/2010 _____.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Re: Forbes article on BP fund, fraud and big legal bills


Dear _______,

Thank you for replying to me.

You might consider advocating that BP Fund administrator Feinberg could save money for the Fund by structuring the program so that all legal work (including on behalf of claimants) is done by lawyers who are hired on a salaried basis. Not only would this greatly reduce the diversion of the Fund to plaintiffs' lawyers, it would also probably result in a fairer treatment of "little guy" claimants.

For your information, I have posted a comment on The Wall Street Journal making such a proposal. My comment appears at these two links:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704122904575315283350034668.html?mg=com-wsj#articleTabs%3Dcomments

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703650604575313203010325166.html?mod=ITP_pageone_2#articleTabs%3Dcomments

This comment I posted on The Wall Street Journal reads as follows:

The BP Fund offers an excellent opportunity to attack the problem of growing
lawyer unemployment and also to save money for the Fund. If history
is any guide, total attorneys' fees that can be expected to be paid from
the BP Fund are going to be upwards of $5 billion. Unemployed lawyers
should consider applying to the Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg for
jobs. The job applicants should make the argument to Mr. Feinberg
that those total legal costs could be greatly reduced, maybe by 80%,
if he structured the program so that all legal work was done by lawyers who are
compensated on a salary basis. The applicants should express willingness
to work for, say, $100,000 per year. An 80% reduction of a $5
billion legal cost down to $1 billion would allow the hiring of 2500 attorneys
for four years at annual salaries of $100,000. That would make a dent in
the lawyer unemployment problem. At the same time, it should provide
adequate manpower to do the needed legal work (including on behalf of
claimants) in the administering and making awards from the $20 billion
Fund and save the Fund $4 billion for use in making more awards to persons
who have been harmed by the oil disaster.

I hope you decide to advocate such an idea yourself in your campaign.

Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Corporate jungle; ethics; cognitive dissonance

Eamon Javers's Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy is "a book that describes the ways in which companies try to figure out what their rivals are up to—or try to counter such efforts." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704022804575041630093818158.html

This corporate jungle would seem to result in a significant quantum of skullduggery, subterfuge, deception and lying that is understood as a way of the world and sanctioned at the highest levels of corporate management.

Query the cognitive dissonance for corporate management that tries to inculcate a code of business ethics for rank and file employees given the foregoing significant sanctioned arena for skullduggery, suberfuge, deception and lying?

Query the cognitive dissonance for rank and file employees who are aware of the same in connection with how they go about trying to uphold the corporation's code of business conduct?

The above cognitive dissonance could be more significant than the cognitive dissonance engendered by the civil liability system per my article Does the Civil Liability System Undermine Business Ethics?

Email to replying candidates

To those candidates who replied to me a second time, I sent the below form of email:

From: RDShatt@aol.com
To: _____________
Sent: 6/9/2010, ______M. Central Daylight Time

Subj: Re: Campaign question for you about Gulf of Mexico oil catastrophe:


Dear _________,

Thank you for the below second reply you have sent to me on this subject.

The subject is only a current example, very much in the national spotlight, of the basic campaign issue I am interested in, to wit, I think plaintiffs' lawyers impede the nation's economic recovery and have other deleterious consequences, including that they undermine business ethics, stand in the way of sensible medical malpractice reform to lower health care costs, and frequently make a travesty of justice.

I have offered to do email campaigning (and website posting) on your behalf if you wanted to make legal reform a campaign issue.

If you are interested, please check out the below links about the oil disaster and plaintiffs' lawyers. The first two links are postings on The Times-Picayune that are for Anthony Gentile, the Libertarian candidate for Senator in Louisiana. The other links are postings I have done in my own name on Alabama newspaper websites (where I live) and also on websites outside Alabama.

The Times-Picayune
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/federal_government_will_make_b.html (comment June 3, 2010 5:26 am)
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2010/06/the_federal_governments_welcom.html#comments (comment June 2, 2010 7:45 am)


Alabama and other newspaper, etc. websites:
http://climateprogress.org/2010/05/27/exxon-valdez-bp-oil-disaste/#comment-277712;http://www.thenation.com/article/bp-oil-hits-louisiana-how-far-away-next-disaster#comment-427270http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2010/05/24/daily22.html#disqus_threadhttp://www.orangebeach.ws/blog/2010/05/27/local-anglers-fishing-is-still-good-baldwin-county-now/cpage/1.html#comment-45http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/comments/article/20100525/OPINION01/5250302/Advertiser-Editorial-Increase-cap-on-oil-spill-damageshttp://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/federal_judge_in_mobile_refuse.html#comments]

On the weekend prior to the June 1 primary in Alabama, I sent emails to Republican, Democratic and Libertarian party members in Alabama an email in the form of the following that gave links to my newspaper postings:

From: RDShatt@aol.com
To: _________Sent: 5/__/2010 _______.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Newspaper website postings concerning primary elections

Please check out my newspaper website posting about the
2010 elections, the oil disaster in the Gulf, and plaintiffs' lawyers,
and also my companion newspaper website posting about the Alabama
attorney general race.

Birmingham News Elections forum Click here: al.com:
Elections Forum
(posts 867 and 868)

Birmingham News http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2010/05/our_view_tuesdays_primaries_of/2444/comments-2.html (two comments posted May 31, 2010, 4:09 am and 4:17 am)

Montgomery Advertiser: Click here: montgomeryadvertiser.com Montgomery PluckForum Montgomery Advertiser

Huntsville Times: Click
here: Don't be deceived by craftily conceived campaign ads al.com
,
(two comments posted May 30, 2010, 3:22PM and May 30, 2010,
3:24PM)

Mobile Press-Register: Click
here: Editorial: The case for a thoughtful governor's race this fall
al.com
(two comments posted May 31, 2010, 7:05AM and May 31, 2010,
7:08AM)

Thank you.


I continue to offer to do email campaigning and website postings for your campaign if this is an issue that you want to make a campaign issue for yourself. Please contact me if you desire for me to do this.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Robert Shattuck