August 5, 2015 I attended an evidentiary hearing to
determine the reasonableness of attorney fees in a civil case Denny McClain
lost to a Mr. Dobson for sums due. This is the infamous star pitcher of the
Detroit Tigers who set the record for the most wins at 31 in 1968 and frankly
my favorite baseball player when I was a kid. The case started out in Small
Claims for $600 in Michigan's Livingston County Small Claims Court, where no attorney is needed at trial. Under the request
of Denny McClain a jury trial was requested and case was moved to 53rd District Court. July 15, 2015 a jury was impaneled
and took all of 5 minutes to rule in the plaintiff Mr. Dobson’s favor. The sum
was $1900. Somehow I missed that original trial.
Only Denny’s fancy Dan lawyer,
Barry Powers, was present today. Judge Teresa Brennan presided. Trial started at 11:00 and proceeded to go
until 6:30 p.m. Judge Brennan had little tolerance of Mr. Powers’ legal meanderings
and attempts to bring up arcane legal issues and retry the previous case. Mr.
Dobson was represented by Donald Neville. All in all it was a monumental waste
of time that only an attorney intent on delay and obfuscation would concoct, the
attorney being Barry Powers. One of the numerous interesting issues was that
Mr. Powers himself was liable for the attorney fees of Donald Neville, since
the move to jury trial was deemed to be frivolous by the Judge. Thus attorney
fees of the prevailing party can be made subject to the losing party’s
attorney.
Powers late twice and wanted to delay the evidentiary
hearing, pleading he wasn’t ready. Mid-way through he requested the trial be
adjourned to allow appeal to the Chief Judge, David Reader for review. Mr.
Powers accused the presiding judge of judicial misconduct and implacably
hostile to him. Judge Brennan repeatedly admonished and directed Mr. Powers to focus
his inquiries as to the fitness and reasonableness of the plaintiff’s attorney
fees of some $6, 275.
As it turned out the Judge would brook no dilly dallying and
sanctioned Mr. Powers several times throughout the day for failure to focus on
the issue at hand, the fitness and reasonableness of attorney fees. The
sanctions totaled $1300 payable that Friday at noon of the same week.
Testified on his own behalf, a graduate of Wayne State Law
cum laude and published in law reviews as well and claims to be a member of the
State Bar’s Committee of Professional and Judicial Ethics. The attorney appears
to have a fine legal mind. His impending
divorce was injected into the case as well since that was brought up as an
excuse for his tardiness in a prior appearance.
The infamous Mr. McClain never appeared in court. Note
Denny’s absence was attributed to severe injury to his foot on May 29 that
required surgeries and kept him from appearing in court. Two excuses to his
absence were produced relating the foot injury neither of which were dated or
signed or had evidence of source from a medical doctor. In a press release we
see a foot with screws in it but no picture showing that the leg was attached
to Mr. McClain. it seems that the Judge's husband had seen Mr. McClain ambulatory the time he was to have incapacitated. She wasn't buying McClain's story.
Let it be known that Mr. McClain among his many shenanigans
was convicted to defrauding the Peet Packaging pension fund of millions and racketeerring and possession of cocaine although that was overturned in appeal. As you know overturn of
appeal generally applies to how the law was applied in the case, not to the
facts in the case.
Another hilarious aspect to this charade was the
interrogation of Mr. Neville by Mr. Powers, attorney to attorney as to the
reasonableness of the claimed attorney fees. Mr. Neville comes off as a fine
representative of his august profession, legal advocates before the bar. These
gentlemen of the bar without variation can be relied upon to be punctual,
trustworthy, conscientious and unvaryingly honest to a fault. Mr. Neville,
without question, could be included in this select group. Nonetheless to
witness one attorney interrogating another as to the fitness and reasonableness
of his fees is one big hoot.
Consider this that attorney fees are ALWAYS
reasonable and fair. How many legal docs are a matter of filling out a few
lines and signing them? Of course we, J.Q. Public, are ignorant as to which
ones to submit to the court in most instances but then again many of them are
simply an administrative matter, not an issue of some weighty legal issue. So it was asked by Mr. Powers to Mr. Neville on the witness stand, why did you charge $250 (hourly fee) to fill out something that you could sign
in a matter of minutes and most likely prepared by the legal secretary? Well, I
charge what I charge was the response, although Mr. Neville stated he didn't charge for all the hours he could have that were put into this weighty case.
The legal profession like medical doctors are in a
privileged position. It’s illegal to do what they do. Autoworkers used to have
a strong union but with the onset of the foreign manufacturers, mostly
nonunion, they occupy a much reduced number than previously. Frankly, I’m
sympathetic to union organization. My father, hardworking but lacking in
business acumen, thanks to benefits of union membership, had ability to afford
college for his two sons. But building cars with nonunion labor is not illegal but
practicing law is without a license.
Let it be known that Judge Brennan had previously ordered a
bench warrant for the arrest of Mr. McClain in a previous case in which Mr.
McClain owed money on mortgage debt.
Court was adjourned at 6:30 p.m. before any verdict as to
the reasonableness of attorney fees was rendered. At a later date a brief court
session concluded the case in the favor of the original plaintiff as to the
reasonableness of attorney fees. Best of luck getting those from Mr. McClain or
Barry Powers, Esquire.
