Brutal Bad Cops Have to Pay

I don't think I can sit idly by complaining and ranting on Twitter about bad cops savagely violating the civil and human rights of plainly innocent people. 


This constant flow of police abuse roils my gut and makes me sick with bile and pent up anger.


No more tweets. It is time for action.


These malicious abusers have to be stopped. If an un-arrested, un-tried, un-convicted citizen dies or is injured at the hands of police, then the law should PRESUME the police committed a crime, with only narrow and strictly construed defenses allowed.


Awful, vicious abusers of state power, with ex post facto planted guns and drugs, backed by false reports, protected by their willfully lying coworkers and clueless employers, who quote internal policies as if they were actually law, will have to pay and pay dearly.


Just look at this sickening body cam video of a vicious, power-mad cop brutally assaulting a guy just hanging out on his mom's porch.


After getting beat down for being black, the cop charged the victim with assaulting an officer. The assault victim was charged! He definitely got his face in the way of the cop's fist.


This is just so wrong.


The district prosecutor, Howard Neumann (Alfred E. Neumann's brother?) said a cop can do whatever he wants!? He couldn't see a crime by the cop. Are you kidding? Where can I get some of these beat, taser, and kill people and then get paid leave rules?


The full story is here, at the Washington Post.


What rulebook applies to cops? Not the one the rest of us, who are supposed to be presumed innocent, get. That is clear. And it has to change.


This finally makes me mad enough to sue someone. Hard. And repeatedly.

Boss Steals From His Employees to Line His Own Pockets.

Imagine two restaurants. Right next to each other. On the same block.


Both serve food and alcohol. Both employ cooks, wait staff and dishwashers.


There is equal foot traffic and signage, and neither restaurant is any worse in any outward way than the other.


But one of their owners seems to be making a lot more money.


The other is keeping the lights on, paying the bills, and making a living. But he isn't flashing big stacks. What gives?


One of them isn't paying his employees even minimum wage. He isn't paying payroll taxes, Social Security contributions, unemployment insurance or workers compensation. He's stealing wages from his employees. Current wages, future benefits, and by failing to pay into the employees' funds, the safety of Social Security.


If someone working for the wage thief gets fired or laid off, and they apply for unemployment insurance, they'll find they were never recorded as employed. They will discover their boss never paid unemployment insurance taxes.


     "Sorry, no unemployment benefits for you."


Or pray for good fortune if an employee slices open a finger, or slips down some stairs. No workers compensation for that one. The boss never bothered paying those premiums, either. Better hope no infection sets in.


It happens. All. The. Time. Here is a real life example, a case my clients brought to recover unpaid wages: Hamilton v. Buck's 24-Hour Diner, LP

Make More Money – Today.

“A penny saved is a penny earned” said Ben Franklin. Today, $100 a month saved is $1,200 earned over the course of a year.

You can shave your monthly bills by asking for reductions. It is easy and you can do it immediately.  

For example, my office phone bill arrived on Monday. I have three lines and an internet connection.

When I first got this service, it was $176.00 a month. Over the past few years it has slowly crept up. The bill showed that the charge for July was $236.00!

I thought advances in technology were supposed to make communications less expensive, not more.

After breathing deeply for a moment, I emailed my phone company’s sales office. I told them I was shocked by the bill and was inclined to shift to an internet phone system that might cost me only $100.00 a month. I also said that I’d consider staying with them if they reduced my monthly charge to $150.00.

Within a day a phone service representative called to tell me that VOIP systems are finicky, and that he could help me out. He could reduce my monthly rate to $159.99 per month for all the same features and internet speed. Sold.

A similar savings appeared a month ago. I have had satellite TV service at home for years. But the same set of channels, as many as half being shopping and infomercial bandwidth-wasters, had doubled from $39 a month to $79 a month —with no corresponding increase in value.   

I called the satellite company to tell them that cable service would be cheaper and that I would like to cancel. All of a sudden, my long history with them and my (secretly) built up loyalty points got me to $47.00 per month. Amazing what a call can achieve.  

Finally, my online legal research bill had recently crept up with services that I did not need or use. A call to that provider got that monthly bill reduced by nearly $80.00 per month.

Let’s see, I just saved $76 per month on phones, $32 per month on TV, and $80.00 per month on fee based research. I am suddenly pocketing $188.00 more every month. And all it took was an idea, an email and three phone calls.

Look at your bills. Ask your providers to do better. If they balk, get a new provider, or at least threaten. They’ll move to your demand, and you’ll be richer for the effort—today.  

Class actions in FLSA cases can go forward with estimated damages

In a 6-2 decision the high Court affirmed a class certification and award to a group of underpaid Tyson Foods employees. In Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo the plaintiff employees claimed they weren't properly paid for time spent donning and doffing their protective chicken-butchering gear. There was a large class of employees, some with different levels of gear. The plaintiffs had to estimate the time spent dressing. The Supreme Court said that an estimate of the time spent in a common process was sufficient to support an FLSA collective/class action. This case, along with the 6-3 decision for the plaintiffs (and plaintiffs in class and collective actions everywhere) in Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez, the Supreme Court answered 2 of 3 pending class action blockbusters in a manner that says class actions are not dead and gone. Not. At. All.

Family and Medical Leave Act claims

Everything seems to come in cycles. One period is up, the next down. It works that way with employment law claims, too, it seems.


For a couple of years in the mid-2000s, I represented several clients in family and pregnancy leave related claims. These are cases that arise under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. That law makes employers with more than 50 employees provide the barest amount of leave (up to 12 weeks per year) available to sick employees, pregnant employees, or employees with sick or pregnant family members. Of course the leave is unpaid. But at least the employee is entitled to return to the exact job they had.


Back then employers were regularly denying leave, demoting people, firing them, and failing to return them to their previous positions. But litigation taught some lessons and it's been quiet on that front for several years. No more.


I have just filed and settled two FMLA claims. The middle managers out there are not being trained or they are just ignoring the law. They are violating these twenty five year old statutory rights that the employees don't seem to know they have.


Just a short reminder is in order.


Common employer violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act:


● They “point” you for missing a day or more for health reasons and call it a “no fault” system.


● They write you up or punish you for taking off too much time to care for a sick child, parent, or yourself.


● When you come back from a medical or pregnancy related leave, they put you in a different job, with lower pay and undesirable working conditions.


● After you tell them you need time off because you are sick, they don’t bother to ask you why, or tell you about your right to have leave to heal.

Not all employers have to follow all the laws in place to protect families from unfair treatment. But if your employer has more than 50 employees in a 75 mile radius, or is a small part of a much bigger company, then you may have more rights than you thought.       


If you have been mistreated, punished, or even fired, for taking medical or family-related leave, then please contact me for more information. You may have rights to reinstatement, back pay, other money damages and attorney’s fees.


Call or e-mail me now, because there are time limits on claims like these.
www.langendorflaw.com or 513-705-4104.

Legal Bliss(mas).

Lawyering is tough right? Deadlines, demanding partners, judges too busy to rule quickly on motions, not to mention the ever present stress of litigation battles. It’s a wonder anyone does this work.

Over the past six months I have been vexed by various of these difficulties. It has been draining, to say the least.

But today I received a settlement check for a client, confirmation of another client’s settlement agreement, and was able to give affirmation to a third lovely client that their important decision made sense. I am beaming with joy.

I forwarded the check with a hearty Merry Christmas! The second settlement agreement will be signed today and paid soon. The client who got only my honest agreement gave me a hug and a consultation fee, and said I was the bomb.

Even if nothing else happens today, it’s been a good one. Maybe the best thing for me to do right now, at noon, is head into the weekend on a high note.

It’s tough, true. But sometimes it is good to be a lawyer. Very good.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Unemployment benefits don't hit your bottom line.

A lawyer friend from a nearby firm popped his head in my office door a few days ago.

He wanted to know how his recently-former employee’s claim for unemployment was going to affect his firm’s finances.

This question comes up now and then, but not from other lawyers. In talking to him, it became obvious that, even though he was a lawyer, he had no clue about how the unemployment insurance system worked. Of course I have no idea how divorce proceedings work and he would know that process cold. To each their own.

His employee had been with the firm for years. She quit to take a new job. It didn’t work out, so she left that job and then filed for unemployment compensation. My friend got a notice from the Ohio Dept. Of Job and Family Services telling him that his former employee was going to be collecting benefits. He was worried that he would be paying her directly.

I assured him that the system doesn’t work that way. When she was working for him, and even now, he pays into the unemployment insurance program at least quarterly. His payments are based on the size of his payroll and the risk that his employees will need to partake in the system. If he laid off or fired more people than other industries or employers, then he was a higher risk, and paid a higher premium. Conversely, by keeping people at work for a long time, he would pay less.

He wondered aloud, again, if he’d get a bill for her claim.

No sir, I said. You have already paid your premiums. The DJFS was just letting you know that a claim was being applied to your account. Probably because she had not been with her most recent employer long enough to secure benefits from his policy. Her leaving his office earlier in the year wouldn’t change his risk rating; the DJFS doesn’t hold quits against employers, and her benefits will be paid to her from the insurance pool he had already paid into. Her benefits would not touch his bank account or bottom-line.

This satisfied my colleague. He bid me thanks and a good afternoon. I did my good deed for the day. Back to work.