There are a lot of misconceptions about police misconduct and detainee abuse out there. One of the biggest myths perpetuated out there is that it’s easy to find a lawyer who will file a civil rights lawsuit for you when you claim you were abused in custody and that all these cases result in huge multimillion dollar payouts.
Sure, we all hear about the big payouts in places like California but the fact is that, in most states that’s just not the case, in fact, in many places that’s just plain impossible.
First, there are a lot of factors that affect how likely it is that you will find someone who will take your case when your rights have been violated, the biggest one is whether or not you have money to pay a lawyer upfront to take your case.
A civil rights suit is a lengthy battle that requires a lot of research and investigation and you pay your lawyer, as well as all the investigators and experts he or she hires, on an hourly basis along with any costs they incur in traveling… so, when we talk about paying a lawyer upfront, were easily talking six figures.
Now, most victims of mistreatment in custody don’t have that kind of money, when that’s the case you have to hire a lawyer on a contingency basis which means they only get money if they win. When this is the case, lawyers are very picky about what cases they’ll take on and they have to take several things into consideration.
- Whether your case has a very good chance of winning. (Our statistics indicate that civil rights lawsuits are filed in only 6% of alleged cases).
- How much of an award would be involved. (Given the amount of time a lawyer must spend on a case, it has to be sufficient enough to be worth his or her time.)
- Whether or not you would be willing to settle. (Lawyers like settlements since they take less time than going to court and challenging the multitude of appeals and delays that the police lawyers always file, so they often work their contracts to take less of a cut for settlements to encourage you to accept them.)
- Their own risks of liability in taking on a case. (Police unions love to file a type of counter-suit called a SLAPP (Spurious Lawsuit Against Public Participation) which is a civil suit for slander/libel against the person claiming abuse and their legal representation. The case may not have merit, but that doesn’t matter, it costs time and money to defend against them, which reduces the amount a lawyer can take away from the case and discourages them from accepting cases, which is what they are designed to do).
Hopefully, you’re starting to get the picture as to how hard it can be in some places to find lawyers who take police misconduct cases and, believe it or not, why some lawyers are getting away from civil rights practices because it’s just not lucrative enough to make a living.
Let’s take Washington State for example. Here there are several factors that make it incredibly difficult to find lawyers willing to take on police misconduct cases:
- Public attitudes are very favorable towards the police, so favorable that the success rate for criminal and civil cases against the police are in the single digits. In Seattle only one civil suit has won against the police in at least 20 years, the same is true for criminal cases. The last three criminal cases in Seattle lost, even with testimony by cops against the charged officer! So, the odds of winning are very low, even with a good solid case.
- The awards in Washington are very low because of tort-reform legislation which does not allow pain and suffering awards as well as punitive damages. You know that case I mentioned in point 1? It only won $268k, and that was after an appeal challenge. This means there isn’t much profit for lawyers to work on a case for years just to get a five-figure cut from the win. (Generally they get 40-60% of the win on contingency). Would you work 3 years (the usual amount of time for a case to go through, though some can drag out longer) for $134k? (that’s $45k a year).
- Because winnings are so limited, so are settlement offers. Governments and the lawyers who represent them know what you can win is very limited, so when they do settle it’s often a very low amount, averaging just under $67k in Seattle for the few cases that do get settled. But, even though that’s a lower amount than the very rare win will generate, it’s a lower risk for the lawyer and it’s a $30k per year on settlement opposed to the $45k on a win difference. Though, the $100k+ settlements make a better margin than wins for lawyers.
- There are no anti-SLAPP laws in Washington State, so spurious counter-suit s still occur, which makes it much more risky for lawyers to take any cases. In fact, there’s a really nasty suit going on in Seattle currently where a lawyer, who was shot by an off-duty cop, has sued the cop and the cop has filed counter suit, paid for by the city, against not only that lawyer, but also the witnesses of the shooting claiming both defamation and that they injured him… Why? Because the witnesses can’t afford their own lawyers and are being told that if they change their stories to favor the cop that they’ll be dropped from the suit.
Now, some people may be asking, what about the ACLU? Well, the ACLU only takes cases very selectively and their considerations hinge more on whether the case is a unique enough type of complaint that could lead to a precedent or whether the case would lead to a lot of headlines for a civil rights issue other than police brutality on its own.
So, more often than not, the ACLU declines to accept police misconduct cases and, in the two they’ve accepted recently in Seattle, each only won settlements under $10k each… and those were photographer rights issues, not police misconduct. So for them, it’s about the publicity, not the client.
Why am I explaining all of this?
I think it’s important from a police accountability perspective to understand why some localities don’t feel pressured to introduce meaningful reforms that would address police misconduct seriously.
The lack of a financial penalties that are sufficient enough to outrage taxpayers into paying attention is certainly a reason why there isn’t much pressure to change things. Also, the fact that fewer and fewer lawyers take on police misconduct cases gives even less pressure to make changes because that’s one of the main ways we find out about misconduct.
I’m afraid the only thing that would satisfy me would be deaths of every officer, prosecutor, administrator, and medical professional involved in the torture.
The War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg validates that penalty for crimes against humanity, that is what this was. These people obviously are the kind that would man the death camps. They should be removed from society with extreme prejudice.
straightarrow,
I’ll be honest, I don’t wish ill on anyone, I’m just not that way. Besides, those people have families too, what good would come of their suffering?
All I want is to do what I can to make sure what happened to me doesn’t happen to others and for my family to stop suffering for all that happened, it’s just not fair… it’s torture watching them suffer for it still after all this time… it’s a torture that just lingers, and maybe that’s one of the things so few people understand about wrongful arrests and police misconduct, that what happens afterward is just as unjust as the original wrong… and that it just keeps going and going.
It was torture, it is torture… but, still, two wrongs just don’t make a right.
Thank you for the comment.
What was the “risk” these lawyers talked about? Did they infer retaliation from the police? Suing police, their departments and their city/counties is something I will be looking into soon. I’ve already determined I’ll have to take extra precautions e.g. audio and visual surveillance in my home and car. I think a lot of reluctance is just simple fear which is reasonable. Let’s face it, you are taking on the coercive capacity of the state.
Live I’ve said before, I think the 72 million from last year is just the tip of the iceberg. Even if it’s the entire iceberg, standing up for people who can’t fight for themselves is a good way to spend the rest of your life. Hell, I would love to be the guy people think about when they are the victim of police misconduct.
“Man, I just got my ass kicked by the police.”
“What did you do?”
“I just called 1-800-CHA-CHING.” (oh yea that’s my number, heh)
“Oh hell yea I heard that guy is badass!”
lol guess I’ll find out how difficult it really is
EdinMiami,
Let me explain it this way… Say I’m a computer technician who charges a flat rate per call and only gets paid if I can fix your problem.
You call me with a very complicated problem that would require several hours to fix. Even though it’s something I can fix, it just wouldn’t be as worthwhile for me to fix your problem as it would be for me to take several quick-fix calls which would maximize my profit… instead of getting paid $50 for 10 hours of work, I could get paid $200 for one hour.
Now, add to that the fact that, not only would I not get paid if I couldn’t fix your complex problem, but that I could also get sued for going through the trouble of trying to fix it… that makes it very unlikely that I’ll agree to come take a look, doesn’t it?
That’s generally the type of risk I’m talking about. The lawyers I talked to have told me that, at best, I could get an award in the tens of thousands… but it’s a complex case so it’s just not worth their time when compared to a regular $100k+ personal injury case that would settle quickly before it got to trial.
The police don’t pay for their lawyers, so it’s no skin off their backs to fight it out through appeal after appeal and drag it out for years… people like you and me, and the lawyers who represent us on contingency, don’t have that advantage.
That’s just the way the system works… it’s not about justice.
Frivolous lawsuits are ruining our economy and America’s legal crisis is putting employees out of work, raising consumer prices and driving down shareholder value. We need to address the country’s litigation explosion and make the legal system simpler, and fairer. Read about the priorities of Friends of the U.S. Chamber at http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/issues/index.cfm?ID=306 .
Pack, in all honesty, all I know for sure is that I’ll know more in three years. I wish I was in a position, right now, to help you.
Maura peddle that tripe somewhere else.
EdinMiami,
Whether this is encouraging or discouraging… don’t worry, there are plenty more like me out there who need help. I’m not the first, and I know too well that I won’t be the last.
Best of luck in your endeavors!
1. Did EdinMiami used to be Edintally?
2. “. . . the cop has filed counter suit . . .” update:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009599777_dornaydui05m.html
This pig should have been sued, and then fired, for putting a gun to a mans head during a road rage incident. Instead, he only lost vacation days. Turns out he never should’ve been hired in the first place:
“We’ve been looking into the background of Seattle police officer Zsolt Dornay. Court records show as a juvenile, Dornay had convictions for trespass and theft. Another time, as an adult, he was arrested for attempting to elude police. All that occurred before Seattle police hired him. His record since being on the force includes allegations of unnecessary force.”
http://www.kirotv.com/news/9647777/detail.html
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/353197_actdornay29.asp
The police cannot police themselves. If the legal community won’t help protect the public from bad cops like this, who will?
Yes, the tale of Dornay’s exploits are worthy of a post all it’s own… which I did a while back on the old site – http://injusticeinseattle.blogspot.com/2008/07/spd-officer-shoots-unarmed-attorney.html
Thanks for the comment!
Zsolt, (still LOL at that ridiculous name) deserves all the bad press he can get, and then some. Actually officer Zsolt “The Destroyer” Dornay deserves his own special place in hell. Probably the only place where he’ll truly get his comeuppance, since the system protects bad cops so well. Pathetic, isn’t it?
It’s a real shame they went out of business. The media is the only real entity policing the police. Without aggressive reporters going after bad cops and departments, there’s no hope at all.
I was reminded of a story they did on another corrupt cop:
Conduct Unbecoming: Reports of sex, drug abuse — and little police work
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/234837_ring02.asp
Some of this guys (s)exploits are so outrageos and over-the-top they’re almost funny.
His alleged transgressions include “dishonesty, criminal conduct, conduct unbecoming, failure to obey laws and orders, inappropriate use of authority, ethics violations, misuse of his department vehicle and misuse of Internet and e-mail.”
with zero consequences. This pig, in every sense of the word, got to cavort with “escorts”, terrorize his ex wife, and basically do whatever the hell he wanted–all on the taxpayers dime. The only way they could get rid of him AND the 2.5 million claim he’d filed against the Sheriff’s Office was to work out a sweet deal:
“I decided to enter into the settlement agreement because it was the only way to guarantee he would not be a police officer again,” Rahr said”
“The deal would allow Ring to retire Nov. 26, after he turns 50, a delay that made him eligible for more retirement pay. Ring said it will give him $3,500 a month for life, starting as soon as he retires. “Thirty-five hundred dollars a month the rest of my life. I can scrape by on that,” he said”"
And if that weren’t bad enough,
“The deal also would require the county to pay Ring an additional $10,000″
Of course, as is the norm, they even paid his legal fees!
“King County also would pay his legal fees, which Ring’s $325-an-hour attorney Richard Hansen estimated at $160,000 to $200,000.”
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/235029_ring03.asp
Quite a contrast to how the average citizen is treated.
Mom w/ kids in minivan tasered twice in Salina traffic stop; camera captures deputy’s rough arrest.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/mom_in_minivan_tasered_in_traf.html#post