f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

 

chess men in boxes . . .

the cafe’s ceiling fan

turns by itself

 

 

Michael Dylan Welch full size, color photo & haiku “welch25chessN” 

from Open Window, haiku & photographs 

 

 

more Michael Dylan Welch from the premiere issue of

               Jason Sanford Brown’s new haiku e-journal roadrunner.

 

 

 

second trimester

a package arrives

with baby clothes

 

blue water

  blue sky

     the breakup

 

 

 

by dagosan:  

sleep-in Sunday: 

snowmelt 

finds the newspaper

 

                               [Jan. 9, 2005]

 

“tinyredcheck”  Since I moved to Schenectady in 1988, I’ve been surprised that so many lawyers,

who did not seem to be “public-service types,” sought County employment as they

reached middle age — especially in part-time positions (ostensibly 17.5-hour weeks),

which allowed them to keep their private practices.  Today’s Sunday Gazette offered

one explanation (“County alters fee-insurance benefit, B1, Jan. 9, 2005, $$):

“For decades, Schenectady County offered its employees and their

spouses a sweet deal: Free health insurance for life after just five years’

credit in the state retirement system.”

The insurance costs the County $6 million annually, which represents one-third of its

total health insurance costs, and comes to over $5400 per retiree.  And, because working

for any branch of local government (including public defender offices, or town justices)

counts as state retirement time, the retiree might have “served” Schenectady County for a

very brief stint before “earning” this (and other) benefits.  Under the new policy, you’ll have

to work 15 years to get free health insurance for yourself and your spouse.  It’s clear that

a lot of elected officials are receiving this particular benefit, but the Gazettee was not

able to obtain the numbers.   

 

  A New York Times editorial today starts with “Tort reform,” the Bush

administration’s answer to the problem of high medical malpractice costs, makes sense from

only one aspect: the political. ”  It’s a good read.  Confused about the cost of tort reform?

Declarations and Exclusions offers help.

A thoughtful friend gave me a copy of Classic Haiku: An Anthology of Poems by Basho and His Followers
by Basho Matsuo, translated and annotated by Asataro Miyamori (2002), for Christmas.  It arrived late, extending

my holiday even further.  

 

 Basho is considered to be one of the four greatest masters of Japanese haiku.  The book is meant for folks

(like me and maybe you) with virtually no knowledge of Japanese literature.  It has a transliteration of each

verse, along with many explanations, and often more than one translator’s version of a particular haiku.

 

The gift made me want to share the joy of Basho with you.  Here are a trio of haiku from Classic Haiku

translated by Asataro Miyamori:

 

 

What a bright moon!   I strolled

   Around the pond all night.

 

 

 

Alas! the firefly seen by daylight

Is nothing but a red-necked insect.

 

 

 

Well, let’s go snow-viewing

      Till we tumble over.

 

by dagosan:  

overnight

enough snow to make

slush

 

                     [Jan. 7, 2005]

 

one-breath pundit

   I’ve been using all my breath over at Crime & Ferderalism the past few 

days while Fedster Cernovich hangs out at bar review class.  See what’s been on

my mind about the fear of billable hours (chronomentrophobia) and loser pays.

And, check out Mike’s take on Congress, torture and Gonzalez (with good

comments).

winter hike

the baby’s breath

warms my neck

 

my tongue

explores a worn tooth

the snowy hills

 

 

dry heat

a hawk corkscrews

the sky

 

 

Tom Painting,

“winter hike” & “my tongue” from the haiku chapbook piano practice       

(Bottle Rocket Press, 2004)

“dry heat” from  from Walking the Same Path; Heron’s Nest VI:4

 

 

 

by dagosan:  

he’s stripping

the bed sheets

she shovels the walk

                                [Jan. 6, 2005]

 

 

 

 

Adirondack chair

upholstered

with snow

 

                 [Jan. 6, 2005, 

                         inspired by Ann Althouse]

 

  While others do his work, RiskProf Martin Grace is in Philadelphia interviewing

economists.  He did, however, leave behind a thought-provoking post on the

effects of taxing HMOs to subsidize med-mal preimums and another on

Credit (Insurance) Score, Race and Risk.  Who knew insurance could be so interesting?

He does.  He, too.

winter hike

the baby’s breath

warms my neck

 

my tongue

explores a worn tooth

the snowy hills

 

 

dry heat

a hawk corkscrews

the sky

 

 

Tom Painting,

“winter hike” & “my tongue” from the haiku chapbook piano practice       

(Bottle Rocket Press, 2004)

“dry heat” from  from Walking the Same Path; Heron’s Nest VI:4

 

 

 

by dagosan:  

he’s stripping

the bed sheets

she shovels the walk

                                [Jan. 6, 2005]

 

 

 

 

Adirondack chair

upholstered

with snow

 

                 [Jan. 6, 2005, 

                         inspired by Ann Althouse]

 

  While others do his work, RiskProf Martin Grace is in Philadelphia interviewing

economists.  He did, however, leave behind a thought-provoking post on the

effects of taxing HMOs to subsidize med-mal preimums and another on

Credit (Insurance) Score, Race and Risk.  Who knew insurance could be so interesting?

He does.  He, too.

from the dEsq of ethicalEsq:

Clicking around on our Referer Page yesterday, it was quite satisfying to discover that a Google Search for lawyer contingency fees yielded the ethicalEsq archive on Fees as its #1 result. More exciting, however, was noting that the #2 result was a law firm that apparently told its clients they should negotiate with their lawyer over contingency fee levels. My euphoria was only diminished a little when I learned that the firm, Polten & Hodder, was located in Toronto– but it spiked back up again when I saw the content of the website.

When lawyers get together to discuss how to improve lawyer marketing, branding, images. etc. I hope they will learn some lessons from the attitude and substance of the materials found at the P&H website. When the visitor clicks on the English-language homepage, he or she is greeted by these passages from The Lawyer’s Calling, by Joseph G. Allegretti

(Paulist Press, New York, 1996):

“How much easier it is for a lawyer to conceive of his client not as an
adult, but more like a child, or a “case” to be tried or settled. How much
easier it is to take command, tell the client you’ll handle everything, and
then get on with your work without having to expend time and energy
nurturing a relationship between equals.”

“There can be no covenant between a lawyer and his client unless and
until the lawyer is willing to encounter his client as an equal who has
something of value to contribute to the relation. … The indispensable
first step in forging a covenant between a lawyer and a client is the
willingness of both parties to entrust themselves to the other.”

Beyond such generalities, you can find links to more materials which show that P&H takes the philosophy into its practice of law. It’s contingency fee FAQ page is a prime example — containing information and advice impossible to find on the pages of American tort/p-i lawyers, including:

• “Such fees are usually based on a percentage–often 20% to 45% of

  the proceeds. Such agreements may also be dependent upon various

  factors including the nature and complexity of the matter, the risk involved,

  the cost in pursuing the matter, and the likelihood of success.”

• “The key disadvantage is less obvious. Generally speaking, a

  contingency fee will in the long run cost you more than if you

  were paying monthly as the matter progressed.”

• “Be wary of the “straight percentage.” You claim may settle early on. …

  You should try to arrange, therefore, what some lawyers call a “graduated”

  fee arrangement, whereby the percentage fee increases as the matter progresses.”

• “Make sure your contingency fee agreement contains a provision that you are

  entitled to have the lawyer’s fee reviewed by a Superior Court judge to ensure

  that the agreement is fair and reasonable and is void of improper motive or conduct

  by the lawyer involved. You should insist on this provision. Try to get your lawyer

  to agree that he or she will make this application if you require it and that he or she

  will pay the cost of doing so–not you!”

• “Negotiate with your lawyer. It may well be advisable to pay a separate, independent

  lawyer to negotiate the contingency agreement with the lawyer who is taking your case.

  Don’t laugh. If a small up front fee saves you $100,000.00 in fees down the road, it is

  money well spent.”

[You know, Brickman or Giacalone could have written this webpage copy!]

P&H also offers an extensive list of the Top 10 Ways to Save Money on Legal Fees. There are

good, practical pointers, with the preface: “We have observed over the years that the amount

of time lawyers have to spend on files can be a source of frustration not only for clients (who

have to pay for all that time) but also for lawyers, who would much rather spend their time applying

analytical skills than coping with the administrative details of a client’s file. EFFICIENCY is the name

of the game in keeping your legal bills down, way down.”

You’d almost think these guys were nurturing a fiduciary relationship with clients with regard to

fees. I’m inspired. What do you think ATLA? Public Citizen? Evan? Matt?

Speaking of inspiration from Canada, let’s share a few moments with poet-professor-

psycholgist George Swede from his treasury of haiku, Almost Unseen.

in the windswept window
among the wild trees
my face

one by one
to the floor all
of her shadows

as the professor speaks
only his bald spot
is illuminated

by dagosan:

neighborhood stroll

January 5th —

no one says “Happy New Year!”

[Jan. 5, 2005]

one-breath pundit

“tinyredcheck” I hate to be a curmudgeon, and Matt Homann does seem to deserve

all the nice things said about his personality and talent. But, from the

client/consumer’s perspective, I must continue to dissent from many

of the positions he takes on pricing legal services and branding law

firms. As I recently noted, he seems too often to be “dreaming up ways

for lawyers to extract more money from clients without giving them a better

product.” I continue to wonder how the fiduciary relationship jibes with

manipulating client psyches and price elasticities in order to maximize profits.

See our posts on value billing, lawyer marketing, and fees and the lawyer-fiduciary.

Evan Schaeffer has opened his weblog today to a post from a tort reformer.

Evan will respond. This should be a very useful forum on an important topic.

   From the dEsq of ethicalEsq:

Fa, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he live or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make me bread

           

Referring to lawyers who work for her at MCI, and who reported to her when she partnered

at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Kelly says emphatically, “The quality of your life is your

responsibility! It is not my responsibility to give you a quality of life.  If you don’t have a

quality of life, it’s your responsibility to come to me and say, “I don’t have a quality of life,

and it’s because you’re making me work 80 hours a week.  So many people say it’s the

responsibility of a law firm or a company to make sure that their people have a quality of life.

It is a two-way street!

 

 “Moreover, says Kelly, any lawyer who feels an employer?s demands on his or her time are

too burdensome always has the option to walk out the door and go find a place that gives

you quality of life. That’s your responsibility: to go.  

 

“Justice Breyer, who sympathizes with the predicament of newcomers to the profession who

find themselves overworked, expressed a similar view in 2000:  More young lawyers may

have to speak up, tactfully of course, in an effort to help the firms create the workplace

environment that they will need. [They must] decide consciously what kind of career they

want and what they want the story of their lives to say.

looking now
with greedy eyes
bare winter trees

greedily using up
the year’s first water…
the woman

 

Kobayashi Issa – translated by David G. Lanoue

winter sunrise–
only pale green moss
on the cottonwoods

 

express line checkout-
the man ahead buys flowers
and breath mints

 

 

 

winter sunset
backlights the alders-
a small bird moves on

 

 

Billie Wilson

“winter sunrise–” tinywords (Dec. 3, 2001)

“express line checkout–” worldhaiku; haijinx I:1 (Vernal Equinox, 2001)

“winter sunset” – tinywords (Jan. 18, 2001)

 

 

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

all night 

a productive cough —

he hits the snooze button

                                        [Jan. 4, 2005]

 

An ex parte animal: State Supreme Court Judge Joseph C. Teresi was reprimanded by the

NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct Monday for failing to disclose he spoke privately

to a defense witness (a nun) who then “abruptly” withdrew from testifying in a 2003 DWI

case.  (Teresi denied the affected party an adjournment to find another expert witness. 

As the Troy Record  (Jan. 4, 2005) tells us:

“In a February 2001 decision, the commission also censured Teresi for exerting

pressure on parties to settle a case, improperly excluding one lawyer from discussions

and showing bias against a litigate he wrongfully sentenced to contempt of court and

sent to jail for 45 days. The defendant was later released by another judge.”

How many bites should Judge Teresi get before the apple really bites back?

 

For reasons similar to those raised here, blog has made it to the List of Words Banished 

from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness, promulgated by the Lake

Superior State University, in Sault Ste. Marie, MI.   They’ve been doing the list since 1977, and posters

from previous years can be printed out free. (via Inter Alia)

 

“snowManGray”  On the other hand, this snowman lover, cannot sit idol-ly by and condone LSSU’s

annual Snowman Burning to welcome the first day of spring.  Impermanence does not need help.

The tenth installment of Jim Kacian’s Haiku Primer

• 
  
  To read all installments to date, click here.
  
  
• 
  
  For a layman’s primer, try dagosan’s intro to haiku

 

                           the last words of the poem with the ink run dry

Jim Kacian  from Walking the Same Path,

the HSA 2004 Members’ Anthology 

 

one-breath pundit 

Is this sweeps month?  RiskProf starts the new year with a bland headline

masking two sexy [um, gendery] insurance tales.

 

  Flesh & Spirit Weak:  If you come here often, you know how often

your Editor has promised himself and his public to do more poetry

and less punditry, to maintain health and sanity.  Well, to no one’s

surprise, this year’s Resolution never made it past Jan. 1st.  Check

out Crime & Federalism to see the poison fruit of my labors:

• it all depends what “ism” is (textualism vs. original intent)
  
• burying the competition (and the constitution? (selling caskets)