It is 2018: Wendy agrees to let me take a case that few other lawyers/law firms would take. The reason: this is a case that is a dead-bang loser if we cannot convince a judge – and probably a federal judge – to deny a motion by the municipal defendants to dismiss the case because they are cloaked by governmental immunity aka qualified immunity.
NOT just a motion, but a motion filed by who will surely be a well-heeled, highly-educated lawyer for a silk-stocking law firm, who has a very remunerative arrangement with said municipality to reduce their grandiose hourly rate because so many lawsuits are filed and volume equals profit in some areas in the legal field, especially insurance defense law firms.
So, I spend time, whenever I can, researching the case, reviewing the file, bonding with the loved ones of the family who lost a mother and baby because police officers did not do their job one early morning. I talk and bond and get to know the story of the father and grandfather who lost a child and a grandchild. I teach myself qualified immunity and the federal law known as “1983” – which is where governmental actors (in this case police officers) violated the rights of the people harmed to be free of a clearly-established and well-known constitutional right.
Without getting in to the deep details of the case and the law, the upshot is that the little guy succeeded. The father who lost a daughter and granddaughter, daughters, sisters and a mother succeeded. Now, when I say “succeed” understand that in context, they are still survivors, suffered loss and will never be the same because of bad conduct by government actors. However, they can move on, pay for college educations, homes and even nicer cars because we worked our butts off to scratch, claw, punch when necessary and bleed for a result for them.
A case like this reminds you of why you studied so hard in law school and for the bar exam; to become a servant, a leader and a warrior. Will our fight bring back the lives lost? No – but it will honor them because we treated it like the last case that we will ever litigate – it sure was their last case.
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