VW Diesel Owners Unite!

Power/Fuel
161

Shanin Specter is a lawyer and the son of former Senator and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter.

The following are the words spoken by a federal judge regarding the ethics of Mr. Specter and his law partner, Tom Kline, as they promoted their two websites which all those harmed in an enormous class action pharmaceutical law suit should register. You’ve got to see what a judge had to say.

“Judge Stearns” is U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns of the District of Massachusetts

In the May decision, Stearns noted that some of the lawyers who were handling state court Lupron cases, including those in California, Texas and Illinois, had agreed early on to “coordinate discovery efforts” with the lead lawyers appointed in the federal MDL case.

But Kline & Specter “refused to join in the cooperative effort,” Stearns wrote, and “instead embarked on a pre-emptive strategy to seize control of the litigation by using the state court proceedings to gain leverage over counsel cooperating with the MDL action.”

Kline represented Victim 5 in the case and said this was all about justice.

Stearns faulted Kline & Specter for launching a pair of Internet Web sites that, Stearns said, were “intended to mislead potential members of the [federal multi-district litigation] MDL class.”

He also faulted Kline & Specter for sending a “Dear Client” letter to “every person who had registered” on the firm’s Web sites. The letter, according to Stearns, contained “a number of deliberate misrepresentations and falsehoods.”

“…Web sites established by Kline & Specter under the domain names http://www.lupronlaw.com and http://www.lupronclass.com that offered to “welcome” potential members to “the class” and invited purchasers of the drug “to register for the Lupron class action.”

After reviewing the Web sites, Stearns issued an order in which he found that the sites were intended to mislead potential members of the MDL class.

Get this:
Stearns said he concluded “the typical registrant on a Kline & Specter Web site would not know that he or she was opting out as a participant in the MDL class by ¿registering’ with Kline & Specter. Moreover, neither of the Web sites explained that a registrant who opted for inclusion ¿in litigation in the state courts’ might (depending on his or her state of residence) be left with no means of recovery.”

The ruling said that while Kline & Specter was “perfectly free to criticize the proposed settlement agreement … they are not privileged to engage in deceptive conduct manipulating the very consumers they claim to protect.”

162

I think Arlen is dead now and not able to provide console to his kid. Sometimes just not much to do with wayward kids. OTH, judges are not unknown to have political axes to grind sorry to say.

163

as a u.s. senator from pa, arlen took it upon himself to establish a nominating commission of highly respected, non-partisan blokes, for the sole purpose of screening and selecting candidates for the bench. believe it or not, he chose his son, shanin, as its co-chair, along with arlen’s chosen co-chair law partner, tom kline, to lead this arlen created pennsylvania judicial nominating commission. in that capacity they were authorized to seek out the very best judicial candidates in the commonwealth in order to recommend them to arlen. (yes, arlen was chairman of the senate judiciary committee, too) guess what? yes sirree booby, their strictly non-biased choices somehow, and most mysteriously, made it all the way thru the grueling congressional qualification process with a sensational rate of approval. not only that, soon the kline and specter law firm in another incredible display of good luck, would find themselves firmly planted right smack dab in court proceedings (often litigating over huge sums of moolah=ie. multiple millions) before those very same boys and girls they’d referred to dear old dad. guess what else? by golly, the rulings they “achieved” before those very same highly qualified, impartial, “recommended” boobs were remarkably, uncannily, favorable! ain’t it a gas?

p.s. arlen was quite alive when sonny boy got his wrist slapped by judge Stearn

164

Not long after I was married, my mother passed away while visiting family in N. Ireland. My cousin’s wife took my wife to Arlen Spector’s office in downtown Philadelphia to get her a passport for the funeral. Arlen’s aide was being an officious so and so to my wife. Arlen overheard the conversation, came out of his office to straighten out his aide, and my wife had her passport that day. Arlen did right by me.

Ed B.

165

Ain’t that grand?

He got Perdue off for killing a man, too!

166

Nothing grand about losing a loved one.

Ed B.

167

I have enemies on both sides of the political spectrum which means I did something right but we have agreed to not talk politics or religion here. It can just get out of hand pretty quickly and turn into a free for all.

168

edb 1961 “Nothing grand about losing a loved one”

I am sorry for the loss of your mother and I apologize for being insensitive.

169

Bing “I have enemies on both sides of the political spectrum which means I did something right but we have agreed to not talk politics or religion here. It can just get out of hand pretty quickly and turn into a free for all.”

I understand. My comments about Specter, his son and law partner, were not intended as politically motivated. From my observations, many of our courts throughout the U.S. are bastions of carefully orchestrated activity conducted by members of an almost untouchable, organized “family” of professionals who manage the judicial process, civil and criminal, in ways that are strictly forbidden by the Canons

Fearing enormous legal costs, I believe our media have withdrawn from actively pursuing obvious examples of blatant, widespread, serious judicial corruption from every political persuasion.

Are you familiar with the two Luzerne County, Pennsylvania judges who sold kids’ freedom for cash?

www.nbcnews.com/
Aug 12, 2015 - Sandy Fonzo of Wilkes-Barre, whose son committed suicide after being caught in the “kids for cash” scheme, confronted former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., outside the federal courthouse in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Michael J…

For a beautiful seaside spot in the sun.

All that to say be careful of class action lawsuits.

170

@UncleHarry-This site is CarTalk (as in cars ) There are sites just for anything.

171

I think Bing and Volvo have suggested as much, but please bring this more car-related. Thank you!

172

Multiple reports of VW offering gift cards for cash and for services or other value to affected VW owners. Of course it is necessary to see if there are strings attached or waiving of rights. It does seem like movement that can reach affected owners.

173

Yep, $500 gift cards that can be used anywhere, then later on $500 more that can be used at VW.

174

I’m surprised no mention of requiring a ‘fix’ be done to the car to get the $$.

175

This might be an opening gesture. Of course there are people involved in the class action lawsuits that see this as an attempt to weaken the ranks. Which it might be.
Sigh. I guess this is part of a system that relies alot on an adversarial approach.

176

Well I dunno but outside of some people claiming fraud and wanting people in jail, the thing is people need to be compensated for actual damages. The actual damages might be reduced mileage that the $500 plus $500 would go a long way to covering. Diminished value? That’s a tough one to prove especially since there might well be an increased demand in the used car market for people looking for a deal and higher mileage regardless of the EPA issue.

Edit: I read somewhere today that the decreased used car value dropped about 13% or an average of about $1800.

177

I heard a report on NPR this evening on this subject. VW has said that the $1000 is purely good will and does not require any reciprocal actions, no strings attached, and will have nothing to do with eventual government actions agains VW. We’ll see what happens.