Posted on 09/27/2008 4:07:00 PM PDT by Cripplehawk
In a four-page written order (download here), the Florida Supreme Court today affirmed a referee's recommendation to permanently disbar controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson.
The action, which takes effect in 30 days, means that Thompson will no longer be licensed to practice law and may not apply for reinstatement. Ever.
In citing a litany of offenses, the Court noted Thompson's extensive pattern of misconduct and cited a "complete lack of remorse." The Court also quoted extensively from the June, 2008 report of Judge Dava Tunis, who served as referee at Thompson's November, 2007 trial on charges brought by the Florida Bar:
(Excerpt) Read more at gamepolitics.com ...
He Even blamed 9/11 on video games (the game in question was MS Flight Simulator)
To fulfill my libertarian rant for the day, why do we even need a bar? It’s just a closed shop. If it’s okay for judges to prefer their feelings to the law, I should be able to argue a case directly to a jury anytime I want.
The story may be true, but I don’t see it on the list of opinions released on that day:
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/opinions.shtml
You can argue your own case to the bar at any time. You just can not argue someone else s case.
makes me wonder how Michael Rivera is doing.
Wow. The SCOFLA and JimRob have something in common. Who would have thunk it back in December 2000. :-)
I thought he got lost deep in the Hurtgen Forest.
I recall he was a nut but I don’t recall why.
“You just can not argue someone else s case.”
That was my point. I want to argue any case I want. Licenses are all about excluding people. Let the marketplace decide, I say. Shut up, judge, I was talking.
Aahhhhhh...thanks for the memories....I think. (And I think it was Michael Rivero. But I could be wrong.)
Should you be able to perform brain surgery any time you want?
I am pretty libertarian myself but I do believe that professional standards are a good thing and necessary.
When an individual goes looking for professional help they need to know that there is some kind of minimum standard of professionalism that they can expect to get when they hire a lawyer.
Granted that there is no guarantee and due diligence is advised when hiring a lawyer or other professionals but you don’t always have the time to spend sorting through all the names in the yellow pages and calling all of your friends to check them out.
And with out a professional association or regulating body to enforce standards how do you prevent the unprofessional such as this guy from continuing to commit malpractice? With out a Bar how do you disbar this bozo?
The badge of approval need not be a government-sanctioned one? How ever do the millions of industries without licenses from the state operate without killing people on a daily basis? How ever did the law and medicine grow in the first place without licenses seperating the good from the bad?
“And with out a professional association or regulating body to enforce standards how do you prevent the unprofessional such as this guy from continuing to commit malpractice?”
You’re right, I’ve never heard of a doctor or lawyer committing malpractice under the current system.
“With out a Bar how do you disbar this bozo?”
The same way you “disbar” a lousy grocer or a lousy plumber. Stop giving them money.
“When an individual goes looking for professional help they need to know that there is some kind of minimum standard of professionalism that they can expect to get when they hire a lawyer.”
So we’re to lazy to check up on lawyers? And the government has all the time in the world? As in all other affairs, market discipline would force people to do research. How about hotdocs.com?
Please ignore the question mark after the first sentence.
He was a really snippy dude here. Not friendly at all, unless you kissed-up to his pet theories.
Does it really matter? All you've got to do is whisper "Tublecane" to the judge, you'll be set, and the judge will be off somewhere with his paddle. :-/
I remember the guy like it was yesterday. He was the main force behind the never-proved charges that Janet Reno -- as a Florida prosecutor -- had been bought off by blackmailers that had video of her frolicking with lesbian hookers. After feuding with Jim Robinson about something or other, he began spamming the site with threads gleefully predicting its demise after the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post sued it out of existence. At one point, facetiously offered his own services to the media giants against FR in a thread he authored. After being banned, he called KSFO (San Francisco) host Geoff Metcalf and trashed the site. I called and defended it.
Disgraced moderate Democrat James Traficant lost his last shred of credibility when he fell for Thompson's nonsense. Thompson soldiered on as the go-to guy for protests against violent video games, being named as expert witness in trials against shoot-em-up games filed by parents and victims. This made him the target of game developers, some of whom unflatteringly used his likeness in their games.
He shouldn't be too disappointed -- now that he's been disbarred in Florida, he can still give legal advice to Larry Sinclair.
Jack Thompson was involved in the controversy about Elian Gonzalez. He was involved with News Max as well as FR. At first he seemed one of the good guys, turned out to be one of the weird guys.
> He was the main force behind the never-proved charges that Janet Reno — as a Florida prosecutor — had been bought off by blackmailers that had video of her frolicking with lesbian hookers.
That was my first FR thread I went to, oh so long ago. I remember it vividly. The concept of a e-bulletin board blew me away.
lol
If there was a lousy lawyer in town the people soon knew who he was and only the poor would bother to hire him. The good lawyers charged what the market would bare for their services.
Today with easy transportation a shyster could pick up his brief case and set up an office in a new town in a week if not for the Bar association. He could be charging hours and providing poor council even though he was driven out of town some where else.
Yes doctors and lawyers still perform malpractice today with professional association performing oversight. Professionals are ill at ease disciplining their own and it usually takes a great deal of bad acts to get them to remove a fellow’s credentials as can be seen by the long list of charges against Jack Thompson.
It better to have an enforcement body than not. The complexity of the law today makes it essential that some minimum standard be enforced. Yes the advent of the internet may make it easier to look for a competent professional but if you are poor and you a looking for a cheap lawyer how do you know if the lawyer you are thinking of hiring has the minimum knowledge to do what you need him to do? Do you just take your chances?
“He was a really snippy dude here. Not friendly at all, unless you kissed-up to his pet theories.”
That is exactly how I recall him...
Jack was my Sunday School teacher at Granada Pres. (PCA).
He used to take us to Denny’s instead of doing the lesson (sometimes).
That is DITHF
Back in those days, he kept this forum smokin. There was never a dull moment with Jack around, no matter how a person felt about him.
sw
With a little searching I believe I found the thread that got him banned.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010416002606/http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39719ca95afa.htm
Unfortunately, I don't think that there are any minimum standards for lawyers.
Jack is nuttier than squirrel poop. Period.
(( ping ))
(( ping ))
That’s from someone with a dog in the fight. That’s why I went looking for it on the official site.
Which time?
LOL. You must be like me and have been a long time lurker before registering. I remember the Freeper Lost in the Hurtgen Forrest. A fraud, but an interesting one.
My original screen name was shannond. I had ISP problems, got a new e-mail address and couldn’t remember my password. It was easier to re-register. I was a frequent poster during the impeachment proceedings.
“Shut up, judge, I was talking.”
Although isn’t there some provision where you can. What is a ‘next friend’
All good points, I guess. Only I think you underestimate the power of the information age. Plus, it’d be customers watchdoging professionals, not so much their colleagues.
I know, I know, most people are too stupid to know the what heck doctors and lawyers are doing.
No I am all for customers watching the professionals and the information age makes that a whole lot easier. However customers can only lookout for themselves. Customers do not have the power to permanently put the bad apples out of business.
The power of the free market is in force today yet you can see that regardless of all of the bad publicity that Jack got in the local press he still continued to find customers.
Some one has to have the power to say that after enough bad behavior that Jack can not go on committing malpractice
My libertarian sensibilities say that I would rather have a professional organization doing this than a government organization.
Why can't you? The bar associations only govern attorneys.
Nothing much stops you from serving as your own attorney and arguing your own case.
I imagine we'll soon be seeing Jack Thompson doing just that, in fact.
“Nothing much stops you from serving as your own attorney and arguing your own case.”
Actually, quite a lot stops me, in the sense that no one sues me and I’m not ever charged with criminal offenses. Ah, there are traffic violations. But then I’d plead my case to a judge and not a jury. I could always start suing people, but who and for what?
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