Monday, June 14, 2010

Loevy v. Law Enforcement - Gold Mine of Settlements!



"There are 13,000 officers in the Chicago Police Department, and the proportion who violate rights in proportion to those who generate a lawsuit is very small," said Jon Loevy, founding attorney at civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy. "Getting sued, particularly more than once, is really crossing the line in a way that could put the city on notice that extra scrutiny is merited.

Yes indeed, "Getting sued, particularly more than once, is really crossing the line in a way that could put the city on notice that extra scrutiny is merited." That said, Doing the suits, particularly more than once, is really crossing the line in a way that should put the city, the tax-payers and news media on notice that extra scrutiny is merited.


Jon Loevy started suing police Departments when he quit Sildey and Austin and after clerking for Judge Milton Shadur. I believe that he started in Oak Lawn, Illinois when the Village settled out of court and the rest is litigation history.


Last week, three Chicago police Detectives were ordered to pay Loevy out of their own pockets. That was stunning.

Donny McGee’s award is to include $330,000 from the officers’ personal funds, according to Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law.

McGee, who spent three years in prison, was to face the death penalty in the murder of Ethel Perstlen, 76.

Detective Edward Farley, Detective Robert Lenihan and Officer Robert Bartik fabricated a confession from McGee that was not written, audiotaped or videotaped, the lawyers added.


http://www.pinewswire.net/2010/06/jury-awards-1-3-million-to-man-saying-cops-faked-confession-with-polygraph/

How did lawyer Jon Loevy happen on to the gold mine that it is Loevy & Loevy?

I am just a high school teacher who reads the papers.

It seems to me that Jon Loevy is just about the only really aggressive Police suing lawyer in the business. Marxist Millionaire G. Flint Taylor is a whole other hairball - he has Burge Industries. But Jon Loevy seems to be the Bill Gates of Police Lawsuits. He files suit and cities settle - no muss and no fuss.

I think Jon Loevy does it for money - period. G. Flint Taylor? Whole other hairball. He does it for money and ideology. Jon Loevy? Money. Tons of money. Always taxpayer money - except now he can root nickels out of the modest savings of police officers as well. A new Tsunami.

I became a teacher because I like to read and share my love reading and writing - what a guy. I am also a real trainwreck around tools. My family are all skilled tradesmen.

Jon Loevy followed his Dad into the law and his Dad followed his son into Lawsuits Against the Cops,

Arthur Loevy was groomed some say to be a Labor Lawyer. He was that. He was huge.

Loevy and Loevy, pater et filius, sue police everywhere*. It will be interesting to look into just why. Money, to be sure, but just how Jon Loevy got to the gold.

Well, there's Dad -Arthur Loevy

Arthur Loevy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1963, and has been a member of the Illinois bar continuously for more than forty years.
Arthur Loevy began his legal career practicing labor law until 1970 when he became an elected officer of a trade union, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union ("ACTWU"). Arthur proceeded to serve in various elected capacities for trade unions, including International Executive Vice President of ACTWU, International Secretary-Treasurer of ACTWU, and, most recently International Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of Needle-Trades Industrial and Textile Employees (U.N.I.T.E.).
Arthur Loevy has also served as a Director and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Bank of New York (1990-98), the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee of various Taft-Hartley insurance and trust funds for almost twenty years, the President of the Amalgamated Housing Foundation (1974-98), and the President of the Sidney Hillman Health Center in Chicago (1980-98).
Since January 1, 1997, Arthur Loevy has resumed the practice of law on a full-time basis. In 1998, he joined the law firm started by his son, Jon Loevy, and has practiced here ever since.
( emphasis my own) Pretty spare resume (CV) for a Labor Lion like Loevy, Pere


Unlike Lad Jon Loevy -
Jon Loevy is an extremely accomplished trial lawyer, having won more than $100 million in jury verdicts for his clients, all in cases involving challenging fact patterns and difficult to prove allegations against the government. Loevy has won 18 out of his last 20 jury trials, and his $100 million total in career jury awards includes twelve separate jury verdicts of $1 million or more. For more, click here: Recent Successes - Trials.
Loevy is also a highly successful appellate lawyer. Civil rights cases are notoriously hard to win, but Loevy was won 13 out of the last 16 he has argued before the federal appellate courts (including wins in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits), the majority of which were on behalf of the appellant seeking to overturn an adverse ruling. For more, click here: Recent Successes - Appeals.
Jon Loevy's $28 million jury verdict in Regalado v. Chicago in 1999 is still the largest civil rights verdict in the City's history. Since that time, he has received million dollar-plus jury verdicts as lead counsel in eleven other "long shot" cases, including Duran v. Chicago in 2008 ($4.2 million for interference with child custody); Johnson v. Guevara in 2009 ($21 million for 11 years of wrongful conviction); Borsellino v. Putnam in 2009 ($11 million for fraud by the former president of the NYSE); Newman v. Squire in 2010 ($6 million for wrongful death); Coffie v. Chicago in 2007 ($4 million for police brutality); Dominguez v. Waukegan in 2006 ($9 million for 4 years of wrongful conviction); Manning v. United States FBI in 2005 ($6.6 million for wrongful conviction); Ware v. Chicago in 2007 ($5 million for fatal police shooting); Garcia v. Chicago in 2003 ($1 million); and Russell v. Chicago in 2003 ($1.5 million for fatal police shooting); and Waits v. Chicago in 2002 ($1.5 million for police brutality).
After one victory, the Honorable James F. Holderman, Chief Judge of the Northern District of Illinois summarized Loevy's trial skills in a written decision reported at Garcia v. Chicago, 2003 WL 22175620 (N.D.Ill. 2003):
Jon Loevy is an outstanding trial lawyer. His ability belies his years of experience, and he certainly should not be held in a lock-step position based on his law school graduation year with regard to his hourly rate. . . Not only did Jon Loevy display tremendous advocacy skills during the trial before the jury, he handled all the matters involved in this litigation with great aplomb. His case was well-organized. The evidentiary progression was easy to follow. His examinations of adverse witnesses [1], and his dealing with the sometimes improper tactics of his opposing counsel, were highly professional.
Jon Loevy's poise, analysis, and demeanor in front of the jury, as well as his rapier-like cross-examination style, are reminiscent of the trial skills displayed by some of the nationally recognized trial lawyers in this community when they were the age that Jon Loevy is now. [1] Among those nationally recognized trial lawyers whose trial skills the court is familiar with when they were Jon Loevy's age are: Royal B. Martin of Martin, Brown and Sullivan; Michael D. Monico of Monico, Spevack and Pavich; Thomas R. Mulroy of McGuire Woods; Anton J. Valukas of Jenner & Block; and Dan K. Webb of Winston & Strawn. Additionally, Jon Loevy's overall performance ranks among the finest displays of courtroom work by a plaintiff's lead trial counsel that this court has presided over in several years.
For more on Jon Loevy's trial practice, click here.
In addition to the $100 million in jury verdicts, Loevy has also obtained tens of millions more for his clients in settlements.
Loevy graduated from Columbia Law School in 1993, where he served as a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review. At Columbia, he was a Kent Scholar (approximately top 1% of the academic class), as well the recipient of the Young B. Smith Prize given to the student with the top examination in torts, and the Paul R. Hayes Prize given to the student with the top exam in civil procedure.
Upon graduating, Loevy clerked for Judge Milton I. Shadur of the Northern District of Illinois for a year, after which he took a year off and travelled around the world. Upon returning home, he joined the firm then-known as Sidley & Austin, where he spent a year and a half before leaving to start his own firm, first as a solo practitioner, and then in partnership with his wife, Danielle Loevy.
The firm he formed, Loevy & Loevy, has since grown to 14 lawyers, and is now one of the largest firms devoted to civil rights in Chicago, if not the entire country.
Loevy is also a lecturer at law at the University of Chicago, where he co-teaches a clinic on wrongful conviction litigation with other members of his firm. Loevy also teaches Trial Advocacy to clinic students at the University of Chicago.
Loevy was previously named one of the Law Bulletin's prestigious "40 under 40" attorneys to watch in Chicago, as well as one of Chicago Lawyer's "Next Generation Rising Stars of the Trial Bar." Loevy was also invited to speak at the National Lawyers' Guild's (NLG) National Police Accountability Project Conference in Austin, Texas in the Fall of 2006 on the topic of "How to Win Big Jury Awards in Police Abuse Cases." He presented on that topic to more than 50 police abuse lawyers from around the United States. In 2007, Loevy was asked to be the moderator for the NLG's National Police Accountability Project conference in Washington D.C.
Loevy lives in Chicago with his wife, Danielle, and three sons, Carter, Ethan and Oliver.
Located in the West Loop just west of downtown, our Chicago-based law firm represents clients throughout the nation, including the Chicagoland metropolitan area, including Cicero, Harvey, Kankakee, Joliet, Chicago Heights, Dolton, Markham, Aurora, Rockford, Waukegan, Champaign-Urbana, Elgin, Cook County, Will County, Lake County, DuPage County, and Kane County.

(emphasis my own)

Police Officers in Chicago do not come to the Law from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Northwestern. They come from Gresham, Jefferson Park, Ukrainian Village, Mount Greenwood, Hegewisch, Englewood and other working class neighborhoods. They used to come from families of police officers, as Jon Loevy followed Dad in the practice of Law. They are working men. It seems to me that the Loevy family has no problem targeting working men and doing whatever it takes to make money and they are very good at it.


Here's but a very few.

At Loevy & Loevy, we are trial lawyers who seek justice for those whose civil rights have been violated and for whistleblowers. Based in Chicago, we are one of the nation's largest and most successful civil rights law firms and we handle cases around the nation. We go to trial often and our record speaks for itself: $21 million for a wrongfully convicted man, $16 million for another, victory in a class action of more than 100,000 people, $28 million for the victim of a police beating, and many more. We've won dozens of jury trials and more than $150 million for our clients.


http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=253

*
McGee, who was acquitted of the murder in 90 minutes by a jury in 2004 after serving three years in prison, filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago, detectives Edward Farley and Robert Lenihan and Officer Robert Bartik. DNA evidence excluded McGee from committing the crime, Ainsworth said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-police-murder-frame-20100609,0,5156702.story

T
ROY, Mich., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- A class action lawsuit alleging that the Detroit Police Department (DPD) systematically abused and mistreated arrestees was filed on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 in the United States Federal Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. A copy of the complaint is available at www.fhwnlaw.com.
The suit, Jonathan Brown, et al v. City of Detroit, was filed by the Chicago law firm of Loevy & Loevy and the Troy, Michigan law firm of Frank, Haron, Weiner & Navarro. The suit alleges that thousands of individuals were arrested and denied basic constitutional rights by the DPD from May 27, 2007 through the present date. A similar class action lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department recently settled for $16.5 million.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that the DPD engaged in a repeated pattern of detaining individuals for long periods of time – often in excess of 48 hours – without allowing them access to a judge. These individuals were denied food, water, and sleep during their detentions. The complaint charges that these inhumane conditions were often used to obtain false confessions from suspects, while genuine perpetrators were left free to continue committing crimes.
The suit has three classes of plaintiffs. Class one is comprised of thousands of people who were detained by the DPD overnight or for more than 16 hours in a 24-hour period and who were deprived of basic human needs for rest and hygiene. Plaintiffs in the second class were arrested by the DPD and detained in excess of 48 hours without a judicial determination of probable cause. The third group of plaintiffs consists of individuals detained by the DPD in excess of 24 hours without being provided at least two meals.
Loevy & Loevy (www.Loevy.com), based in Chicago, is one of the largest civil rights firms in the country.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/class-action-alleges-abusive-treatment-by-detroit-police-department-

CROWN POINT | Lake County Jail officials and plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit alleging medical and other mistreatment in the jail failed for the second time Wednesday to reach a settlement in the two-year-old case.
Loevy & Loevy, the Chicago law firm representing the plaintiffs, is seeking the court's approval of a class action lawsuit in which the complaints mirror many of the findings by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
The government's report, released in December, disclosed conditions the DOJ found to be in violation of inmates' constitutional rights. Jail officials released their response to the findings in May along with a plan to meet the concerns.
The federal lawsuit was filed in May 2008, prior to the DOJ investigation, which was launched in September. Since the lawsuit was filed, Loevy & Loevy attorneys have said the number of jail detainees with similar complaints has grown to more than 100 from the original seven.
The nearly daylong settlement conference Wednesday, the second since February, failed to resolve the lawsuit.
As is typical, the settlement conference was not held in public.


Houston, TX
Winfrey sued San Jacinto County, its current and former sheriff, a former deputy, and Fort Bend County, its sheriff, and former deputy Pikett. He seeks damages for conspiracy, constitutional violations, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is represented by Gayle Horn with Loevy & Loevy of Chicago.


In 2008, attorney Aaron Mandel of the Chicago law firm Loevy & Loevy filed a federal lawsuit on Lyons' behalf against Woodridge and police officers James Grady and Donald Janus, both of whom declined to comment.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=387569&src=2

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