Re: Great news about my court case

[Lernermichelle]

No offense taken. Merry and I actually talked for a while about this very thing-- how the city attorney and the city council started acting differently once Merry announced to them she was going to take the case and put together a team of lawyers to fight it. She said the "team" was going to be her, the criminal attorney Hideyo found, and Hideyo's boyfriend, but she did not say that to the city people. She just said a "team" would be litigating it, and she said they all seemed very surprised and then started acting cooperative.  I myself, in my jobs as a legal aid lawyer, have seen over and over how differently people with lawyers are treated.  It is really shocking and appalling.  One of my jobs right now entails going through and reading most of the hearing decisions that come out of the MA (I am telecommuting) welfare system (administrative appeal decisions) to try to get a sense of systemic problems that are occurring and to post relevant decisions on a website where legal aid lawyers can see and use them.  Most of the decisions are in cases where the person did not have a lawyer.  There are so many decisions that are denied appeals, where if the person had had a lawyer I know they would have won because they were completely in the right.  It makes me very depressed. Michelle   In a message dated 1/8/2006 5:19:21 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: It's sad (no offense intended to any attorneys or those in enforcement)......... but it IS sad how easily 'regular' people can be treated in these situations.