Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The bombshell that just keeps giving

As more info is released regarding Sheldon Silver, the control he exercised over high level NYS judicial appointments is being dragged into the light.

Sheldon Silver has perverted the courts as well as the Capitol.
His law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, gets its asbestos cases � and paydays � moved more quickly than those of other attorneys, and reaps a fortune from favorable rulings by friendly judges, charge lawyers and tort-reform advocates.
Silver�s East Village firm handles more than half the cases in a special section of Manhattan Supreme Court called NYCAL (New York City Asbestos Litigation). So dominant is the firm, the court�s Web site refers to cases as �Weitz� or �non-Weitz.�
The chief asbestos judge, Sherry Klein Heitler � also Manhattan�s chief civil judge � has handled dozens of Weitz & Luxenberg cases.
�They�ve taken over a section of the courthouse, and the people in charge of the courthouse run it for them,� said a disgusted lawyer who files personal-injury cases in Manhattan. �It pours money into the firm.�
The firm told investigators it hired Silver, who has no experience in asbestos cases, in 2002, because it hoped to �increase the firm�s prestige and perceived power,� according to last week�s federal indictment charging Silver raked in about $4 million in bribes and kickbacks.
That perceived power has paid off, critics say.
Last year, at Weitz & Luxenberg�s request, Heitler reversed a 20-year rule barring punitive damages in asbestos cases, paving the way for much bigger jury awards and putting pressure on defendants to settle.
Another judge, Joan Madden, consolidated unrelated asbestos cases. Joining up to seven plaintiffs has resulted in huge increases in NYCAL jury verdicts � from an average of $7 million to $24 million per plaintiff between 2010 and 2014, data collected by Bates White Economic Consulting show.
Last year, Weitz & Luxenberg won a record $190 million in a consolidated trial for five mesothelioma victims who worked in different jobs for different employers.
Of 15 mesothelioma verdicts in the last four years, Silver�s firm won $273.5 million of $313.5 million awarded by NYCAL juries. Law firms usually take a third.
The average award for a NYCAL asbestos case � nearly $16 million per plaintiff between 2010 and 2014 � is two to three times larger than those in other courts nationwide, Bates White reported last month at an asbestos law conference in New York.
Conference speakers included Heitler, Madden and Perry Weitz, Silver�s law partner and a founder of Weitz & Luxenberg.
Last month, the American Tort Reform Association branded NYCAL the nation�s top �judicial hellhole,� saying it�s rife with plaintiff attorneys �brazenly favored by the judges.�
The group largely blames Silver, who not only has killed any tort reform, such as efforts to limit claims and cap damages, in Albany, but wields enormous power over the judiciary.
�Imagine you�re a judge and you know the person in front of you litigating in asbestos court is also responsible in some way for your career,� said Tom Stebbins, a spokesman for the New York Lawsuit Reform Alliance, which also faults Silver.
As Assembly speaker since 1994, Silver names one of 13 members to a state judicial screening committee. The panel recommends candidates for the governor�s appointment to the Court of Claims and Appellate Division and other judge vacancies.
In 2008, Silver named his law partner and another Weitz & Luxenberg founder, Arthur Luxenberg, to the committee, ignoring the blatant conflict of interest.
Silver also plays a key role, along with Gov. Cuomo and the state Senate majority leader, in negotiating the judiciary�s budget. In 2011, Silver�s appointee to a seven-member state commission cast the deciding vote to give all state judges a 27 percent pay hike.
As one of the state�s most powerful Democrats, Silver also strongly influences his party�s nomination of candidates for judgeships in Manhattan and elsewhere. Heitler and Madden are both Democrats, and both first ran for the bench during Silver�s tenure as speaker.
�He has a hand in judicial appointments, and judges know not to bite the hand that feeds them,� said Mark Behrens, a DC attorney who advocates for asbestos-litigation reform for defendants.
To top all that, Silver and New York�s Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman are boyhood chums from the Lower East Side.
Lippman, who has been the chief administrative judge for all New York state courts since 2009, can assign judges to top administrative positions and plum posts.
Heitler was promoted to Manhattan�s chief administrative judge in 2009, a post she holds in addition to running asbestos court.
Sources say Weitz & Luxenberg gets the �red-carpet treatment� in Manhattan, including �more experienced and better judges� in the asbestos court.
One lawyer said he recently showed up to start a trial.
�In walked the Weitz & Luxenberg lawyers,� he said. The entire pool of 150 potential jurors was herded into their courtrooms.
�A jury clerk told us, �The asbestos cases are taking priority. You have to wait,� � the lawyer recalled, griping that his trial was delayed four days until another batch of jurors became available.
�All the other lawyers � and their clients � are getting screwed,� he said.
State courts spokesman David Bookstaver said Friday that he could not reach anyone to explain the alleged jury hogging.
Weitz & Luxenberg filed 53 percent of the NYCAL mesothelioma cases and 74 percent of the lung-cancer cases from 2011 to 2013, Bates White found.
Besides the landmark $190 million award, the firm last June won $25 million for two workers exposed to asbestos insulation, and $20 million for the family of a former ship fitter who died.
The indictment says Silver pocketed $5.3 million from Weitz & Luxenberg without ever doing legal work � as he was paid a yearly salary of $120,000 (for a total $1.4 million since 2002) and $3.9 million in �referral fees.�
Silver allegedly drummed up plaintiffs � and referral fees � by having Columbia University Medical Center cancer researcher Dr. Robert Taub funnel mesothelioma patients to the firm.
In return, Silver allegedly steered $500,000 in taxpayer-funded grants to Taub and $25,000 in state funds to a nonprofit employing Taub�s wife and a helped find a job for Taub�s son at a different nonprofit.
Dr. Taub has been fired.


About the ONLY guy in this who performed a genuine service was Dr. Taub. By all accounts,he is a first class oncologist. Tough luck to tie your wagon to a crashing bus.

I've never understood to this day how any person can set a price on integrity. It's the only thing I have that's not for sale. You can get everything else for a price.

Just praying all roads lead to Cuomo.

It was pointed out in another letter that Cuomo WAS the State Attorney General before he was the Guv. So with all the "resources" of both offices nothing was done. Valid question as to why. Overall, the shadows thrown over the Legislature, Governor's office and the state judiciary puts many laws at risk of "conflict of interest" and outright political corruption to get introduced and passed.

liberals do not have integrity or even know the word exists.

This certainly has potential.Haven't noticed it making much press here but sounds like this investigation might be time consuming connecting all the implicated dots.

frankly, I'd like to see all of those involved, publicly flogged, and then shot.

Sam, the actual BEST thing that could happen would be for them and their agenda(s) to by disgraced and discredited. Bankrupt them all with legal fees, then turn them out into the streets.

Our entire government and it's officials work this way to some extent.

Cuomo AIN'T taking this very well!!
Fred Dicker, NY Post NYS Political columnist
Gov . Cuomo is �freaked-out and furious� over the bombshell criminal charges dropped on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver last week � and �obsessed with fear�� because of the ongoing federal corruption probe.
One source described Cuomo as �doubly enraged�� by hard-driving Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara�s decision to bring the five criminal corruption charges against Silver just hours after the governor delivered his State of the State address � and then, less than 24 hours after that, to indict Albany�s �three men in a room�� culture in which Cuomo is the lead player.
�Cuomo feels Preet just walked all over him,�� said the source.
Knowledgeable insiders, including law-enforcement experts, said it wasn�t accidental that Bharara brought the charges against Silver just hours after Cuomo�s State of the State.
�Prosecutors have a lot of discretion, and when they time a high-profile arrest in a way that steps all over Cuomo�s speech, that�s the use of discretion for a purpose,�� a former federal prosecutor told The Post.
And several sources described Cuomo � who along with his aides is being investigated by Bharara over the abrupt disbanding of the governor�s Moreland Act commission on public corruption � as �on edge�� over Bharara�s ominous statement Friday that the public should �stay tuned�� for more criminal charges to come.
�Andrew�s been working the phones day and night, staying up into the early morning hours, making hundreds of calls in one day trying to find out what the hell is going on,�� a source close to the governor said.
Cuomo, who has retained a private lawyer, has enlisted several former federal and state-level prosecutors with ties to Bharara�s office including Steve Cohen, his former chief-of-staff, in an effort to find out Bharara�s next move, the sources said.
�He�s freaked-out, furious, and obsessed with fear, it�s like a nightmare for him. The whole narrative he laid out for his second term has been derailed by Bharara,�� said a source in regular contact with the governor.
�The narrative has been taken over by Bharara and it�s all about Albany�s corruption, not Cuomo and his program for the state,�� the source said.
State political circles are abuzz with speculation that Bharara is seeking to determine if Cuomo had any knowledge of Silver�s allegedly illegal outside income last spring when he agreed with Silver and Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos to fold the commission.
The hair-pulling turmoil that has engulfed Assembly Democrats over the possible (and many believe likely) need to replace Silver as speaker hasn�t been seen since Syracuse-area Assembly Majority Leader Michael Bragman unsuccessfully sought to oust Silver in 2000.
A half-dozen names of possible replacements are on lawmakers� lips and here, direct from a usually authoritative Assembly member, is a late bulletin on the maneuvering: �The Queens County organization is making calls for [Queens Assemblywoman] Cathy Nolan.
�A Queens/Bronx coalition would counterbalance a Brooklyn/Manhattan coalition under [Assemblymen] Joe Lentol [Brooklyn] and Keith Wright [the Manhattan Democratic chairman], with 30 votes each.
�Bronx County Chairman [Carl Heastie] is looking like the kingmaker here.��
That said, a lot of smart money is on well-regarded Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairman Herman �Denny� Farrell Jr. of Manhattan, a former state Democratic chairman, as a non-controversial successor to Silver, at least on a short-term �interim�� basis.

Does LE have enough handcuffs..

Lowes and Home Depot sell zip-ties by the bundle.

All these guys are too big to fail, aren't they?
They all play by Bloomberg's rules.