AFTER FURTHER REVIEW.....

BREAKING: AU BON PAIN CLOSED BY ORDER OF DPR   "TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY."
While we're on the subject of "piling on" (see below) Au Bon Pain's coffee really stinks. It's cheap swill. Can something be done about that while they scrub the floors?  To be fair, an ABP employee has been saying it's merely a failure to pay a licensing fee. It's always about money, isn't it? 
Now if someone could just get a similar order for the entire Broward legal system ...

Birthdays are occasions for us as individuals to mark the passage of time, reflect on our life, celebrate life, and look to the upcoming year to achieve those goals outstanding on our own personal checklist. 
As a nation, we celebrate birthdays in recognition of the outstanding achievement an individual has made to our collective welfare. 

With that in mind, we wish a very happy birthday to an American of distinction and achievement. Her contributions to society and culture cannot be over estimated. 

HAPPY 56TH BIRTHDAY BO DEREK!

Oh yeah, Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, turns 70 today as well. Happy b-day Joe.

PASS THE SALT: The consensus of  the sous chef's du blog, from the comments yesterday, is that you should brine your bird. 

L'affair du Messrs. Tein and Lewis:
The immediate take away, if not fall out from the DBR article yesterday (linked on yesterday's blog post until we hear from the DBR lawyers) is that attorneys Tein and Lewis may, just may, have been accused of things they did not do. 

We, as criminal defense attorneys, should be as sympathetic as anyone to the storyline that a person or people are accused of wrongdoing by the authorities (Judge Dresnick) after a complaint (by members of the Miccosukee tribe) which is then trumpeted by the media (The Miami Herald) and sounds reasonable, so we believe it (this blog?) despite the fact that not one bit of evidence has been heard. 

We've taken some criticism in private emails for our coverage of this case. Our response has been that we thought that we were merely echoing the coverage of the Herald. Which we were. But perhaps we have been guilty of more. Certainly we admit to this: no great love for civil lawyers (we tend not to like things we don't understand.) And the story of a couple of civil lawyers caught doing what we think all civil lawyers do (over bill, make things more complicated so as to  increase billing hours) proved tempting to say the least. 

To the extent we engaged in piling on, mea culpa. These two lawyers, like our clients and like anyone, are entitled to a full and fair hearing before any final conclusions are reached. We are ever mindful that this humble blog is widely read and that people's reputations are at stake. Before this controversy, Michael Tein and Guy Lewis enjoyed sterling reputations in the legal community. Reputations that were well earned. To that end we pledge to be more discerning in our coverage of this and other cases. We do no wrong by re-printing allegations in the Herald. But we violate our own DNA by jumping to conclusions not supported by the evidence. 

Tein and Lewis have as good a lawyer as there is - Paul Cali*- on their side.  The facts will come out and the final decision will be what it will be. 

See you in court. 


* ok we did it. Now please withdraw those papers. We don't even know where to park for civil court.