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Public officials take notice - u may have to cough up for attny youself

davidmcbeth

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Jan 14, 2012
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earth's crust
A new legal migraine could be kicking in for seven Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employees who are being sued over the Flint water crisis. http://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...-need-find-own-lawyer-flint-lawsuit/79608504/

Normally some gov't attny will represent the agency as well as employees at same time. Like 99% of time. And its still advisable for a public employee being sued to at least retain his own private counsel but many don't.

Now these guys will have to fork over 40K/ea to defend themselves ('cause they are not like me ~ able to defend himself). Maybe they'll band together and get that down to 25K/ea.

And this cash is likely lost.

? in MI (and its different in every state -- state employment law --- yes, even for a federal employee) is if case law sees that their actions are "part of their job" and if not, if that excludes them from immunity. Not that I think piercing any qualified immunity is going to be difficult in this case(s).

The AG's reasoning is goofy .. they are just hanging them out to dry to cover the higher-ups IMO. It likely is a red flag - and the higher ups are indeed liable.

What fun this case will be.

Personally, I think (from what I learned) that many people are liable .. and the damages are huge, in the billions of dollars in compensatory damages alone - maybe a few trillion in punitive.
 
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Grapeshot

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Only fools defends themselves in court.
There is at least one Dumas attorney in the world.

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