Comments and advise

Phone carriers do not manufacture the phones for thier service so they do not just simple get them for free to give to customers. Just like your cable company does not make TVs to use with thier cable service. So in the end its the few that screw it up for the rest of us because the same people who complained they were forced to sign a contract will be the same people complaining that they now have to pay full retail price for phones.

James Cecchi, the attorney of the case who apparently settled with Sprint. His wife works as a magistrate judge in the court wehre the case was settled. According to Google, she has worked on several cases with Judge Linares.

Make your own conclusions.

Weiss was suspended by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1997 for making obscene
phone calls to several women, including a minor whom he’d seen at a high
school volleyball game.

The new complaint was entered Dec. 4 — the same day a New Jersey court gave
preliminary approval to a Sprint class action settlement in which Weiss,
class counsel, stands to share $4.6 million in attorneys’ fees.

Weiss, whose firm has been among the most active class action counsel in
Madison and St. Clair counties, is alleged to have violated the Illinois
Rules of Professional Conduct. The allegations, according to the complaint
amended on Jan. 5, include:

a.. In the summer of 2003, he approached an 18-year-old file clerk who “was
walking down the hall dressed in a khaki skirt and black shirt. Respondent
came up behind her, said ‘you look great,’ and then grabbed her buttocks and
said, ‘I just wanted you to know that.’”

a.. The file clerk was the half-sister of a legal assistant employed at the
firm, who claims that in her first week of employment in 2001, at age 19,
Weiss allegedly “brought her into a new office space, stood extremely close
to her, and made a comment to her about wanting to kiss her.”

The complaint itemizes several instances of alleged assault and battery, as
well as instances of repeated telephone harassment. It also states, “At some
time after January 7, 2003, Respondent cornered (legal assistant) while she
was on her way to the office restroom.

“Respondent then forced (legal assistant) into a stairwell where he
attempted to kiss her. Respondent grabbed (legal assistant’s) breasts,
touched her vagina over her clothing and attempted to put his hand down her
pants. When (legal assistant) resisted Respondent’s advances, Respondent
exposed himself and masturbated until he ejaculated on the stairwell wall.
During this incident, (legal assistant) repeatedly requested that he release
her and stop what he was doing.”

a.. An associate attorney hired in 2002 claims she was terminated at the end
of her first year after rebuffing Weiss’s advances.
“On September 13, 2002, Respondent entered (associate’s) office to discuss a
legal matter. Respondent then interjected, ‘You know, you need to start
coming in here wearing some low-cut (expletive) because sex sells.’
(Associate) replied with disgust, that sex had nothing to do with work.”

The ARDC claims Weiss has engaged in misconduct by committing criminal acts
and has engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and
which tends to bring the courts or legal profession into disrepute.

Jerome Larkin, ARDC administrator, and his counsel, Wendy Muchman, have
asked the matter be assigned to a hearing board panel, that a hearing be
held, and that a recommendation for discipline be made as warranted.

Court records related to Weiss’s 1997 suspension indicated that he had been
diagnosed with a mental condition called telephone scatologia, a psychiatric
disorder characterized by a recurrent urge or fantasy to make obscene
telephone calls.

His suspension lasted 30 days and he was placed on probation by the ARDC for
two years. Weiss moved to Seattle and practiced law there while his
punishment was meted out in Illinois.

Weiss resumed practice in Illinois in 1998, where he began securing large
verdicts and settlements as co-lead counsel on several class-action suits in
Madison County with Brad Lakin of the Lakin Law Firm.

But the firms had a falling out in 2006 and filed suits and counter suits
over control of class actions.

Last year, the Lakin Law Firm settled a Madison County suit against Freed
and Weiss, and Freed and Weiss settled a Cook County suit against the Lakin
firm.

But the detente was short-lived as the two firms recently renewed their
battle over competing Sprint class actions.

Two days after taking office, Madison County Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth
denied Lakin’s emergency motion for a restraining order against Freed &
Weiss and Sprint involving the New Jersey class action.

At a Dec. 3 hearing, Ruth played referee between Lakin and Richard Burke,
who teamed with Freed & Weiss after Lakin fired him.

The new judge inherited the case from retiring judge Nicholas Byron, who
certified a national class action against Sprint and appointed Lakin’s firm
as class counsel.

–