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In an unprecedented and controversial move, the White House has launched a new program at the Department of Labor which will refer workers who have complaints about their bosses to a toll free number at the American Bar Association, where they can get a lawyer to work on their case on a contingency fee basis.

The White House in a statement says this is “a new effort between the federal government and private bar to assist complainants” who may need help with “worker rights.” In a statement, the ABA calls this new alliance “unprecedented.”

But will this create more lawsuits against companies? Will it stymie job creation at the very companies the President says he needs to help lower the high unemployment rate, including small businesses? Will this new program simply make it easier for lawyers to get business they may have garnered anyway?

And since Vice President Joe Biden says the lawyers will be working on a contingency fee basis, and not pro bono, doesn't that pretty much guarantee that the lawyers will be more apt to earn those fees via lawsuits against businesses?

Moreover, will the government set up an ABA referral service at Labor for small businesses and employers who are having trouble with miscreant employees or are being harassed by frivolous lawsuits filed by troublemaking workers?

The White House has also enlisted the ABA to launch a toll-free hotline number at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help homeowners with foreclosure issues, as well as a separate ABA toll free number to help veterans at the Department of Veterans Affairs, too.

In a video briefing on the White House’s website, Vice President Joseph Biden says that this new ABA government program is part of his Middle Class Initiative. The Vice President noted that  “it’s not enough to say that everyone has the same legal rights” or “has equal access to justice.” The Vice President also noted that in an estimated one half of all civil cases, one party has no legal representation, and that the economic crisis has created “more unrepresented litigants.”

The Vice President says: “We’re taking steps to help workers stand up for their rights in the workplace.” And though the lawyers are not doing the work pro bono, Biden says workers don’t have to fear paying for that lawyer, because “most all” of the fees will be “contingency on the back end.”

But how will the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division know if the ABA is actually accepting these referrals or if the cases are being resolved by the private bar? In a fact sheet, the ABA says it “will provide the Wage and Hour Division with aggregate information about the numbers of referrals accepted and the outcome of those cases.” Whether the government will need more federal workers to fact check and police this ABA program remains to be seen.


so whether or not you think this is a good thing, the question has to be ask; do we really need such a partnership between the government and attorneys? do we really need the government to get into the lawyer referral business? aren't there private lawyer referral services out there already, and doesn't this give SOME lawyers a leg up on the competition?

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WTF?

We're 15 Trillion in the hole, that amount is exploding, and the Federal government thinks it needs to pay for a referral service for the ABA?

WITH MY TAX DOLLARS?

Who will really be answering the calls?  ACORN?  The SEIU?  Richard Trumka?

And Dod ... did you hear about the deal with the Comcast merger ... where, as a part of the government approving it, NBC has to get into bed with George Soros to do the news?  Socialists doing NBC news now?  By govt. mandate?

Wondering if they'll rename it NBC-sky.

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no, didn't hear about the george soros bit, but i did hear that some of the stipulations were that they have to provide highspeed access for less than $10 a month (but only to low income houses).

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
no, didn't hear about the george soros bit, but i did hear that some of the stipulations were that they have to provide highspeed access for less than $10 a month (but only to low income houses).

Yep.  In the last year, he's begun to fund news ventures at Huffnpuffington, NPR, and now NBC.

All because he wants a Free Press ... right?

Lovely!

http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2011/02/03/fcc-orders-nbc-newsrooms-to-partner-with-soros-funded-non-profits/

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well lets just spend some more money we don't have on something we don't need!

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I think this started in December...or at least it was supposed to.

If you ever have a problem with your employer for things like not paying overtime, or problems with the Family Leave Act you are supposed to file the complaint with the Department of Labor.  It sounds like it wouldn't need to be that many people having this trouble.  But they have been averaging about 35,000 of these types of complaints each year.

The current staff load at the DOL can only get through about 20,000/year.  So the choice was to ignore the other 15,000, expand the employees at the DOL...or what they chose, outsource.

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Originally Posted by Scott Terry:

And Dod ... did you hear about the deal with the Comcast merger ... where, as a part of the government approving it, NBC has to get into bed with George Soros to do the news?  Socialists doing NBC news now?  By govt. mandate?

Wondering if they'll rename it NBC-sky.

The government approved the merger as long as they set up some kind of partnership with non-profit news reporting.  They did use one EXAMPLE in San Diego.  And yes, that specific non-profit is funded by Soros.  But the non-profits the merger needs to partner with may or may not have anything to do with him.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

If you want more calls I recommend changing your number to  1-800-BAR-BRLA

and changing your Conan the Destroyer default picture to...