Over the past few years, the concept of revenge porn -posting nude pics on the Internet of an ex-lover- has progressed into the modern lexicon. First a social media phenomena, it has come to the attention of law makers and law enforcement officers over the past year.

Several civil cases in Oakland and Macomb Counties have resulted in significant civil judgments against the revenge pornographers. Just last week, for example, a woman in a Macomb County case was awarded $600,000 by a judge following a hearing; in a colossal mistake, the defendant elected to represent himself.

The Macomb County case follows a case from last year in Oakland County where Judge Martha Anderson awarded a plaintiff half a million dollars. Also, one year ago, the Michigan Legislature joined 26 other states in outlawing revenge porn, making it a 93-day misdemeanor; a second conviction is punishable by up to a year in the county jail.

Passage of the new law makes it a crime, under certain circumstances, to disseminate sexually explicit material of an adult on a computer without the subject's consent. If a person becomes a victim of revenge porn, securing a criminal misdemeanor conviction will provide momentum for a civil cause of action.

The successful litigants in Macomb and Oakland Counties presented evidence of their damages such as employment difficulties.

If you have been a victim of revenge porn, contact our law firm to discuss your options.

Post #584
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Tim Barkovic courtesy Freep

Our trial lawyers here at this blog go East-side all the time. Macomb County has its own culture and flavor; the courthouse on Main Street in downtown Mt. Clemens is no different.

Over the years, our trips East-side have included appearing before long-serving Judge Edward Servitto; he is a very even-tempered judge who does not appear to let the chaos and angst from his criminal call affect his calm demeanor.

Also over the years, we've become acquainted with a larger-than-life figure and East-side regular: the iconic criminal defense attorney Timothy J. Barkovic. Last week the paths of Judge Servitto and Attorney Barkovic intersected, as they have many times over the past 15-years; this time Barkovic wound-up heading toward the same jail he usually visits in order to advice one of his clients charged with a capital offense.

The funny thing about our friend Tim Barkovic is that his name would often come up in the back rooms of the courthouse, among the detectives working their cases. One or two of these detectives would describe incidents where they either punched Barkovic or slammed him into the wall of an interrogation room, or some other "hands-on" incident which resulted from what they described as Barkovic overstepping his bounds.

Barkovic was known to push those boundaries. Whether he's in a cop shop, jail or courtroom, everyone knows when Barkovic is "in the house".

He usually maintained a boarderline-disrespectful demeanor toward any judge not flowing his client's way; he had a strong dislike for prosecutors; and he downright detested cops. From what we gathered, the feeling was mutual.

For example, take a look at the Freep's file photo of Mr. Barkovic. Looks like someone, probably a cop, connected a fist to his East-side mug.

You are never going to see Tim Barkovic at a gathering of an Inn of Court, where the stated mission is to foster civility among lawyers and judges. The challenge to our profession is to maintain civility within the context of adversarial proceedings.

In Barkovic's case, during a felony trial, Judge Servitto overheard a heated discussion, and Barkovic's loud voice, outside a room where a jury was deliberating. Worried that the jury may have overheard the discussion about the case, the judge called Barkovic and the prosecutor into the court room and asked about the discussion on the record.

When the defense lawyer refused Judge Servitto's repeated requests to disclose what was said in the back hallway, he was found in contempt of court and sentenced to 20-days jail, to be served upon the completion of the jury trial.

Although Barkovic's actions were notable and caught the Freep's attention -they've been tracking his antics- we here at the Law Blogger doubt that he'll ever actually see the inside of a jail cell. On the other hand, as officer's of the court, aware of a judge's powers to maintain the decorum and civility of the courtroom, sometimes contempt powers must be exercised to prevent an overzealous lawyer from running away with the proceeding.

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Post #507

Judge David Viviano

For the first time since Justice Neil Reid retired from our High Court in the mid-1950s, a jurist from Macomb County will be seated on the Michigan Supreme Court.  Yesterday, Governor Rick Snyder announced his decision to replace disgraced former Justice Diane Hathaway with Macomb County Circuit's Chief Judge, David Viviano.

Although he comes from a family of jurists, [his father, Antonio Viviano, was a long-serving probate, then circuit court judge, and his sister, Kathryn Viviano, is a sitting judge in the Macomb Circuit Court's family division] David has practiced in several challenging areas of the law and has been outstanding.  In addition to working at the Dickinson Wright law firm in Detroit, he also worked at Jenner and Block in Chicago.  Those are some serious legal chops folks.

We here at the Law Blogger have observed Judge Viviano to be fair, honest, and a judge's judge.  He went to the University of Michigan Law School which, for us, is a big plus.  The attorneys in our law firm have appeared in front of all the Viviano judges.

Of course, an appointment like this one is going to ruffle political feathers.  The Freep, for example, noted that Governor Snyder's appointment was his second consecutive male appointment to the High Court, following Brian Zahra back in 2010.  Along these lines, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Colleen O'Brien was rumored to be on Snyder's short list.

One thing consistent between the incoming and outgoing justices [Hathaway and Viviano]; they both come from families well-clothed in black robes.  In Judge, soon Justice, Viviano's case, however, that is of less import than the judicial temperament and intellect he will bring to this important job.

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In my law practice, I drive from various courts across Michigan in a 2009 Ford Explorer.  That vehicle has 110,000 miles burned into it over the past 3-years.  That's a lot of court appearances.

Here are the numbers behind those miles for this past calendar year.


Michigan Court of Appeals.  Although I had not argued before the Court of Appeals in more than two years, I had 4 arguments before the intermediate appellate tribunal in 2011.  Also filed 25 briefs in that court; most of them applications for leave to appeal guilty pleas.  In the first week of 2012, I have two arguments.

Oakland County.  This is where we hold a "home field" advantage.  In 2011, I appeared in the circuit court, including the family court division, 118 times.  An additional 86 appearances were made in the Oakland County Probate Court.  Getting to know the judges pretty well over there.

Getting to know the Friend of the Court Referees as well with 30 trips to the FOC for early intervention conferences, or evidentiary hearings.

Macomb County.  Went "East Side" for 24 court appearances in 2011, all of them in the circuit or family courts; no East Side probate court appearances this year.  Many of these were for the Attorney General.

Wayne County.  In 2011, we made 20 court appearances in the "D"; fifteen were in the circuit and family courts, while the remaining 5 were all in the Wayne County Probate Court.

Genesee County.  Just to the North of our offices [we can be in Flint in less than a half hour], I made the dash to the Genesee County Circuit Court 10 times in 2011.  In addition, we made 4 trips to the Genesee Friend of the Court for hearings.

Livingston County.  Only five appearances in Livingston County Circuit Court this year; all on a single divorce case.

District Courts.  In 2011, we appeared in many of the various district courts placed throughout the counties in which we appear.  80 district court appearances to be precise; most of them for criminal matters.

Administrative Hearings.  Only three of these this year; for drivers license restorations and an implied consent refusal.

Keep in mind folks, these statistics are for but one attorney in the Karlstrom Cooney law firm; my partners have many other court appearances in these courts.  They do have, however, more "transactional" law practices than mine.  Along with Kay Caruso, Stuart Cooney, and Peter Keenan, we are the firm's litigators.

So these are my numbers for this year; it was a productive one.  We have our clients to thank for keeping us well engaged.

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This granite courthouse in the Bronx took a decade to
build (1905-1915) and has been abandoned since 1978.

Achieving justice in the United States is never a given.  There are many factors that affect an outcome in the courthouse: the relative skills of the attorneys; the time a matter takes to get to trial; the personality of the judge; the backlog of the judge's docket.

One factor becoming increasingly important in the determination of justice is the funding [or lack thereof] for the judiciary.

Here in Michigan, there are budget-conscious proposals to eliminate trial judges, court of appeals judges, and to shrink the Michigan Supreme Court from 7 to 5 justices.

Referred to as the weakest branch of government in the Federalist Papers due to its inability to control either sword or purse, the judiciary must now fight for its fiscal life here in America, both at the federal level, and on a state-by-state basis, as legislatures scramble to shrink all government budgets.

Here in Oakland County, the county executive, Brooks Patterson, runs a very tight fiscal ship.  He has demanded that the courthouse balance its budget; in turn, they have accounted for nearly every penny spent in the courthouse, saving wherever possible.

Patterson's plan has meant a slow attrition among the corps of judicial clerks and other court staff.  At the Oakland County Probate Court, this has translated to juggled counter hours and longer lines.  Overall, however, the Oakland County Circuit Court's service to the public has not suffered.  How long, we wonder, can this continue?

If you have not been to the Macomb County Circuit Court in a while, don't plan your business for the afternoon if it's a Tuesday or Thursday; the clerk's office will be closed.

Elsewhere, courts have not fared nearly so well.  In California, for example, $350 million has been cut from the county trial courts since 2009, with even more cuts due by the end of the year.  The Economist reported last week that up to 48% of California's county trial courts could be rendered insolvent by the state's budget crisis.

One result of the cuts to courts in California is lengthening the time an uncontested divorce takes to process through the court system; from 6 to 18 months.  Trained court staff is needed to process such cases without delay.

In New York, the judges, not having seen a legislated pay raise since the turn of the century, have sued the political branches of their state government.  In Ohio, the Morrow County Municipal Court went to a 4-day work week in 2009 and stopped taking new cases for filing because the county failed to requisition sufficient paper.

Some quick stats compiled by the American Bar Association regarding the state of the state judiciaries:

• 26 states have stopped filling judicial vacancies; 
• 34 states have stopped filling judicial clerkships; 
• 31 states have frozen judges' or clerks' salaries; 
• 14 states have closed courts during weekdays; and 
• 3200 courthouses have been characterized as "physically eroded" or "functionally deficient".

According to ABA, "the underfunding of the judicial system threatens the fundamental nature of our tripartite system of government."  To borrow a cliche that also captures the spirit of this problem: "justice delayed is justice denied."

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