Volume 77, Number 46 Troy, Michigan Friday, November 12, 2004, ONE DOLLAR

� Money ManagementTips provided on how to protect against identity theft.

Page Two

� “No-Show” JurorsCourt gives “no-show” jurors a lesson in performing civic duty.

Networking Page

� New LawyersState Bar of Michigan announces list ofthose who passed the July bar exam.

Back Page

SHORTTAKES

MORE INSIDEBankruptcies......................9ACalendar ............................3ACircuit Court Docket ..........4AClaim of Liens....................9AClassified Ads....................2ADisciplinary Actions .........10AFamily Division Docket ......6ALand Contracts ..................8AProbate Court Docket ........8ATax Liens ...........................8AWeekly Crossword.............3A

Assumed Names ...............5BCircuit Court Filings ...........2BDivorce Judgments............4BLegal Notices.....................6BSheriff’s Deeds ................33B

Oakland County Legal NewsServing the Oakland County Legal Community Since 1927

www.oaklandlegalnews.com

As president of the Oakland County BarAssociation, I had the privilege of speaking atthe recent open house at Thomas M. CooleyLaw School. As a result of Cooley LawSchool offering classes at Oakland University,many more students now have an opportunityto attend law school. In fact, there are approx-imately 700 new law school students.

The students are provided a unique, option-al program and there are many clinics offeredto them, such as Sixty Plus, Inc., an elderlawclinic that provides free civil legal help to areasenior citizens; the Cooley Innocence Project,which helps innocent, incarcerated defendantsobtain DNA testing; the Estate Planning Clin-ic, which allows night- and weekend-only stu-dents to provide estate planning assistance;and the National Externship Program, whichplaces more than 100 students in supervisedplacements across the United States.

Along with our executive director, LisaStadig Elliot, I also had the pleasure of meet-ing Don LeDuc, president and dean ofThomas M. Cooley Law School. We aredelighted that Cooley Law School hasexpanded to Oakland County and, along withother faculty, administration and staff, believethat nothing of this magnitude would have ahope of succeeding were it not for the jointeffort of the school and the OCBA.

Some of you may have read my recent arti-cle regarding professionalism wherein I wroteabout making an effort to stay in contact withlaw schools in this area so that we can provideexamples in educating the law student in theways of professionalism. That is another reasonwhy it was my distinct honor to attend the openhouse to meet and speak with future lawyers.

I was doubly honored to be asked to speakagain at Cooley on October 22, at the recep-tion celebrating the law school’s secondanniversary at Oakland University. It is impor-tant to bring legal professionals’ influenceinto the school and the lives of each and everystudent. Mentors and faculty advisors whoserve as role models of professionalism willhelp students in their reflection and growth.

THE LAW OFFICES OF GRE-GORY & REITER P.C. dedicat-ed its new offices in Bloom-field Hills Monday, October 22.The 1926 traditional Tudor-style building is located just afew hundred feet from the his-toric Fox and Hounds Restau-rant. Attorneys Russell Grego-ry (left) and Jesse Reiter(right) purchased the sadlyneglected structure in 2002and spent two years restoringit to its former glory.The build-ing houses office space forthe four-attorney firm, staff,and two state of the art focusgroup/mock trial rooms. Help-ing Gregory and Reiter cele-brate the occasion is MichiganSupreme Court Justice Mari-lyn Kelly (center).Photo by John Meiu

Local firmdedicatesrestoredbuilding

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SEC-TION (YLS) of the State Bar ofMichigan hosted a seminar on

Thursday, October 21, at theSkyline Club in Southfield.Gathering before the eventare (left to right) Angelique

Strong Marks,YLS ExecutiveCouncil chairperson, with theHandleman Company in Troy;Nancy Caine Harbour, speak-

er, with the AndersonBoyerGroup in Saline; and Elias T.

Xenos, member of the YLSExecutive Council, with Haliw,Siciliano & Mychalowych, P.C.

in Farmington Hills.Photo by John Meiu

Section conductsseminar

Lawyers, litigants, witnesses, court person-nel and judges will soon be able to read timelyinformation on disabilities issues via a seriesof four electronic newsletters.

The State Bar of Michigan Standing Com-mittee on Justice Initiatives and its EqualAccess Initiatives team began distributingthese newsletters in early November.

The first newsletter is entitled “Deaf andHard of Hearing,” and focuses on those issuesin the courtroom setting. It contains four sec-tions of information, including legal require-ments for access to the court system, practicalproblems that arise in the court setting, andsuggestions for deaf or hard of hearing per-sons in the courtroom.

A reference section with hyperlinks toother information is also included, with adirect link to SCAO Form MC 70, Request forAccommodations.

“There are 56 million people in this coun-try with disabilities, representing all walks oflife,” said Charlotte Johnson, chair of theState Bar Equal Access Initiative.

“We encourage as many people as possibleto read the first newsletter, sign up for the freesubscription for the remaining three issues,and ask others in the profession and the publicto subscribe to this service,” Johnson said.She also expressed special thanks to the writ-ers on the project.

“Without Judge Teranes, David Stokes,Kathleen Harris, and Paul Ulrich, this infor-mation would not be available in this veryhelpful form.”

The first newsletter was distributed elec-tronically to all Michigan attorneys, membersof the judiciary, and others who may have aninterest in disabilities issues.

Recipients may sign up to receive the otherthree newsletters entitled “Wheelchairs in theCourtroom;” “Non-Lawyer Advocates forPeople with Cognitive Disabilities,” and“Low-Cost Tips to Make Courthouses User-Friendly for People with Disabilities.”

There is no cost for the four newsletters,which will be posted on the Bar’s website atwww.michbar.org so that members of the pub-lic will have access to the information as well.

Funding for this project was provided inpart by the Newman Foundation.

State Bar tofocus on issuesfor those withdisabilities

By President Judith S. Gracey

UPDATEPONTIAC (AP) — Two men who

already served jail time for assault in thebeating of a Clarkston man are facing trialon new charges filed after the man died.

Oakland County prosecutors chargedLance A. Schmitt, now 20, and Joseph W.Stapleton, now 21, with second-degree mur-der after Peter G. Richard died March 5.

The Independence Township men beatRichard, 44, in the parking lot of a McDon-ald’s restaurant in November 2002. Richarddied of complications from back surgerythat prosecutors said was made necessaryby the assault.

According to police, Richard was in thedrive-through lane when one of four youngmen standing together called Richard anobscene name.

Richard got out of his car to confrontthem and two of them attacked him, policesaid.

Schmitt and Stapleton both pleaded nocontest to assault with intent to do greatbodily harm less than murder. They served10 months in the Oakland County Jail andwere ordered to pay about $8,600 in restitu-tion.

Despite the earlier conviction, prosecu-tors are charging them now under a 1993Michigan Supreme Court ruling that mur-der charges can be brought when someonedies from injuries sustained in an attack,regardless of how much time has passed.

Defense attorneys say the new chargesare unfounded, but prosecutors say Richardwould be alive today if not for the beating.

Pair faces trial in man’s deathseveral months after beating

FLINT (AP) — About $100,000 in schooldistrict funds is going in the trash.

School officials have lost a lawsuit filedafter the district complained that garbage bagsthey received from a New York company weretoo flimsy.

Interboro Packaging Corp. sued after theschool district refused to pay the $38,000 con-tract for 7,000 cases of garbage bags.

A Genesee County Circuit Court jurydecided this summer that Flint owed the com-pany about half of the $38,000. But after courtcosts and attorney fees, Flint will pay nearly$100,000 to put the case to rest, Tim Winship,attorney for the Flint Board of Education, toldThe Flint Journal.

The board recently decided not to appealthe jury decision and a related ruling byGenesee Circuit Judge Judith Fullerton thatFlint must pay the company’s attorney fees.

In all, the district will pay Interboro about

$66,000, and has spent another $30,000 for itsown attorney fees, Winship said.

But Winship said the case was a partialvictory for the district since the company wasactually seeking $58,000 from the jury.

Board President Christopher Martin saidthe district should have appealed the decision.But other board members said that the districtneeded to cut its losses and move on, Winshipsaid.

“Only in America can you lie about a prod-uct and then turn around and sue,” Martinsaid.

Interboro’s local attorney, Michael Gildnerof Mundy Township, disagreed and said thecompany is a reputable garbage bag provider.

“It’s humorous for them to say they werelied to or cheated because we establishedquite clearly that if anything it was the districtthat had shenanigans going on with a localvendor,” Gildner said. “If the jury believed (it

was a scam), then we would have received nomoney whatsoever.”

In 2002, Flint solicited bids for a year’sworth of trash bags for the district. Interborowas the low bidder and was awarded the con-tract, Winship said.

But when the bags arrived they didn’t meetthe bid specifications. They were too thin andofficials feared they would break.

Flint, which never used the bags, refused topay for them and told the company to comeget them. Interboro sued instead, Winshipsaid.

Interboro argued that although the thick-ness of the bags didn’t meet the bid specifica-tions, the district was sent samples andapproved the bid based on those samples,Gildner said. Winship said the district nowwill be forced to use the Interboro bags.

“The schools will have to double-bag themto get the correct thickness,” Winship said.

School district loses lawsuit over garbage bags

Students pass July Barexam, local admissionsceremonies planned

The list of those who passed the July barexam has been posted by the State Bar ofMichigan and is printed on the back page ofthis edition of the Oakland County LegalNews. The list is also available on the StateBar’s web site, http://www.michbar.org.

Local admission ceremonies have beenplanned and include the following:

• The Oakland County admission ceremo-ny is scheduled for Wednesday, November 17,at 11 a.m. The ceremony will be conductedat the Commissioner’s Auditorium at the Oak-land County Courthouse.

To register for the Oakland ceremony, callthe Oakland County Bar Association officesat (248) 334-3400.

• The Macomb County admission ceremo-ny is planned for 4 p.m. Thursday, November18, in the courtroom of Macomb CountyChief Judge Peter Maceroni, fourth floor, 40N. Main in Mt. Clemens. Attendees are askedto arrive by 3 p.m. in the fourth floor hallwayof the court building to fill out the necessarypaperwork.

To register for the Macomb ceremony, callthe Macomb County Bar Association at (586)468-2940.

• The Wayne Third Judicial Circuit Courtin conjunction with the Detroit MetropolitanBar Association (DMBA) will conduct a massAdmissions Ceremony on Monday, Novmeber22, at noon. The ceremony will be held in the13th Floor Auditorium of the Coleman A.Young Municipal Center, 2 WoodwardAvenue, located on the corner of Jefferson andWoodward Avenue in downtown Detroit.

For admission to the bar, candidates mustbe sponsored by a current member of theState Bar of Michigan. The DMBA will pro-vide candidates participating in the ceremonywith a sponsor.

On or before 4 p.m. Thursday, November18, new attorneys must present their barexamination notification letter, along with a$25 filing fee (cash or money order only) tothe Wayne County Clerk’s Office in Room 201of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.

Please contact Angela English at (313)961-6120, ext. 201 to make arrangements forpersonal motion and R.S.V.P. for the ceremony.

Justice Scalia to presentU of M DeRoy Lecture

United States Supreme Court JusticeAntonin Scalia will present the University ofMichigan Law School’s DeRoy Lecture onTuesday, November 16. The lecture will beheld at 4:30 p.m. in Rackham Auditorium,915 East Washington, in Ann Arbor. The lec-ture is free and open to the public.

Scalia was nominated to the United StatesSupreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in1986, after previously serving on the UnitedStates Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuitand as assistant attorney general for the Officeof Legal Counsel. Scalia has also served as aprofessor of law at the University of Virginiaand the University of Chicago, a scholar inresidence at the American Enterprise Institute,and a visiting professor of law at GeorgetownUniversity and Stanford University.

The DeRoy Fellowship Program, whichwas established to bring distinguished lawyersand public figures to the U of M Law Schoolto support its educational mission, is madepossible through the Detroit-based DeRoyTestamentary Foundation.

HOLIDAY SCHEDULEOffices of the Oakland County Legal

News will be closed Thursday and Friday,November 25-26, in observance of theThanksgiving holiday.

The deadline for legal notices, cancella-tions, and corrections for publication onNovember 26th, need to be submitted byFriday, November 19, by 3 p.m.

The regular office schedule and legalpublication deadlines will resume Monday,November 29.

Fostering thenext generation

(See OCBA UPDATE, Page Two)

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