When lawyers always win, it's time to limit their high fees

For years, Prospect Avenue in Hackensack was pounded by ambulances into little more than a crudely patched track that resembled a third-world road. City officials neglected it, even though Prospect is a premier street lined with expensive high-rises. Now, the repaving of Prospect, between Essex and Passaic streets, has been greeted with oohs and aahs.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record is running major stories today on just three of the things Governor Christie is against, including a Page 1 report on the fallout from his refusal to raise the low gasoline tax.

Port Authority reporter Shawn Boburg says the bistate agency has spent $1.75 million on favored outside lawyers to defend itself and its employees from a probe of actions they took at Christie's urging (A-1).

That's nearly three times the $675,000 the agency spent on outside legal eagles during a grand jury probe of the George Washington Bridge lane closures (A-8).

Hourly rates?

Boburg's long story doesn't mention the rates the Port Authority was charged by connected law firms in New York and New Jersey, but you can bet it is several hundreds of dollars per hour.

Whatever the outcome of the probe, the lawyers will win by collecting millions in legal fees and laughing all the way to the bank, taking comfort in the knowledge that no one is moving to regulate their rates.

The Record prefers to report on lawyers who dress well, but never questions high legal fees, which deny many people access to the courts.

And its own general counsel happily pay hundreds of dollars per hour to lawyers at Pashman Stein in Hackensack.

Anti-transit, too

At Christie's urging, the Port Authority shifted $1.8 billion to the repair of New Jersey roads from a fund that was supposed to help build two Hudson River rail tunnels, a project the GOP bully killed in 2010.

"New Jersey needed the funds because its own Transportation Trust Fund had virtually run out of money and could no longer support large projects," Boburg reports.

He notes the repairs "allowed Christie to plug a hole in the state's budget ... without raising New Jersey's gasoline tax ..., the main source of income for the state's transportation funding" (A-8). 

The Port Authority is defending its actions from probes by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Also anti-voting

A story on A-4 today reports Christie also opposes a revision of New Jersey's laws "by expanding early voting to two weeks before general elections, automatically registering voters when they are issued a driver's license and allowing online registration."

On A-9, another story reports Christie is attacking President Obama's "sweeping plan to cut carbon emissions from power plants."

The Record and other media should question the conservative's racial motivation for repeated attacks on Obama's policies.

Christie is running against 15 or 16 other Republicans for his party's presidential nomination, not Obama, and in the unlikely event he gets it, he certainly won't be facing the president in the 2016 election.

More errors

A-2 today carries corrections from Better Living, Sports and Local, showing a total breakdown in the editing of the Woodland Park daily.

In Local, the drought on Hackensack news continues.

Editors make readers work hard for pension reform 'facts'

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey acquired the PATH commuter rail line, above and below, in a 1962 deal that allowed the bi-state agency to build the original World Trade Center on land occupied by the railroad's terminal in lower Manhattan.

PATH, originally known as the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, hasn't been expanded since 1938, when a new 33rd Street station in Manhattan opened to the public. The Record's coverage of the Port Authority's bus and rail transit operations has been extremely thin, especially when compared to endless pieces on motorists, tolls and patronage.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today tries to separate fact from fiction in Governor Christie's statements on the state pension system for teachers, police officers, firefighters and government workers (A-1).

But why do it in a political column, and why does Staff Writer Charles Stile front-load the piece on Page 1 with the same Christie misstatements the paper has been publishing forever?

Readers really have to work hard to find "the whole story" promised in the sub-headline, a testament to the sad state of editing and the Christie idolatry at the Woodland Park daily.

Page turner

Don't bother with the set up on the front page; go right to the continuation page (A-6) to learn Christie is blowing smoke on the health of the pension system and the need for benefit cuts, as the GOP bully has done on nearly every issue since he took office in 2010.

The 10th paragraph of Stile's rehash appears on A-6:

"And like most political campaigns from time immemorial, Christie's salesmanship will rely on fair doses of hyperbole and revisionism."

That should have been the burned-out reporter's lead paragraph, followed by specifics and, on the continuation page, the background that now appears on Page 1.

Here are more facts that Stile tries to bury:

• New Jersey has enough to cover the costs of retirees for the next 30 years.
• The Garden State also can't go bankrupt, because it is a sovereign state with the power to levy taxes as necessary.
• Christie is as guilty as his predecessors for shortchanging the pension system to the tune of $3 billion in 2011, $900 million in the last fiscal year and $1.6 billion in the current fiscal year.
• A reduction in benefits isn't the only option, if Christie raised taxes on affluent residents and corporations. He's vetoed the former four times.

Crashes, crime, tripe

Two crashes and one hit-run accident, involving an SUV hitting a bicyclist, help fill the pages of Local today, along with court and police news, a zoning hearing and a November referendum on open-space funding (L-1 to L-6).

The lead story on the front of the local-news section reports Superior Court Assignment Judge Peter E. Doyne is addressing a shortage of judges in Bergen County (L-1).

Of course, the story ignores the tremendous impact of delays and postponements on the legal fees paid by plaintiffs and defendants.

If it takes a civil case two years to drag through the courts, those fees multiply, enriching lawyers, some of whom go on to be judges.

Is that a Toyota?

The story on a woman driver losing control on Route 208 and hitting two police cruisers carries a photo caption that reads:

"The driver of the Toyota had serious injuries" (L-1).

But the two-door vehicle with a rear spoiler that is shown in the photo looks like a Pontiac, not a Toyota.

And in a departure from the ordinary, an Old Tappan man who drove his car through the front of one store and into another wasn't a senior citizen who mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal (L-6).

Kelly is a fool

Two days after Columnist Mike Kelly blamed unions for opposing money saving consolidation, a story reports Paterson's police union is supporting an initiative to team up with other departments to fight crime in the state's three largest cities (L-3). 

Why is Joe Zisa still Hackensack city attorney?

The Hackensack seal behind City Council members has been hanging crooked for many weeks, but was adjusted for Tuesday night's meeting. City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr., cousin of convicted former Police Chief Ken Zisa, is at left.

Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono says 12 to 15 city employees drive home in city owned cars, including this gas-guzzling Ford Crown Victoria that was parked on Spring Valley Avenue last weekend. Can hard-pressed property tax payers afford such a luxury? If the cars were sold, the money could be put to much better use.

Hackensack City Attorney Joseph C. Zisa Jr. says he won't ask a judge for a ruling on the reasonableness of more than $500,000 in legal fees that will be paid for police officers acquitted of charges linked to the disgraced Ken Zisa, the former police chief and his cousin.

Today's Page 1 story in The Record quotes Joe Zisa extensively on why the city is paying the fees, but doesn't explain why he didn't recuse himself, as he did in many of the civil suits filed against Ken Zisa, a former assemblyman.

Time to go

More than 10 months after Ken Zisa was convicted, no City Council member or city official has called on Joe Zisa to end his relationship with a city that has become known derisively as "Zisaville" -- or at least The Record hasn't reported it.

Councilman John Labrosse, the only incumbent seeking another term, hasn't spoken at recent meetings about the need to cut Zisa loose, even as Labrosse supporters and running mates blast the city's stratospheric legal bills.

In today's story, Joe Zisa is quoted as saying the city "has a right to pay officers' legal fees under state law," but he wasn't asked if the city is obligated to do so.

There goes the judge

In a brief telephone interview this morning, Joe Zisa told Eye on The Record the city won't go before a judge in an effort to reduce its payment on behalf of the two cops, who were charged an outrageous $390 an hour and $225 an hour -- compared to the $125 an hour the city pays to outside counsel.

In fact, no one except the city attorney and other officials have reviewed the reasonableness of the fees, Joe Zisa said.

That position amounts to defending the high legal fees charged by his greedy fellow practitioners -- fees that greatly restrict access to the courts. 

Today's paper

Staff Writer Jay Levin's search for the oldest New Jersey centenarian is mildly interesting, but I wish he reported more on their health practices and what they eat and drink (A-1).

Page A-2 carries two corrections today -- but ignores so many other errors, especially those committed three times a week by tired Staff Writer John Cichowski, also known as the Road Kill Warrior.

Local snooze

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, put out another scintillating Local news section today, including the 12th or 13th story on a Paterson book drive sponsored by the paper (L-1) and a plan to fix school roofs in Midland Park (L-6).

On L-2, they run another gee-whiz photo of a non-fatal collision with a photo caption devoid of any information on how the accident happened or if one of the drivers was charged.

We're sick of Sandy

Why is a story on a shocking film exposing the practice of killing baby girls in India and China buried on BL-3 in Better Living today, and not displayed on A-1, in place of one of the two Sandy stories?

How many more Page 1 stories about the Oct. 29 superstorm can readers take, and when will Editors Sykes and Sforza, and Chief Honcho Marty Gottlieb stop using Sandy as a crutch? 

Don't worry, you can skip today's paper

The Record reports Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., won't be smiling after the National Rifle Association gets through with him and a Democratic bill to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines like those used to kill 12 people in Colorado last week.

It took only five days for the horrific movie-theater shooting in Colorado to fall off the front page of The Record.

In its place, Editor Marty Gottlieb gives readers four major Page 1 stories today -- all yawners.

Don't look for North Jersey relevance in all but the "process story" on Governor Christie's grab for unspent affordable housing funds (bottom of A-1).

Here comes the judge

Next to it, the story on the state Supreme Court only reminds readers of how high legal fees prevent most of them from having any effective access to the courts -- an issue The Record won't touch.

It's an elaborate and intricate system enforced by judges, all of whom were themselves lawyers who got rich by representing people in criminal and civil matters as they slowly wound their way through the courts. 

The high court ruling cited constitutional protection of judicial salaries, stopping Christie from requiring hundreds of judges to pay more for pension and medical benefits.

But how independent is a judiciary whose members are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Legislature? 

Bored with shooting

With the Colorado killings fresh in readers' minds, why doesn't Gottlieb's front page carry the story on Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and other senators taking on the NRA (A-3)?

Out-of-touch journalist

On head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski writes about "the great universe of parking tickets" and "our ... stellar driving careers" (L-1).

In other words, it's another totally irrelevant column from La La Land, ignoring the realities of commuting in North Jersey.

Blaming the victim

The major element on L-1 reports that a pedestrian apparently committed suicide on Tuesday by standing on the tracks in front of an NJ Transit train approaching the Broadway station in Fair Lawn.

The victim, Yelena Gorovits, 47, is called a "trespasser" in the story, but there is no mention of safety measures at the station to prevent such incidents or whether an NJ Transit cop patrols the tracks. 

Just chopped liver

Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi got a terrific photo -- investigators lifting a sheet to look at the body, which presumably resembled bloody hamburger after being hit by the enormous locomotive.

Was Gorovits a mother, daughter or aunt? Was she married, employed? Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza don't care one bit about those questions.

The insensitive, lazy editors treat her as so much chopped liver.

As if often the case, Local is filled with lots of police and court news, and hardly any municipal news.

Hackensack readers, you can go back to sleep.