Green Lantern

Every summer I look forward to the summer movies. I was certainly looking forward to see the Green Lantern. I was disappointed. The movie was awful. The millions of dollars spent on special effects could not make up for a script that didn't even try.

I understand that Hal Jordan (a/k/a The Green Lantern) saw his father die. I understand he was a screw up who couldn't make a commitment. I understood his potential to be paralyzed by fear. None of these flaws made me care for him.

It is also true that good writing and acting can make a character more empathetic when that character is flawed. Certainly this technique worked for Batman and Iron Man. In Batman Begins Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) must learn to tame his inner demons. He is filled with anger brought on by his parents death. His emotional pain made the viewer feel for the character. Bruce Wayne is not a poor little rich kid but a flawed hero. A large portion of the movie was dedicated to examining his Psyche. The same can be said for Iron Man. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is struggling with his father's legacy and his own self indulgence. At the end of these movies it is as much about defeating the bad guys as coming to grips with the character's need for self actualization.

In the Green Lantern it is unclear what Hal Jordan has learned from his battles. I still wonder how wimpy the Green Lantern Corps must be in that despite their years of service they could not defeat a monster that Hal Jordan could defeat with ease. It is also unclear how Hal's battle with fear and evil caused him to grow as a person?

Form over substance will continue to be a problem in the movies as in life. Would this movie have been made based on the script alone without the promise of impressive Computer Generated Imagery? Since this is a legal blog I should note that sometimes this occurs in the courtroom as well. Lawyers sometimes believe that by force of will the judge or jury will side with them. Yet no matter how convincing an argument it must be based on a solid foundation of facts, evidence and the law.

I have not given up on the summer yet. I hope that the next movie related blog I write will be glowing praise.

Valentine's Day

It may seem odd that a family law attorney is writing about Valentine's Day. After all a divorce case has far more to do with dollars and cents than hearts and cupids. In part that is because courts are very good at dividing money and not so good at issues of the heart.

A divorce is stressful and can have a substantial and real emotional impact. What happens in the court is not going to resolve emotional issues. It is alright to seek counseling or speak with a Minister, Priest or Rabbi about healing the soul. Often people are surprised when the divorce is complete that they are still not done emotionally.

When children are involved some issues may not be resolved until the children are done with college. My father's old business partner use to say, "It's not over until the youngest grandchild has finished college.". That being said you can divorce your spouse but not your children. Children need to know that they are loved and secure. That both parents will always love them and care for them.

That being said I want to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day. I hope everyone is loved. I hope everyone has someone to love.

Slavery - A Modern Day Problem

The reading of the United States Constitution by the newly elected members of the House of Representatives skipped the parts of the document that made reference to slavery. They did not want to remind the people that slaves were considered 3/5 of a person (United State's Constitution Article 1, Section 2). Slavery is a part of our history we can't hide from. Even the Bible makes uncomfortable references to slavery (Exodus 20:21, Ephesians 6:5). Is slavery just an embarrassing reminder of an uncivilized past isn't it?

A friend recently reminded my that the 13th Amendment does not end slavery. In part it reads: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction". (13th Amendment - United States Constitution). In other words prisoners can be treated as slaves. They also are being used as slave labor throughout the country every day. Why should this cause concern? After all they were convicted of a crime.

Illinois is broke. The recent tax increase attests to that. Housing prisoners costs a lot a money. More than $30,000 per year per person. At a sentencing hearing a judge is required to, "...consider the financial impact of incarceration based on the financial impact statement filed with the clerk of the court by the Department of Corrections;". (730 ILCS 5/5-4-1). Yet, sentencing gets more harsh each year. The tax increase wont solve the state's financial problems. People are looking for a way to decrease costs and increase revenue.

The sentences handed out for non-violent drug crimes in Illinois often exceed the sentences for murder. Federal sentences most of the time involve greater prison terms than state charges. Jails and prisons are full. The United States, by far, has more citizens in prison than any other nation. This includes China which has a population that is around four times that of the United States of America.

The problem of overcrowded prisons and not enough money to support them may lead to a disturbing solution. It could lead to a new slave nation. Private for profit prisons have a huge incentive to encourage harsher prison sentences. This is even more so if they can avail themselves of free slave labor. Illinois at this time does not have private for profit prisons. The Private Correctional Facility Moratorium Act, bars private prisons in Illinois. (730 ILCS 140/1-140/4). That being said according to Wikipedia as of the year 2000, there were 153 private correctional facilities with a capacity to hold 119,000 inmates in the United States (Wikipedia).

Even if a state does not rely on private facilities to house inmates they can still benefit. Illinois is not opposed to using prison labor. According to the Illinois Department of Correction's web site the use of prison labor is on the rise in the last two decades. Other states have also gotten in on the action. Including states that rent prisoners to big business at discount prices. Slavery may not violate the 13th Amendment but it may violate the 8th Amendment. The 8th Amendment states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.".

Is there a better win the war on drugs than putting non-violent offender is prison. Is there a point when slave labor in and of itself is considered, "cruel and unusual"? Should the over representation in prisons of African Americans, when compared to the general population, cause concerns when the issue of slavery is addressed? Perhaps, new blog topics for the future.

Divorce and the Holidays

Either you look back at the holidays with a sense of childhood wonder with dreams of sugar plums, or you look back at the holidays wishing you had a sense of childhood wonder with dreams of sugar plums. The best Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and/or Eid al-Adha centers around children. That does not mean the best X-Box, Wii or Playstation. It means togetherness, love and family.

Thus, the process of divorce can certainly have a negative impact on the holidays. That is why if possible it helps to work together. Even at the cost of personal bad feelings. It will not be lost on the children that their parents were able to put bad feelings aside for the holidays.

There are areas of compromise. Some families celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and others on Christmas. Thus, that can be a good dividing point for visitation. Also, the Christmas break is usually at least two weeks and covers four special days: Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year's Day, and New Year's Eve. Hanukkah varies year to year based on the Jewish Calendar. That being said, you can determine when Hanukkah will be each year. Muslim holidays also use a lunar calendar and vary year to year. Also, over eight days under most visitation schedules the children will have at least a few days with each parent.

Last minute fights over holiday visitation do occur. Thus, most of the time a compromise can be reached. It is important not to let bad feelings associated with the divorce interfere with the children's holiday experience.

Love one another and have a great holiday from the Law Office of Scott Lerner.

Top Scary Movies for Halloween

It is the time of year to talk about Halloween and scary movies. This blog entry does not have much to do with the law. Although, I encourage you to contact the Law Office of Scott Lerner if you go on a killing spree and need representation. I do frown on such behavior and encourage peaceful ways of resolving your differences.

I'm making a list of my top 10 favorite Horror Movies. It is not in order. If you make the list you are already a winner.

The Shining - (the original) - The Stephen King story is great but the direction of Stanley Kubrick makes it a classic. Also, the acting is fantastic. I still get a chill when the twins say, "Come play with us, Danny. Forever and ever and ever."

The Omen (The original from 1976) - The juxtaposition of timeless evil in a little boy just gives me a chill. This movie takes such an unbelievable premise and makes it real. Who needs modern Hollywood special effects?

The Thing - To me this is John Carpenter's masterpiece. Halloween never scared me very much. The Thing plays on your sense of isolation and claustrophobia.

The Sixth Sense - How can M. Night Shyamalan make such a great movie and such bad movies afterwards? Given its PG-13 rating it goes to show that gore, sex and bad language are not necessary for fright. When the father is watching the video-tape the look on his face expresses far more horror then any special effect can.

The Ring - Is there a pattern or two on the list? So far the movies all concern a child. Also they all start with the word "the." Based on the Japanese movie "Ringu" this adaptation is nightmarish. The premise seems silly but it works. The scariest thing to come from Japan since "uni."

Pet Semetery - Little kids coming back from the dead just scare me. Fred Gwynne should have received an Oscar. Most Stephen King books don't make great movies. "Pet Semetery" and "The Shining" are the exceptions. Both also involve Native American burial grounds.

The Orphanage - I'm not a big fan of subtitles but this film is well worth the effort. The atmosphere of dread. The dead children. This movie is just spooky. Another movie that does not need a lot of special effects to be effective.

Hellraiser - This film is original and scary. It paints a new picture of hell on earth. The only Clive Barker movie on the list but "Candyman" is listed as an honorable mention.

Rosemary's Baby - I purposely did not include older movies (this might explain the absence of "Psycho" from my list). This movie I made an exception for. Roman Polanski may be a good topic for my law related topics but this movie speaks for itself. It shows even an infant can be scary.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (the original) - Wes Craven made some scary movies. "Scream" and "The Serpent and the Rainbow" both deserve honorable mention. Yet, a monster that can enter your dreams is a monster well worth being afraid of. The bastard child of a hundred maniacs is one evil dude.

Top ten lists always provide room for argument. What scares me might not scare you. My life experience impacts my list. I am not a fan of your basic slasher film. I prefer a supernatural element to my movies. I could have easily made this a top twenty list and included all of those movies receiving honorable mention and listed below.

Honorable Mention: The Exorcist, Candyman, Alien, Friday the 13th, The 9th Gate, The Fog, Night of the Living Dead, Saw, Evil Dead, An American Werewolf in London.

Case 39 and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

I saw the movie Case 39. I guess I should say spoiler alert before I go on. This is not a movie I want to endorse or recommend but it did make me think about our legal system and how we deal with children.

The movie involves a woman who works for a social service agency concerned with abused and/or neglected children. The California equivalent to the Department of Children and Family Services. Emily (played by Renee Zellweger) is assigned to an unusual family. She feels the daughter is being abused. She ends up rushing to the home just as the child's parents are shoving the child into an oven.

The child is saved by Emily and her friend Detective Barron (Ian McShane). The result is that the parents are sent to a mental health facility and the child ends up living with the social worker. The child turns out to be an evil demon that feeds on death and misery.

Evil child movies always give me the Heebie-jeebies. The juxtaposition of the innocence of a child with the evil of an ageless creature is unsettling. This movie lacked the chills of The Omen or The Exorcist but the idea is the same.

The point I want to make is not that they don't make movies about possessed children as well as they did in the old days. The point is that our legal system has some severe limitations when dealing with children.

Emily is hard working and caring. That being said she had 39 cases in her caseload and limited time to spend on each. She also had no children of her own and had a difficult childhood. Thus, little real life experience concerning how to raise children. Although, fictional the description of Emily is not far from a realistic account of the problems facing social workers.

In these types of cases a social worker makes a decision based on a moment in time rather then over a period of years. I'm not saying they necessarily make the wrong decisions only that their decisions are based on limited information. The Courts have the same limitations. The Judge's understanding of the case is limited to the evidence presented by the parties. The Court often never hears from the children personally. There are certain exceptions to the hearsay rules in Illinois related to children in abuse cases. In addition it is not unusual for the parties not to seek the testimony of the children.

The hard cases are not the sever abuse cases or the drug exposed infants. The hard cases involve the close calls. Foster homes are often worse then leaving the child where she was at. Some foster homes contain other children who have been abused. These children may act out against other foster children in the home. Relative placements can also be troubling. If a mother abuses her child then giving the child to the grandmother who raised the abusive mother may be a mistake.

Supervision is also difficult. Social workers have a large caseload. It is difficult to monitor all the the placements. I court hearing every six months or so is no guarantee anyone is providing proper services and supervision to those involved. In addition case workers are often lacking in the experience and education to deal with children with sever psychological and emotional problems.

I don't have the statistics as to how many children who grow up in foster care end up having a successful and productive life. I will say based on my experience that many of them grow up to have their own children raised in foster care. I can also say that success stories are the exception and not the rule.

Antiques Roadshow - The Good The Bad and The Ugly

I would like to say my object was worth a million dollars and that I’m moving to a tropical island. I would like to say that but it would be lying. We drove to Des Moines, Iowa and saw the Roadshow live and in person on August 7, 2010. The drive was over six hours so this was something we really wanted to do. Was it worth it? In some ways yes and in others no. Was it what I expected? In some ways yes and in others no.

When we arrived at Hy-Vee Hall I was surprised at how little hoopla surrounding the event. There were not a lot of huge signs, scalpers or snow cone venders. They did have a stream of people and objects going into the hall. The volunteers were pleasant and did a good job of getting us to the right place. Although the line was long, it moved very quickly and the people were polite and did not seem to mind waiting. I amused myself by looking at the people with the biggest items. These included a plane prop longer then I am tall and a huge copper bust three times as big as an ordinary head. I would like to have seen more items in line but most people boxed their items. They did have reruns of the show projected on screens throughout the room without sound but with sub-titles. The hall served sandwiches and snacks at a concession stand but nothing worth mentioning.

After the two hour wait in the first line we arrived at a tables with volunteers who divided us into categories. The objects we brought were silver, collectibles and a painting. Toys, posters, paintings and collectibles had the longest lines and silver and Asian art were the shortest lines. Up until this point the organization of the event and the demeanor of all the people involved were surprising excellent. Our tickets were for 3:00 p.m. and the first tickets were for 8:00 a.m. so everyone working for the show had to be tired by the time we got to them.

The set was surrounded by blue screens that formed a large circle. The long lines for each appraisal table were outside the blue screens, thus not visible to the tv viewer. I was surprised how open the set was. The filming was done right in the middle of all the appraisal tables that ringed the set. While we were in the "inside" line for paintings, Mark Walberg taped the introduction. Who knows maybe I will be in the background? The filming of objects selected for TV was done right in the middle of all the commotion.

I was also surprised that everyone I wanted to see was in the hall, Nicholas Lowry (or as my wife and I call him Penn since he looks like Penn from Penn and Teller), a Keno brother (or maybe both since they do look alike) and Noel Barrett were all there as well as most of the people you see on television every week

The experts sat behind a desk with a couple of books and most had a laptop computer. At each table were two to four experts. When an opening was available you would walk up to the appraiser. As I mentioned the filming took place at tables in the middle of the blue screened circle. Although items were filmed while I was there, I did not see an initial appraisal of an item that made it on to the television.

The first table we went to was the painting table. My wife who brought a painting, felt the appraiser seemed a bit short and disinterested. She felt some of the other experts were more engaged in their work of the day.

At this point I went to the silver table. This was fortunate since silver had only three people in line. I believe my expert was Nicholas Dawes. He was polite and spent a lot of time with me. I should point out there was no line at that point. Clearly my items did not “wow” him but he was still patient and explained things. He did suggest items that he felt would be good seek out that were similar to the items I collected. He also suggested a museum in New York I might like to go to.

The next stop was collectibles. My wife got in line first when I left for silver. Apparently a man had a seizure in the line next to her, and had to be taken out by ambulance. Another guest took pictures of him and was escorted out of the Roadshow (pictures are not allowed past the initial appraisal point and this man was taking pictures of everything. As for other odd events I heard a big piece of glass break and that certainly caused my heart to go out to someone.

At Collectibles my wife was happier with her appraiser, Mark Moran who said her item was not terribly valuable but was “cool”. He spent a fair amount of time discussing the item with her and suggesting ways she could determine a value on her own. The collectibles booth was my biggest disappointment of the show. I brought a medal with connections to the White House. I did my homework and could not find any idea of the value of the item on line. That is why I brought it to the show. The appraiser said after only a moment that he had not seen a similar item and thus could not give a value. I was very disappointed. I understand he was in a hurry and had a lot of people in line but he did not seem to make much of an effort. I would have been happy if he at least could point me in the right direction of another appraiser or dealer I could ask. I understand it was late in the day and there was a line but this was a disappointment.

If I were to go again I would certainly choose my items better. Rather then bringing collections of things I would bring my best item. I considered my collection of presidential items as one item. They did not. Also, they do not have the time to really consider a number of items. I also would not choose an item for which I could not find any information on the web. After all, these folks are doing a lot of the same research you and I would do. If I can’t find a similar item there is a good chance in two minutes they can’t either.

Was it worth the drive? For a one time adventure? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes, as long as I don’t have to drive six plus hours. Did it exceed my expectations? No, the appraisers are to busy to do real research. It also provided no opportunity to meet the appraisers or watch the appraisals of other items. I should also note that thousands of people go through each Roadshow stop. Only a few items are selected, The odds of even being considered for television are very low. That being said maybe we will get lucky. My wife and I visited the feedback booth and might be in the background of some appraisal so look for us. I would have also liked to see an Antiques Roadshow t-shirt stand. I am looking forward to watching the show now that I have the insider's scoop on what really goes on. I would love to see a behind-the-scenes show as well. From listening to Mark tape the introductions, we discovered the Des Moines shows will start off the season in January.