HeyBub wrote:
RickH wrote:
On Jul 20, 6:49 am, "HeyBub" wrote:
"The feds are complaining about getting dragged into court, having
to file time-consuming paperwork, and generally being treated like
any taxpayer who get crosswise with the IRS. "

"The federal agency claims its precious time is being eaten up by
Wal-Mart's legal maneuvers. Officials at the Department of Labor say
that, over the past five months, 17 percent of the available
attorney hours in its New York office have been devoted to this one
little case..."

http://townhall.com/columnists/PaulG.../wal-mart_stri...

I understand that Wal-Mart will NEVER settle a meritless
"slip-and-fall" case. They may lose money defending such a case but
their theory is that a vigorous defense against a single nuisance
suit deters 100 others.

Staff attorneys at wal-mart are paid a salary so their hours are a
constant expense anyway no matter what the workload is. Also the
staff attorneys work multiple cases simultaneously. But 100 suits
deterred is a genuine savings, that is where the staff attorneys
become an asset rather than an expense.

Don't forget, the lawyers at OSHA are on salary too. Still, it's fun to see
them outsmarted.

Many years ago, IBM announced a vapor(hard)ware machine the day before
Control Data Corporation (CDC) was to unveil their (in the flesh)
super-dooper number cruncher. Of course IBM got all the press.

CDC got ****ed and sued IBM for restraint of trade, unfair competition, and
everything else. The Justice Department, smelling blood, joined the suit and
called for a break-up of IBM.

The suit went on for YEARS (there were more lawyers on IBM's side than the
entire complement of the Anti-Trust division of the DOJ). Finally, the night
before trial was to start, IBM and CDC worked a secret, backroom deal. CDC
got an undisclosed amount of cash and a division of IBM, The Service Bureau
Corporation. CDC technicians worked all night to fulfill their part of the
deal: destroying all records, depositions, data bases, etc. so that not a
scrap of analysis or discovery gleaned in almost ten years remained. Not
even a tittle.

The next day, CDC withdrew their suit and the DOJ had bupkus.


Destroying evidence is often not the best idea.