Angstman Law Office south is active for the month of June on the elk farm in Minnesota. Of course, the fax machine doesn’t work, and there are printer problems as well. Tech support for Hewlett Packard is in India, and they want slightly more than the value of a new printer to discuss, in broken English, the problem with the current machine. Having tech support overseas is excellent strategy, because it prevents irate customers from invading the office with their broken machines.
Back when the technology was working better in May, ALO settled an airplane crash case out of Aniak. Three clients were passengers on an aircraft that lost power shortly after takeoff and landed roughly on a Kuskokwim River sandbar. One lady broke a finger, the other two were bumped and bruised in the landing. They shared a $60,000 settlement.
A Teller client settled a claim against the Federal government for medical malpractice after she had a growth removed from her arm. The doctor cut in the wrong place, requiring a second operation. The case settled for an undisclosed amount. Sometimes one party or the other requests the amount of a settlement be kept confidential. ALO honors those requests. When it is a mandatory term of the settlement, failure to comply could result in further litigation.
ALO helped another client who was unhappy with the work of a previous attorney. A claim was filed with the Alaska Bar Association to seek return of a portion of the fees paid in a criminal case. The attorney agreed to return half of the fee before the case was heard by the Bar. Fee arbitration is a service available to any person who feels an Alaska attorney did not charge the proper fee in a case. It is free of charge, and can be done over the phone. The claimant need not have an attorney help with the arbitration, but may use one if desired.
Pictures of the Bethel flood were posted on this site earlier. This year’s flood was fairly high but Bethel dodged a bullet when the ice failed to jam below town. The water was running very high during May because of a large snow fall in the upriver drainages and a late rapid thaw. Some Kuskokwim villages were hit hard, including Aniak and Akiak, when the ice jammed near those villages. Bethel was poised for one of its worst floods but the ice flowed fairly smoothly from Bethel on down.
Ben Kuntz, Jane Imholte and Casie Stockdale decided to float the river from McGrath to Bethel shortly after the flood receded. Their trip should end June 8th or 9th. Ben and Casie are well known to readers of this page, and Jane is a former attorney at ALO now working in Minneapolis. Watch this site for photos soon, with stories next month.
Myron and Sue are off to Chicago with former Bethel residents Dan and Sharon Boyette this week to watch the Minnesota Twins play the Cubs at Wrigley Field. On their return, there is a stop planned at Madison, Wisconsin to visit former ALO attorney Cathy Connolly and Rich Trotto. Rich is famous in Bethel for many things, and this story explains why. When their daughter Nina was a baby, Rich was left in charge one day when Nina needed some medicine applied every few hours by syringe. Most old time Bethelites remember Rich as a recreational dog musher. Of course he kept the usual dog medications around the house. When Cathy returned home to check on her daughter, she inquired about the medication. Rich proudly declared he had administered the dosage on schedule. It was time for another dose, so Cathy gathered the medicine and the syringe, but there was something wrong—the syringe was the wrong color. Rich had used the wrong syringe---the one he normally used to administer wormer to his dogs. It still had the residue of several previous wormings stuck to the plastic sides. To his credit, Rich reported his error to his buddies. One follow up report to that story, Nina now attends Whitman College in Washington State and has never had a worm infection.