A defendant that did these things would go to jail.
The same should happen to prosecutors who do such things.
Giving money to the wronged individual is the right thing to do because this company is out a lot of money defending themselves but it does nothing to punish the users of government power who misused that power.
Government actors have at least "qualified immunity," and anybody who is acting within the scope of the job there were hired to do has the employer as a backstop - i.e., the employer is obliged to pay for the defense, and to pay any judgment.
Haven't read all of the material in front of me on this subject, but I suspect some of the judges were "in" on the railroading job, and used their judicial power to shank Sierra pacific. This is common. Judges are rarely overturned on appeal, and are pretty much free to do as they please.
At some point, the misconduct becomes so stinky, that other judges step in to preserve the illusion of "fairness" and "justice." See Nifong and the couple of judges in Pennsylvania who were getting a cut for sending innocent boys to jail.
"Legal ethics" is an oxymoron. The standards sound tough, but failure to abide by them (short of stealing money from clients) has low risk of consequences.
I agree. The problem is that the U.S. taxpayers, who didn’t bring this case, are the ones being punished. We get to pay the judgement. The judges, who are lawyers, refuse to punish their fellow lawyers.
You are so very correct. Crime must have consequence. Trying huge amorphous blob called government without consequence to individuals will accomplish little or nothing.
Lawyers are inherently corrupt. Their reason for being is to win at any cost right or wrong. There was a case here, all of this is in the news. The defense attorney claimed to be a marine vet, there are dishonorable marines. His defense was incompetence. His client was following every word and movement in the court room and reacting. The attorney has used the same defense before in a murder trial of a woman who killed a young mother in broad daylight at a child care and took her infant. This defendant killed three people in a drunken head on. How can you defend that and be a man of principle? There is a myth in everyone deserving a fair trial.