FINES ARE FINE

THE $500.00 WORDS A LAWYER LOVES

In Louisiana, it is a $500 fine to instruct a pizza delivery man to deliver a pizza to your friend without them knowing.

AS THE LAWMAKERS WROTE "EM
RS 14:68.6
?68.6. Unauthorized ordering of goods or services
A. It is unlawful for any person to intentionally place an order for any goods or services to be supplied or delivered to another person when all of the following circumstances apply:
(1) The person receiving the goods or services has not previously authorized such an order, does not reside with the person who placed the order, and the goods or services are not being given as a gift to that person.
(2) The person receiving the goods or services is required to pay for such goods or services, either in advance or upon delivery and has not previously agreed to do so, or is required to return the items to the sender at his expense.
(3) The person placing the order for goods or services intends to harass or annoy the person receiving such goods or services.
B. Receipt and use of an item described in this Section by the receiver shall constitute an affirmative defense to prosecution under this Section.
C. If the person who places the order for the goods or services is told by the customer who receives the goods or services that the customer did not desire the goods or services, the customer is released from any obligation to pay for such goods or services and the providing person shall not be liable under this Section.
D. Whoever violates Subsection A shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both.
E. In addition to any other sentence imposed under this Section, the sentencing court, in its discretion, may require the offender to make restitution to the victim for any loss to the victim caused by the offense.

Laws are purposefully vague in order to provide lawyers and judges with wiggle-room. -2q(Jim)

Indiana law says that anyone 14 or older who profanely curses, damns or swears by the name of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, shall be fined one to three dollars for each offense, with a maximum fine of ten dollars per day.

If any person has a puppet show, wire dancing or tumbling act in the state of Indiana and receives money for it, they will be fined $3 under the Act to Prevent Certain Immoral Practices.

Again in Florida, A special law prohibits unmarried women from parachuting on Sunday or she shall risk arrest, fine, and/or jailing.

BIG FINES HELP COVER BIG DEFICITS?

"Eli Lilly and federal prosecutors are discussing a settlement of a... investigation into the company’s marketing of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa that could result in Lilly’s paying more than $1 billion to federal and state governments.

...But the company would be allowed to keep selling Zyprexa to Medicare and Medicaid, the government programs that are the biggest customers of the drug.
Zyprexa is Lilly’s most profitable product and among the world’s best-selling medicines, with 2007 sales of $4.8 billion, about half in the United States.

The Lilly fine would be distributed among federal and state governments, which spend about $1.5 billion on Zyprexa each year through Medicare and Medicaid.
The fine would be in addition to $1.2 billion that Lilly has already paid…"

By ALEX BERENSON, New York Times, "Lilly Considers $1 Billion Fine to Settle Case", Published: January 31, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/business/31drug.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

With all US governments, at all levels, singing the "not enough revenue" song, where does the $1.2 billion that they have already collected, show up in their financial reporting? How will the $1.5 billion show-up in the system? Governments sure do collect a lot more than taxes to feed their respective political machines! - 2q(Jim)

When lawyers sat around and talked in earlier times, they talked about different cases. I remember a story they told about my father, John Hardin Jr., who was a circuit judge and who practiced law for fifty years.

I was told that he represented three men who were accused of rape. The judge, or jury, found them guilty of something - I don't know just what - and fined them one hundred dollars, fifty dollars, and twenty-five dollars. The story claims that he was asked why he fined this one man just twenty-five dollars.

My father responded, "Because he was third."

The second man got the fifty-dollar fine, and the first one was fined one-hundred dollars.
Tales from Kentucky Lawyers, p. 31, John R. Hardin III, Cadiz, March 21, 2001

FAIR USE NOTICE:
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues of environmental and humanitarian significance. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.