Ten Years of Windypundit
Something about Mark Draughn of WindyPundit:
I recently had a problem in federal court: my client had been ordered to pay restitution for a bank robbery, and had been made jointly and severally liable with his five coactors. After getting out of prison, he wanted to work hard and improve himself. He paid off a sixth of the restitution; his coactors paid off almost nothing. Under the terms of the order, my guy was still liable for the the other five sixths of the restitution. (That’s what joint-and-several liability means.) The five clowns who were also liable had shown no interest in paying their share, so my client had two options: work hard and pay almost the entire judgment himself, or join the clowns and have a judgment hanging over him forever.
He didn’t think that was fair, and neither did I.
The judge had statutory authority to modify the order and discharge my guy’s debt, but in my estimation “we don’t think it’s fair” was not going to persuade her. What I figured I needed was an economic argument.
So I emailed my friendly blawgospheric-neighborhood economist for his ideas. Mark considered the problem, and generously sent me his suggestions. I incorporated his arguments into my motion, and we prevailed.
Thank you, Mark, and congratulations for ten years in the blogging dodge. I’m glad to know you.
About The Author
So.…no hint as to the economic argument? Proprietary? My curiosity is piqued.
And that is Open Source, Mark. It’s amazing what it does with software, yes. But the same principle applies to just about any other endeavor. You shout out, and those who wish to become involved do. And, it’s that buy in that makes all the difference in the outcome. Ric
Wow, thanks for posting this. That’s pretty cool. You make me sound like some kind of gunslinger! Really, I’m just glad that you were able to make something useful out of my ramblings. Glad I could help. (P.S. I also write software.)
Thanks for the kind words, and let me add that it’s been a pleasure reading your blog all these years.