What could there be left to appeal? I hope he is forced to pay for all the time he's wasting in the courts. As a former judge, he should know this better than anyone. I hope he loses more than his pants after dragging down the already burdened legal system.

Will someone please put this guy out of his misery. I mean, I don't advocate assassination, but what a worthless piece of sewage this guy is. I guess I can only hope something bad happens to pay him back for all the pain he's caused other people.

It's obvious that he is nothing more than a media whore. I wish we could just ignore people like this.

@nicemarmot617: Like he gets caught under an avalanche of pants while at a store?

I know you don't like foul language but I gotta say "What the fuck?". Is our court system so screwed up that they would even consider this appeal? I am indeed ashamed that this would even be considered.

I think the guy's going about it all wrong. He needs to make it a class action suit and be the representation. I'm sure all the bottomless judges wandering around out there because of Big Cleaning would be happy to join and probably make a more sympathetic group. Perhaps he'd win.

Don't forget to tie in Big Cleaning's connections to Global Warming, child labor, and promoting public lewdness. /sarcasm

It was a mistake to give this idiot more publicity.

@consumer-warrior: Appeals are made on errors of law. Maybe he found a piece of evidence improperly included/excluded.

I'd love to read the court's opinion on this one.

Look, let's be honest here...

Judges don't wear pants under those robes.

@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: If the avalanche of pants is infected with bedbugs, that sounds about right.

I thought we were not allowed to blame the conusmer?

Maybe these were NASA designed heat-resistant astronaut pants, and $54 million is how much the pants actually cost.

@brainswarm: If the pants cost that much, I shudder to think how much the diapers underneath cost.

This guy is such a tool. I wonder if he has some sort of mental problem where he's compelled to keep going. Or, he could just be on a quest to be the most hated man in the world -- he'd have my vote.

Seriously now.
i would like to just see the 3 judges sitting on this case to stand up at the end, and say "you sir, can eat a dick" and when he brings it in front of the entire panel of judges, they just stand up at the begining of the trial, and say that again, because this guy is just a media glutton.

than again, maybe we should team him up with Jack Thomson....

This guy reminds me of Jack Thompson. I'm not sure how, but he does.

Oh, maybe it's the crazy.

The plaintiff obviously has a psychological problem.

@laserjobs: you're not allowed to blame the VICTIM. Crazy pants judge is not a victim.

So, this guy has the option if they rule against him to seek another appeal where all the judges get to tell him no? I wonder if I can sue him for wasting tax payer dollars on frivolous cases like this.

Has nobody ordered a psych evaluation on this guy? Seriously, behavior like this is a sign of something wrong. It's fun to call him a nut-job and such, but at some point you have to ask whether or not there's a real pathology involved.

@laserjobs: To every rule, there is an exception. Judge Roy teaches by (bad) example about being a consumer.

@chiieddy: not quite. I think if this were jack, he'd try to take down the entire laundering industry with him.

heh.

@twophrasebark: Oh he does, it was reported that he started crying while being questioned on the witness stand.

Hasn't this guy done enough damage? Not only does he look like an idiot and he lost his job over his bizzare behavior in filing the lawsuit and his manners in court, but the dry cleaners in question were forced to close their business because of the unwanted attention he brought on them.

Who here thinks this might deserve the "bad consumer" tag?

I can't imagine this guy expects to win anything, I would guess all he wants to do is cause damage to their business, which he has succeeded in doing so far.

Doesn't make the guy any less of a dick, though.

Seriously? This guy must have something against Koreans or something. This is obviously the actions of a clearly racist individual who just wants to cause problems for a successful imigrant family.

I am simply amazed at how this idiot is using the system to be basically a bully and still demand the 54 mil for the pants. Here is an idea. If it was up to me I would do it in a heart beat. I would abduct him, and sorry for the language but I would fucking send him to Haiti where a storm is forcing people to flee, or drop him off in Somalia and let's see how long he will survive there on his own due to constant fighting between many drug lords and bastards for the land, money, you name it. People are fleeing that place, being forced to jump from the boat on gun point and some did die as the news reported. This man deserves no sympathy for his mental breakdown, his defense team needs to be shot along with him, and the judges who want to see this case again and listen to what he has to say, must be shot as well. Why is this being allowed. I think someone higher than a judge should step in, put him into a mental institution for life, and deny him his constitutional right to sue people fro such amounts, and basically put him to work for 1 dollar a day here in America and let's see how long he will live on our pity on him. One more thing, why can't someone on earth just beat the crap out of him? You know put him into a hospital for a while. Then, beat him again if he files another suit.

@consumer-warrior:

In some states litigants have an appeal as of right. Not sure what the rule is where he is. VA does NOT have appeal as of right, but I'm not sure about MD or DC.

Aside from that the grant of appeals have nothing to do with the evidence or the 'worthiness' of the cause. It's only "did the trial judge screw something up". While the judge may have rightly dismissed, he still needs to have done it the correct way. The system only works if the trial judges do what they are supposed to. The appellate courts ensure that they do.

They should make him do community service, in a dry cleaners.

Are they giving out awards for biggest douche bag of the year? I think this fellow deserves it.

i say we all just pitch in and get this guy the pile of golden poop trophy. who's in?

And people wonder why our legal system is mocked across the globe. It's not about who's right or who's wrong, it's about who knows more loopholes.

I got to doing some more research on this guy. Apparently, during his divorce, the courts fined him 12k for "creating unnecessary litigation and threatening both Rhonda VanLowe and her lawyer with disbarment."

The guy broke down in tears over the pants. Over pants. This guy needs an evaulation of the psychiatric kind. That or he's recieving advice from J.T., which still warrants a psychiatric eval.

I had a pair of pants I really loved too.

@sjkang: Yeah, thats it, racism is always to blame.

This is example 1,304,415 why we need loser pay rules in this country

Where is Jesse Jackson while this is all going down?

i bet that the new judge owes him a favor ;)

@TracyHamandEggs!: You know perfectly well why "loser pays" isn't feasible, so I'm really tired of you bringing it up.

Accept the replacement for another pair of pants. You are entitled to nothing more, you twit.

I really wish I hadn't stumbled across this article. Now, my day is ruined. The continuation of this never-ending saga is infuriating. I feel truly sorry for the owners of the dry cleaners who are on the verge of losing everything simply due to the persistance of an ego-driven attorney who is clearly taking advantage of his power and knowledge of our (broken and misintended) criminal justice system. And, it is reprehensible that a court has agreed to hear his appeal.

@Doofio: You have a citation for this?

1. We aren't 'mocked' across the globe. You would like to think so because it works for your bias.

2. This case has nothing to do with loopholes. He correctly lost in the trial court. His appeal likely has nothing to do with the merits of the case. This is a good thing. As screwed up as you think the system is appeals were based on the merits of the underlying case, as opposed to law and procedure, the system would be far more innefficient and abused then it is already.

"Those are prescription pants!"

Srsly: Can't the judge look at his history of clear abuse of the legal system (this case, the previous pants case, the case involving his divorce) and enjoin him from filing new lawsuits?

@Scoobatz: Why has this ruined your day? It doesn't affect you in any way. You should seek help.

Further, I still don't understand how this guy taken advantage of his 'power' and somehow abused the criminal justice system. First, its not criminal, its civil. Second, he didn't take advantage of anything. It would be taking advantage if he somehow was able to succeed in winning against the dry cleaners based on something other than the merits. He clearly hasn't done that. He has lost. All he has done is cost himself money. That doesn't seem to me to be taking advantage of his power.

Lets not forget that this guy is not powerful attorney. He's an administrative law judge. Consider the judge that does speeding tickets in district court. Now subtract.. A lot. Not that very smart and competent attorneys aren't administrative law judges.. But just because you are an ALJ doesn't mean you are a good lawyer.

When you go to your law school reunion and say that you are an ALJ none of your classmates say "Oh, Wow, that's hot!"

Must have been a really boring day at the courthouse for them to entertain this guy and what has to be one of the most inept civil suits I've ever seen.

@nytmare: Oh, I'm sorry I brought up a valid, often debated, legal principle that could have stopped this travesty from going forward. One that happens to be the rule of law in Canada and has really limited lawsuit abuse.

@Farquar: The only way he has taken advantage is that by being a lawyer he can do all this for free, while the people who he sued had to hire (and pay) an attorney. You see this quite often in some of the more outrageous lawsuits (the NY flower suit) Often this results in settlements when they aren't deserved, if only to avoid the cost of litigation. Sadly, I can't think of a way to avoid this. The same thing should apply for people people sued by major corporations, its completely unfair for poor Joe Shmoe to have to lay out thousands to reply to a suit from the RIAA.

@nytmare:
"You know perfectly well why "loser pays" isn't feasible, so I'm really tired of you bringing it up. "

Because it works in so many other jurisdictions? Like Canada?

@TracyHamandEggs!: That's not taking advantage of the system.

CPA's can do their own taxes. Mechanics can fix their own cars. Veterinarians can dispense their magical healing powers on their own dogs. Lawyers can resolve their own legal issues.
Just because this one instance involves an idiot doesn't in turn mean he's taking advantage of the system. He's just an idiot that happens to be a lawyer.

@kingmanic: Just because they have it somewhere doesn't mean it works.

"They do it in Canada" doesn't mean anything except "They do it in Canada."

There needs to be more to your argument than that.

Jesus, this man's out of control.

Everything I've heard about loser pays makes is seem like a slam dunk to me as something that would clear up a lot of problems with our legal system.