Girl on the Brink: Surviving Desperate Times with Desperate Measures

You know the country is desperate when heirs of Martin Luther King start charging to use his quotes. I’m not making this up, but another unemployed friend quoted King in a magazine article she submitted to a small publisher. Her editor asked her to get permission to use the quote.

My reporter friend called Dr. King’s attorneys to seek permission. She balked when one of the attorneys said that’ll be $300 for the quote. She pointed out an article she had written about his wife Coretta Scott King for a national publication. After verifying my friend’s article, Dr. King’s attorneys lowered the price to $100.  What is this world coming to?

She still refused to pay because she didn’t have the money. Even if she had, why should she? I realize copyright law is tricky, but the quote was being used for a piece on public service, and isn’t that good PR for Dr. King?

But everybody seems to be clawing to make a buck these days—off taxpayers, the unemployed, good people who are down on their luck—a laid-off manager now working as a janitor; a single mom evicted from her Bronx apartment; and a worker forced to take a 10 percent pay cut—and civil litigation is on the rise.

The Missouri courts recently looked at how the economic downturn has affected litigation. The results, which I found quite eye opening, show that civil suits “suggestive of economic hardship” jumped by 44 percent from June 2006 to December 2008. Such case filings could increase by about 19,050 cases by year-end if trends continue, the courts said.

The Missouri courts also witnessed a rise in foreclosure, tax and contract cases during this same time period. Tax actions were up 84 percent—or 800 new cases—with a projected new caseload of 10,200 cases in 2009.  Foreclosure cases increased by 112 percent, or 60 new cases. The court estimates that if the trend continues, 600 new foreclosure cases will be filed in 2009.

If the courts in Missouri are a bellwether for the rest of the nation, and I have no reason to believe they wouldn’t be, then at least lawyers won’t be going out business.  I’m glad someone is doing well these days, or maybe not.