► Attorney Joseph Bamberger of Kentucky; greedy crook, ethically indigent Print
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Attorney Joseph Bamberger of Kentucky; greedy crook, ethically indigent

 

Previously, Joseph Bamberger was a so-called senior status judge (aka, visiting retired judge) in Kentucky, which means he likely got paid for a full day’s pay for working one hour or less. This would be in keeping with the manner in which retired judges in Ohio and California are paid.
 
In 2002, Judge Joseph Bamberger was assigned to here a case wherein American Home Products and/or Wyeth Drugs was being sued over the alleged side-effects of Fen-Phen in Frankfurt, Kentucky.
 
Subsequently, Wyeth settled the case for $200 million. Out of this amount, Judge Joseph Bamberger awarded between $86 and $104 to the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. One of these ambulance chasers was a close friend of Judge Bamberger. In addition, Judge Bamberger approved fees of more than $2 million to his close friend, trial consultant Mark Modlin.
 
Judge Joseph Bamberger sets up phony foundation
 
Immediately after the settlement, Judge Bamberger created a phony non-profit foundation called the Kentucky Fund for Healthy Living and funded it with $20 million from the $200 million settlement. He then appointed his trial consultant friend Mark Modlin and three of the crooked Phen-Fen attorneys as directors.
 
On Dec. 29, 2003, one week before he retired from the bench, Judge Bamberger entered an order relinquishing the court’s control over the fund and then became a paid director of the non-profit.
 
Being the good Christian he claimed he was; Judge Bamberger was heard to say in his defense: “The Lord helps those that help themselves.” Cool!
 
This unethical (clearly illegal in my opinion) arrangement allowed Judge Bamberger to collect a $5,000 a month stipend, plus a $350 monthly expense allowance. 
 
Prior to becoming a senior status judge, Judge Bamberger spent 12 years as a circuit judge in Boone and Gallatin counties. I wonder how many other cases there are wherein Judge Bamberger stuck it to deep pocket defendants by awarding exorbitant (aka, unearned) fees to his attorney friends.
 
You don’t really think that ‘ol Joey dispensed these favors to his attorney-friends for free, do ya? I seriously doubt that he was in the habit of working “pro bono!” The only bono that Judge Joseph Bamberger ever handed out was the stiffing he gave to litigants that he cheerfully screwed over by awarding unearned fees to his crooked attorney friends.
 
Victims Sue the Slimy Lawyers
 
About 200 of the 431 plaintiffs involved in the settlement filed a lawsuit demanding that the crooked attorneys, Melbourne Mills, Jr., William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham of Kentucky and Stan Chesley of Cincinnati be made to surrender the excessive fees that Judge Bamberger approved.
 
In March 2006, Judge William Wehr of Campbell County, KY ruled that the attorneys breached their duty to their 431 clients when they paid themselves and others more than half of the $200 settlement and put $20 million more into a charitable trust, the Fund for Healthy Living. Healthy living for corrupt judges and lawyers!
 
Judge Joseph Bamberg’s Punishment
 
The apologists and enablers at the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission gifted Judge Joseph Bamberger with a “complimentary reprimand.”
 
These buffoons gifted Bamberger despite saying that his conduct “shocked the conscience.” What conscience are you fools speaking of?
 
This just further proves that judges are held to a much “lower standard of conduct” that we are!
 
And lastly, this certified loser still is allowed to retain his law license in Kentucky. I suppose it wouldn’t have been fair to have disbarred him, which would have prevented him from making a dishonest living as an attorney.