Self Serving Rep. Robin Vos caps Attorney Fees to protect himself from future Lawsuits.

Hey, Robin Vos is a crook, using his powerful position in government to institute a law that may protect his pocketbook, and never told anybody. He actually said he didn’t want it to be about himself…even though it was all about himself.

The incredible story goes like this.

jsonline: The lawmaker who introduced a bill to cap attorney fees in consumer litigation never mentioned that he, as a landlord, faces a pending claim of $20,000 in such fees from a case over a student house in Whitewater.

During neither a Senate committee hearing on the bill nor in interviews with reporters, did Vos ever disclose his own personal interest in the issue. Vos, co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, said Wednesday that he didn't want it to be about him, and besides, the law would only affect future cases, not the one he has pending.

That’s not necessarily true either…

Vince Megna, an attorney who won the fees against the Burlington car dealer (Vos supposedly wrote the bill because of this case) and testified at the Senate hearing on the fees bill, said Vos will probably never return a contested deposit if the bill passes. "No one will ever sue a landlord again for an $800 to $1,000 deposit," Megna said.

See, which was Vos' point in the first place. I told my conservative friend about the double speak around this proposed limit on attorney’s fees, and he was appalled. I explained how Scott Walker is making the claim consumers still have all their rights, and that may be true, but no attorney will take their clients case or allow that constitutional day in court because the fees would be prohibitively small. 

No attorney, no lawsuit. Walker circumvented the Constitution. Consumers lose. Now that's representation. 

Like all Republicans, transparency isn’t needed for the elite:

He called it sad that opponents of the bill were resorting to questioning his motives. "They know this bill is going to pass and they know the gravy train is going to end," he said.

Yeah, the gravy train of private sector attorneys feeling the thumb of big government artificially holding down their wages in a not so free market way. Gee, Republicans didn’t feel this way about CEO pay and bonus limits. And no conservative voter will care about what Vos did.

Background: According to court records, Vos is the sole shareholder of Ladwig & Vos, which owns a rental house in Whitewater. Last year, the company sued five college students who had leased the house for a year but had moved out after just three months. The company sought about $17,000 in unpaid rent, said Brian Schuk, an attorney for one of the students. Schuk countersued, claiming breach of contract. But on Aug. 31, all five tenants moved out because the power had gone out in the house 25 times since June 2, according to the counter claim, which also cites a dangerous stairway that made the house unsafe for habitation.

Last week, Schuk filed a detailed accounting of his fees and costs that totals a little more than $20,000. Under the bill, Schuk's fees would be presumed to be capped at $6,525.