msrpk.com blog

"Lawyers, (guns) and Money"

The late Warren Zevon's anthem played through my head over the weekend, as I tried to digest a half hour of chat with Benedict Morelli, head of Morelli and Ratner, PC, who represents Mauricia Grant. Morelli made interesting points during our interview.

• Morelli reminded me that a woman almost won a major party's nomination for President; and that an African American would be so nominated. That was the basis for a contrast and comparison to what some of NASCAR's officials allegedly did to Ms Grant.
• He says his firm will depose NASCAR executives as part of the discovery process. A pre-trial meeting before Judge Deborah A. Batts, which will include NASCAR's attorneys, is slated for sometime in September. (Obviously, we'll keep our eyes on the docket at the Southern District Court in Manhattan's Foley Square for that meeting).
• He wasn't surprised that NASCAR would deny all of the allegations in the original complaint, that they would angle for a change of venue, or that they wanted the complaint dismissed and that they wanted the plaintiff (Ms Grant) to reimburse them for legal fees associated with this action. What surprised Morelli was that it took NASCAR and its attorneys about 2 1/2 months to file the answer and do so after three extensions of time.
• This case has its own blog on Blogspot: http://www.nascarlawsuit.com/
• As you have seen elsewhere, opinion on this case is mixed. Some who post comments suggest that Ms Grant filed the lawsuit simply for the money, as did NASCAR Chairman Brian France when addressing reporters at Michigan International Speedway on June 13. As you'd expect, Mr. Morelli took exception to this comment. We've produced a special podcast with those comments in their entirety, so you can hear the entire context of his answer: http://www.msrpk.com/podcast/GrantvNASCAR.rss You can type this in your podcast finder and it will download the audio file (mp3) for your listening pleasure.
• Next time we have a media opportunity with Brian France and others who represent the sanctioning body, we'll ask for his and their view of events. This week's ( Aug. 22) Race-Talk is devoted to a chat with Mr. Morelli, and will be made available as a separate podcast on August 29. Here's the link for our podcast page (please remember that Race-Talk's podcast changes each week, and is usually available for up to 6 days after the weekly release on Friday):

http://msrpk.com/podcast/podcast.htm

We'll rejoin you with more blogging from the West Coast at the IndyCar series race at Sonoma, CA.

UPDATE: We also finished a podcast for CBS News, Radio which you may see on the network affiliates' web sites. In it, I excerpt parts of the interview, and I give a timeline of events. You may wish to check the websites of your local CBS News, Radio affiliate (the ones who carry CBS News on the Hour).