Where The Rubber Meets the Road

I have talked about contributions enough that you should not be surprised when I finally ask for them, provide details for sending them and tell you why we need them. You can send the contributions now or as soon as possible. I am contributing $1,000.

Your checks should be made out to the UCLRG Legal Defense Fund. an Unincorporated Association set up to collect funds for a legal challenge to UC regarding their illegal dumping of retirees on LLNS. Checks should be sent to our Treasurer:

UCLRG Legal Defense Fund

C/O Barbara Sokoloski

1144 Xavier Way

Livermore, CA

94550

As I said earlier, the more we collect, the more likely we are to win. I also told you contribute as much as you can but don’t contribute more than you can afford to loose because there is no assurance that we will win or that you will get your money back.

The amount of contribution is up to you. My suggestions are:

1. As much as you are willing to loose.

2. What the changes cost you this year, $1000 in my case.

3. Your fair share if we all contributed equally, $350.

4. As much as you can afford.

For those of you who wonder why now, we are at the point we need to commit to paying for legal services. We have been working with two local lawyers and their law firms. They are:

Andrew Thomas (Tom) Sinclair, www.sinclairlawoffice.com/

Dov M. Grunschlag, www.carterfries.com/

While we have not signed any contracts with them, both they and we are working on the assumption that they should be paid for their services.

We are also at the point where we need to commit to hire www.stemberfeinstein.com/,

 Bill Payne is the member who has the most expertise in the firm on these issues and who is a member of the California bar.   John Stember has forwarded several agreements for legal services that his firm has used in similar cases, which Tom and Dov are looking over.

John Stember has stated, we are interested in pursuing this case under an agreement for legal services.  However, we need to know that your respective groups can raise funds to support the litigation that will be necessary to challenge the decision of the University to move LLNL retiree medical benefits out of UCRP.  As we have discussed, that decision involved millions of dollars and will be difficult to challenge.  Before we commit more of our time and resources, we want to be sure that your groups can raise the funds that will be needed. 

If we can show that we can raise a credible amount of funding, we are in a position to challenge UC. If we are all talk and no action, we can forget about it. How it goes from here is up to you. I can organize and argue and solicit on my own, but I can’t pay for legal action on my own.

Joe