2.16.2005
Chicago lawyer refuses to return little boy's lost dog...
....and that was the story that so many in Chicago were talking about last week.It turns out that Chicago lawyer James Foley, of Hoey & Farina, was vacationing in Florida and found the dog running loose. The tags around the dog's neck were from Alaska -- but something tells me, and should have told him, that the dog didn't run that far from home.
Foley contacts the veterinatian on the tag, who says that he'll get back to him with the identity and current location of the owner. In the meantime, Jimmy gets the dog shots and gets the dog cleared to fly on an airplane -- but to Chicago, with him and his family.
A few days later, Jimmy got a call from the father of the boy who was the rightful owner of the dog. The family had just moved from Alaska to Florida.
Here's where it gets crazy. Jimmy insists that he's already spent too much money on the dog -- once he finally returned the many unanswered calls from the boy's family. And then said that he gave the dog away...to a nun he refuses to name.
Jimmy is kind of an ass throughout the entire story, making fun of the sad family, and stating that the lawyers at his firm laughed at a letter that the family sent there.
"I think that it is only fair that you are aware of the man in your organization who seems to like to play games with a little boy's emotions," Korzeniewski and his wife, Stefanie wrote.
...
Me: You were going to give the dog back until Mike Korzeniewski called the cops.
Foley: "Right."
Me: Why?
Foley: "Because the guy's a pain in the ass."
...
Curiously, he said the lawyers at Hoey & Farina were amused at the letter from Miles' parents. "They laughed at it," Foley said.
The resolution to this story can be found here. Apparently readers were so pissed and put enough pressure on Jimmy and his law office that he elected to return the dog to its owners. Seems that lawyers do have hearts after all -- when it impacts their practice.
Anonymous at 5:02 PM
