WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A LEGAL REVIEW?

Lisbon Town Council Chair Dillon Pesce

The question is “What is the value of a Legal Review?”  A legal review is an attorney or attorney’s firm’s opinion.  If you notice, I never asked the cost.  The cost is how much faith the client has in the opinion.  

We have seen several times when the legal review wasn’t worth anything because when you go to court a Judge decides based on the merits of the case and not a legal review.  Take for instance, whether or not the School Department has to accept the lowest bid or not.  The attorney for the School Department provided a legal review stating the School Department did not have to accept the lowest bid.  But when the lowest bidder took the School Department to court; the Judge rules in favor of the lowest bidder.  

You see the value of a legal review is how a Judge resolves a case.  The problem here is that both the Town and the School Department have paid for numerous legal reviews.   

Who is right?  The only way to determine who is right is to take the other party to court and let a Judge resolve the situation.

To determine the value and who is right, can only be done with the ruling of a court.  In order to get the case before a court, a great deal of money has to be spent on a lawyer.  Normally, the same lawyer that provided the legal review will be presenting the case.  Before the Judge hears the case, the attorneys play a game of delays in order to run the cost up.  In legal terms it is called “An Alternate Resolution”.  The purpose is supposed to be to reduce court time but attorneys use it to run up their bills.

I know this because I dealt with Roger Therriault when I sued the town twice.  I have first-hand knowledge of the judicial system in Androscoggin County.

Once again, I ask “What is the Value of a Legal Review?”  There is no value to a legal review because it is only an opinion and everyone has an opinion.  If someone was to take the town to court over the town’s interpretation of the Town’s Charter; I believe they would win easily.  
 I believe the Town Attorney’s legal reviews are what Chairman Pesce wants them to be.

Larry Fillmore