A man in Bowling Green, KY showed again why it is never a good idea to walk into court without a lawyer. Mick Sherrell believes that a city smoking ban is infringing on his rights.
Bowling Green attorney Mark Alcott, who represents the city, filed a response Thursday to Sherrell’s complaint, stating that Sherrell had not met procedural requirements set forth in Kentucky civil cases to seek an injunction.
Yes! Sherrell was the little guy in the room and he had no idea what he was doing. This is why criminals fire their lawyer and start submitting their arguments written in crayon. The defendant knows his goose cooked; the goal thereafter is to put on a three-ring circus in front of the judge.
Sherrell maintained that the ban prevented him from being able to make decisions about his business regarding smoking.
“I understand completely the city wanted to look out for the health of the public at large, but the public at large has the choice to go to my business or not,” Sherrell said. “I’m not the place you must go (for auto service).”
“My liberties are being impinged!” is a political argument not a legal one and I’ll prove it later.
“I knew that the city was going to try to beat me down with procedure, because I know that’s the weakest part of my case,” Sherrell said. [...]
“I’ve had a thousand people ask me why I haven’t hired an attorney, and it’s pretty obvious I cannot afford an attorney, and I don’t spend money I don’t have,” Sherrell said.
I guess it was worth paying the court fees just to say that he did it. David at least had a plan for success when he walked onto the battlefield against Goliath. A better way to stop bad laws is to elect conservative representatives and show up in force when these proposals come up for a vote.
Opponents of the ban agued [sic] that government should respect individual liberties and business freedoms. Ban opponents made up a strong majority of the approximately 140 people who sat and stood to participate in the proceedings – plus at least a dozen more who watched on television from the lobby of the county’s Newport administrative building.
That is how it’s done successfully. No lawyers required.
