Matt Fisher speaks out (Spreecast)

They won that suit too, despite the fact that Progressive had their own lawyers helping out with the defense of the driver who killed one of their policy holders. (Nationwide, not Progressive was not this gentleman's insurance carrier, and Nationwide paid the Fisher family immediately.)

Mr. Fisher and his family still haven't seen a cent from the accident, even though the courts mandated for Progressive to pay up. Worse, their auto-tweets about the whole case once it drew public attention brought even more criticism about their handling of this tragic accident.

While this story might have outraged citizens for the lifespan of anything on the Internet (approximately two weeks), Mr. Fisher is not going to let people forget that Progressive Insurance is now a criminal entity. Yesterday, he spoke to Matt Morrison from Progressive Justice to discuss the incident in a half hour Spreecast live blog. Watch the whole video below.


"Progressive took the position that the accident was her (Fisher's sister Katie) fault," Mr. Fisher told Mr. Morrison. "Progressive essentially dared my parents to sue them for the policy. That led to a long string of indignities that led to a trial where Progressive sent lawyers (to represent the defendant.)"

"The other thing that helped me get the world out was the way that Progressive handled it," Mr. Fisher said. "The press release where they said they didn't handle that guy (the defendant)? People went write to the (court) transcript and saw that yep, they did. So they helped make it more of a controversy than it would have been otherwise."

In fact, Progressive had made this statement:

As a defendant in this case, Progressive participated in the trial procedures on our own behalf while Nationwide represented the other driver.

However, Mr. Fisher who was in the courtroom for the case claims that he saw the Progressive lawyers conferring several times with the defendant.

Occupy protesters arrested

While even more members of Occupy Wall Street were arrested earlier this afternoon, 50 of those already charged in relation to the protests showed up to a New York's 2nd Circuit District court today to turn down Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's plea bargain. The D.A. had entered an offer for the offenders where the charges would be dropped on the condition that the individuals would not get arrested again for the next six months.

The fact that the offer was turned down shouldn't come as much of a shock to those who have been following the story. So far over 800 people have been arrested in conjunction to the Occupy Wall Street movement, most of whom were booked on disorderly conduct charges during the 700-person mass arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge early October. While D.A. Vance's offer (official title: "adjournments in contemplation of dismissal") might seem like a sweet deal, several members of the National Lawyers Guild who have taken on the cases of the protesters note that under the plea bargain, their clients would effectively be barred from participating in any more marches or protests, lest there is another "mass arrest" that would find them in violation of their conditional "Get out of Jail Free" pass.

Further complicating the issue is the seeming arbitrary nature concerning whether individual protesters were issued DATS (Desk Appearance Tickets) or actual summons during the time of their arrests.

Today's court appearance was concerning the 70 individuals who were arrested during a September 24th march to Union Square. Of those who showed up to New York County Criminal Court Judge Neil Ross, 50 of them refused the plea, meaning that they will be due back in court in January. Their lawyers have told reporters that they will move to have the trial dismissed at that time. If not, well, 800 individual trials are sure to take up a lot of the court's time and the city's money...which is exactly what the lawyers from the NLG are threatening should the District Attorney's office agree to totally drop the charges, unconditionally.

Meanwhile, 16 more people have just been added to this roster of would-be criminals, including Naomi Wolf, Rev. Billy Talun, and journalist Chris Hedges.