Multimillionaire Landlord, who pleaded guilty in the November 2009 death of our client, has just been sentenced to five years in jail, suspended after 18 months, plus five years of probation.
With a settlement of our civil claim completed, this ends several years of intense work by my firm to see that justice is served. So proud of Attorney Gregory Klein who zealously and passionately worked to see that justice is served.

Here's an article from The Danbury Patch:

Justice is all the family of Luis Encalada wanted, said Danbury Attorney Gregory Klein, an attorney with Alan Barry & Associates in Danbury.
Klein and Barry represented the family in its wrongful death lawsuit against DaSilva. The legal team tried to move the trial to Bridgeport in an effort to take DaSilva's community standing out of the equation. Klein said that motion was rejected.
"They're self-admitted peasants," Klein said. "They grow their own food. They have a cow for milk products. They were totally dependent on Luis for their money."
Klein said the family's question about a trial in Danbury hinged on what the court would think about DaSilva, a native son, versus Encalada, an immigrant.
"Is Danbury going to be fair," Klein said they asked. "We'll find out today if Danbury is going to be fair."
Barry said after the verdict was read that he thought the 18 month sentence plus the probation was fair.
DaSilva was accused of causing Encalada's death after discovering him and other men squatting in one of his apartments at 58 Town Hill Ave., Danbury. DaSilva was sentenced to 18 months in prison, plus five years of probation Wednesday in Danbury Superior Court.
The civil suit was settled, and the negotiations took 14 hours, Klein said. He said several insurance companies were involved, and DaSilva paid some of the money himself. Klein told the court DaSilva didn't want the civil claim to linger in court or be left to the discretion of the insurance companies. The amount of the settlement were not made public.
The family stayed in touch with the lawsuit in Danbury by visiting the Ecuadorian town of Cuenca, a town with a bank, restaurants and law offices. Using Skype, Klein and Barry were able to communicate with Encalada's family from their Ecuadorian lawyer's office.
The family has 11 children. Four are in school, one is in university, and Judge of Probate Diane Yamin monitored the estate for Maria Yunga, Encalada's wife.
"I've been talking to them for two and a half years," Klein said. "Mr DaSilva was there the whole time in the negotiations. He personally gave money."

Family of deceased Immigrant hires Alan Barry & Associates

FAMILY OF DECEASED ECQUADORIAN
IMMIGRANT HIRES DANBURY CONNECTICUT
LAW FIRM ALAN BARRY & ASSOCIATES AFTER

WEALTHY LANDLORD CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER IN CONNECTION
WITH THE DEATH
(Video of the funeral of Luis Encalada in Ecuador can be seen to right of this post )


When Luis Encalada came to America seven years ago, he came with the goal of earning enough money to support his family including 11 children, and the dream that his children would be educated along with being well. On Nov 9, 2010, his goals and dreams died with him.
Luis Encalada died allegedly as a result of injuries, and Joseph DaSilva Jr, the owner of the Palace Theater on Main Street in Danbury and numerous other properties in the downtown, turned himself in to police on homicide charges in connection with the death.
DaSilva, 50, a prominent figure in the Danbury community, was charged with first-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault and two counts of third-degree assault.

Sonia Encalada, one of Encalada's daughters, said she feels a strong resentment against the person responsible for the death of her father.
"Nobody had the right to take his life," she said. "They killed him. We want those responsible to pay."His widow explained, "My husband always dreamed of giving our children the opportunities he did not have, to study and not suffer the way he did when he was kid looking for work instead of going to school.”

The family has hired well known Attorney Alan Barry and his firm, Alan Barry & Associates to represent them in a possible civil lawsuit against the DaSilva.After our frim was contacted and we reviewed the circumstances we decided to take the case.
I have a good understanding of the immigrant experience.My parents, they came here, they wanted a better life. They worked hard; they wanted to provide for their children. That's the story of most people; that's the story of Luis. All he wanted to do was make a better life for his kids."

The death of Luis Encalada, and his life before that in America, is part of a larger story. A story that needs to be examined, and understood.
 Joseph DaSilva Jr. is the son of immigrants who came to America to have a better life. They worked hard so that their children could be happy, healthy and succeed. Joseph Jr., the oldest son, certainly had all that and was apparently living the American Dream.
 Luis Encalada, father of 11 children in Ecuador also came to America so that his family could have a better life. For the seven years he was here, he dutifully sent them every dollar he could so that they could live better and most importantly have an education. Like Joseph DaSilva Jr, he wanted to achieve his dreams for his family.
Now, their two lives are inextricably intertwined, and their stories will play out together as both a criminal trial, and potential civil case unfold.
 It will be an interesting to be a part of all of this.

Family of dead immigrant hires Alan Barry & Associates;landlord charged with manslaughter

DANBURY -- The family of the Ecuadorean man who died from internal injuries in November after being found on a Town Hill Avenue driveway has hired Alan Barry & Associates to represent them for a possible civil lawsuit against the person or persons responsible for his death, Barry said Wednesday.

Barry, a Danbury lawyer who handles cases involving personal injury, medical malpractice and workers' compensation, said he was contacted by a third party on behalf of Luis Encalada's family Tuesday and decided to take the case after a long discussion about the family's circumstances.

"I have a good understanding of the immigrant experience," Barry said. "My parents, they came here, they wanted a better life. They worked hard; they wanted to provide for their children. That's the story of most people; that's the story of Luis. All he wanted to do was make a better life for his kids."

Encalada, 42, died from a combination of a lacerated liver, blunt force injuries, and exsanguination, meaning he bled to death, according to the state medical examiner.

Barry said the company that put him in touch with Encalada's family, 1700Migrante, is dedicated to helping Ecuadoreans in the U.S.

Prominent Danbury landlord and Palace Theater owner Joseph DaSilva Jr., 50, was arrested Friday and charged with manslaughter and three counts of assault in connection with Encalada's death. He is free on $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Danbury on Tuesday.

Barry said Wednesday it is his "understanding" that Encalada was a tenant of DaSilva's, but he said he has not had time to conduct a thorough investigation after being retained on Tuesday.

Barry said he will do everything possible to relay the family's concerns and to explain to them what is going on, each step of the way.

"We tried to assure the family, as best we can, that while we may not like the outcome of our system of justice from time to time, it's a great system," Barry said. "I think the Danbury Police Department, from what I can understand, have done a very thorough investigation."

The family has "a difficult situation," Barry said. "It's really just so difficult to imagine that this family is waiting to see their husband and their father and he is working to help them and all of a sudden boom, he's gone."

"While we have no idea where any of this will lead, our system of justice will work and serve everyone," he said.
reprinted from Newstimes.com written by Melissa Bruen

MY MARKETING JUGGERNAUT

 I have been actively marketing my legals services for 19 years. I have reached out to my potential clients through cable TV, radio, billboards (can you image having to look at my face everyday as you drive to work), print, and of course the world wide interwebs.
I can say that I have done an amazing job of convincing people that if they are hurt by someone or something, that they should call me. In fact, many people believe that if someone even looks at them the wrong way, then ALAN BARRY will not only extract a million dollars for them, but will poke out the offending party's eyes at no additional cost.
 It seems like at least once a week, someone walks in to my law firm seeking "justice"(another way of saying they think I am the lottery winnings office).
 There are all manner of claims that fit in this category. Occasionally, they actually have some unusual merit.
Take the case recently of my female client, who wanted to make room for that about to be consumed snack at a local fast food place. While ensconced on the throne in the ladies room, she sensed something moving on the wall. On closer inspection, the movement was an eyeball attached to the face of one of the minimum wage brain-surgeons working there. This clever chap had managed to create the perfect venue for satisfying his, and no doubt others needs to see "girls gone wild, on the toilet edition" This is one case where we actually got money for the client(please, no jokes about this being a crappy case).

  There are also the almost monthly meetings with new people who have had deer jump out in to the road in front of them, causing them to lose control of their car, and crash. These people at least have actual injuries, that under different circumstances would be compsensable. When I ask them who do you think we should sue, I get the standard response:"You're the lawyer, that's what I'm talking to you for!" Uh, yeah. I am still pretty good at restraining myself, and usually say something like, well, the deer is one of God's creatures. In so far as I don't have an actual address to serve the papers on God, that's a problem. But wait! On almost every corner, God has an office! I ask the potential client, which church, synagogue, or mosque, they think I should sue as the agent for God. This usually gets a reaction that is a mixture of indignation, offense and outrage, coupled with something about what a jerk I am. Keep in mind, the reason they came to see me in the first place was because they had heard that I am a legal genius.
 The last category of these cases without value(other than entertainment value) usually involve some ingestion of food that has something "foreign" in it. Now I can honestly say, I have seen everything from a from a dead rodent, to glass, unhappily hidden within processed food. My son Maximillian, the fitness and nutrition guru is just rolling his eyes here and proselytizing about the horrors of processed food. But that is a subject for another blog;his:NU-FIT.net
 And yes, there have been those few cases where someone actually bit in that that poor little mouse buried alive in their burger, But  more often then not, we hear that the person in front of us was "shocked" and "traumatized" by what they saw. Their first question is always, "how much can we sue for?"

 And when I tell them that in the absence of real damages, that they don't have a case, yep, you guessed it, they storm out of my office, calling me a jerk (is there a trend here?).
  By the way, today's specific case involves an obese(typical) woman(who by the way had 2 cell phones constantly going off during our little discussion). She had been consuming chicken fingers when she felt a pain in her throat, She reached right in there ( it sounded like she had a lot of experience at this) and retrieved what turned out to be a chicken bone.
 This bone measured all of 3 millimeters, fortunately caused her no injury, and she had not nor was she planning on getting any medical treatment. When I told her that to have a case you have to have actual damages, her response was: "ARE YOU KIDDING?!"
 So, as I said, my marketing Juggernaut is mighty, and with these kind of results, I can see that I will always be very busy.

 

Pregnancy May be Hazardous to your job

  The joy of knowing that your pregnant is almost incomparable for soon to be parents(of course that joy can be tempered by morning sickness and other related maladies that women suffer and men claim to suffer).

One thing that we usually don't associate with pregnancy is loss of a job. Since we have become a more enlightened(not by much) Nation, we have generally adopted both laws and customs to facilitate the birthing of a child, so that one's employment is not jeopardized.

  And now, THE LAW, part 1: The Family&Medical Leave Act.

Under the FMLA, an "eligible"employee may take up to 12 workweeks of leave during 

any 12 month period for the birth of a child, and to care for a newborn child

for one or more. Generally only larger companies are subject to this Federal law,

but many smaller companies do choose to follow it as a guideline.

 THE LAW, part deux: The Americans with Disabilities Act.

 The Americans with Disabilities Act is a wide-ranging legislation intended to make American Society more accessible to people with disabilities. Title 1 applies to the employment environment.

 Business must provide reasonable accommodations to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in all aspects of employment. Possible changes may include restructuring jobs, altering the layout of workstations, or modifying equipment. Employment aspects may include the application process, hiring, wages, benefits, and all other aspects of employment.

 So, ok. You're pregnant (and by you I mean  you the female partner, not you, the terribly suffering male partner). You've got your FMLA leave all set-up(in your mind at least), and you are thinking that the ADA will protect your physical well being and rights during your pregnancy, should your employer be anything less than considerate. And lastly, you know that should a problem arise, you can always call upon the Champion of the Taken Advantage of, Alan Barry.

 And who would think, in this day and age, that an employer would be so stupid, to either fire someone while they were pregnant, or fire them, after they have given birth , but before they return to work. Well, think again.

 A young woman came to my office recently and related that during her second the second tri-mester of her pregnancy, she developed very serious complications, requiring her to have weekly doctor visits, and often more than once a week. She always offered to make up the time, but her employer had some very strange rules about the exact time she could work. Oh, did I mention that her employer is a Hospital?! Anyway, they apparently didn't like her absences(which were all well documented by her treating doc), and about a month before she was due, they fired her.

  You, dear reader are now assuming I am going to tell you how I got her ownership of a majority interest in the hospital, right? Well, not yet. And there is a problem.

 She wasn't protected by the FMLA, as her leave time had not yet started, and the ADA does not cover pregnancy! I know if you are woman reading this, you are saying, what? Pregnancy is not a disability? What do you call swollen ankles and feet the size of basket balls?Who wrote this law, men?

 Nope, the ADA may protect my client if she has serious complications of her pregnancy, and she,with my assistance will have to wind our way through a tortured path of both State agencies, and State and Federal Courts. Of course, I think we will prevail, but in a household counting on two incomes, just when there is a new baby, a positive outcome 2 years from now will be of little comfort.

 In a related story, Victoria's Secret recently fired a woman who oversaw sales at a number of their stores in New York and Connecticut, while she was out on maternity leave, and presumably covered under the FMLA.

 In that case she alleges that she was fired while on leave. It was during that leave that she recieved a voice mail advising her of a problem condition at one of the stores she oversaw. She passed this info along to the woman assigned to cover for her while she was out. Apprently, this wasn't good enough, and she was allegedly fired for this, upon her return to work. Her case is now pending before the Connecticut agency that deals with claims like this.

 For more detailed information on this, or any other issue, feel free to email me at alan@alanbarry.com

NEW YEARS EVE RUSSIAN STYLE

Yes are arch enemies may have pounded shoes on the table at the UN, but when it comes to Tradition, The Russians, well, they know how to party. The biggest party night of the year for Russians is in fact New Years Eve, their most celebrated celebration.
I should know from wence I speak, given my familia ancestry goes back to Mother Russia to the time of The Tzars. But, it wasn't until my marriage to Tatiana Vladimirovna Latysheva Barry, that I gained  insight and understanding of our shared heritage (she being from the Lake Baikal region of Siberia.)
New Years Eve of course requires great preparation. Of course their must be the beautifully decorated tree, which is really considered The New Year tree, as most Russians, being Orthodox, celebrate Russian Christmas on Jan 7. By the way, despite the fact that we usually dismissed The Soviets as a lesser intellingent people, consider the fact that they have holiday for almost every day during January, Even with essentially the month off, The Russians still are doing pretty well.
So, I did my part(I set up my Camera equipment) and Tatiana did her part(shopping in Brooklyn, traditional cleaning of the house with tooth brush, then several days and nights of cooking , and finally setting the table seen here, etc.
It goes without saying that I dutifully consumed everything, and then some. In fact, its a miracle that I could even hit the time-released shutter to document the start to our wonderful evening together
As we like to say 

S Novym Godom!

THE DIVORCE; A RECENT CASE OF NOTE

PICTURE SPEAKING THOUSAND WORDS
Every day we hear of sad cases of marriage ending in Divorce. There is rarely, any sense of satisfaction in the end;rarely

On the first day she sadly packed her belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases.

On the second day she had the movers come and collect her things.

On the third day she sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining room table by candlelight.  She put on some soft background music and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of spring water.

When she'd finished her meal, she went into each and every room and deposited a few half-eaten shrimp dipped in caviar into the hollow center of the curtain rods (the same curtain rods that they had bought while traveling on their honeymoon - the ones she loved).  She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.

On the fourth day, the husband came back with his new girlfriend, and all was bliss.

But gradually the house began to smell.

They tried everything; cleaning, mopping, and airing out the place.  They checked all the vents for dead rodents and steam cleaned all the rugs, drapes, and furniture.  They placed air fresheners everywhere.  They hired exterminators to set off gas canisters, during which time the two had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting.

Nothing worked.  People stopped coming over to visit.  Repairmen refused to work in the house.  The maid quit.

At this point they couldn't take the stench any longer and decided they had to move, but a month later - even though they'd cut their price in half - they couldn't find a buyer.  The word had gotten out, and eventually the local realtors even stopped returning their calls.  Finally, unable to wait any longer, they borrowed a huge sum of money to purchase a new place.

At about that time the ex-wife called the man and asked how things were going.  He told her the saga of the rotting house.  She listened politely and said that she missed her old home terribly and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for having the house.

Knowing she couldn't possibly comprehend how bad the smell really was, he agreed on a price that was only a tenth of what the house had been worth, but only if she would sign the papers that very day.  She agreed, and within two hours his lawyers delivered the completed paperwork.

A week later the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as the moving company packed everything to take to their new home...

…and in a last gesture to spite the ex-wife, they took the curtain rods she had loved so dearly.

image credit: Corri Fetman