I was trying to find an old photograph, and I found this one last night.  I took this when we went out to visit Carol in San Diego in April 2006.  Carol had so much fun with Libby and Jasmine.   This was taken on the beach on Coronado and Jasmine was still very afraid of the water.  Jasmine would only look at the ocean if Carol held her (look how Jazzy looks!)  Libby had no such fears and ran right into the surf.

Carol Anne Eick, July 9, 1955 - November 27, 2006

I miss you so much.

 Steve Eick here again.  Today Ms. McCarthy and Shannon Derick accepted our settlement offer of Stephanie’s old iPod. As I mentioned in my first post, any dispute between two 13-year olds is a she-said she-said and the appropriate thing to do is split it. Actually, now that I know the full details, my daughter did nothing wrong. This is pretty much what Judge French said in the settlement conference. What the press has ignored as was pointed out by Judge French is that both kids are victims. The real culprit and thief is the third kid who actually took the iPod. As Judge French said, to win her case, Ms. McCarthy would need to prove that Stephanie acted negligently when judged by criteria appropriate for a 13-year old.

Shannon accepted Stephanie’s 30GB iPod video, a significantly more powerful (and expensive) iPod than the 2GB iPod Nano that was lost. Both Shannon and Stephanie seemed quite pleased with the exchange. Stephanie has her eye on the new iPod widescreen video that is expected to be released shortly. Shannon now has 30GB of storage and verified with Apple that none of her iTunes has actually been lost, a fact that was pointed out early on in this dispute.

The only person who appeared unsatisfied is Ms McCarthy. Ms McCarthy complained to the Judge that she didn’t have time for a trial (which would take 15 minutes, but did have time to travel to California to do an appearance on the Judge Judy TV Show), could not understand a standard legal release, and that Stephanie’s used 30GB iPod Video was not comparable to daughter’s used 2GB iPod Nano. Judge French simply told her that the choice to accept the settlement, which is essentially what I offered in my one and only conversation with her back in August, was hers. Why instigate a litigation if you don’t want to do a trial, do not want to deal with lawyers, and don’t want to read legalese?

My take? Too many people watch the court TV shows and think winning litigation is easy. It’s not. As the judge said, compromise is hard. Filing this frivolous lawsuit wasted a bunch of time and we ended up right back were we started on day one. One positive aspect, I did have fun with the media. It’s not every day that a silly dispute of a lost iPod in sleepy Naperville turns into an international media event.

From the small claims case heard round the world, a settlement.  Now, we can all reflect on the lessons learned.  The lesson's are, umm, ummm, ummm, well, I have no idea why the suit went this far...

Here's a list of all the papers that printed the story today. Here's Steve's comments from before the settlement

UPDATE:  Steve's latest comments here.

Missing iPod dispute settled | Chicago Tribune

By Art Barnum
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 9, 2006, 10:09 AM CST

The dispute between two teenage suburban girls over a missing iPod was resolved this morning when one of them agreed to give her used digital music player to the other.
In a settlement that ends the months-long civil dispute, Stephanie Eick agreed to give her year-old iPod to Shannon Derrick, her classmate at Still Middle School in Aurora who said her new player went missing after Eick borrowed it.

Source: Missing iPod dispute settled | Chicago Tribune

Months-old dispute over iPod finally settled | Naperville Sun

November 9, 2006

By KATE R. HOULIHAN

Staff writer

WHEATON – It’s over.

A settlement in the case of a missing iPod Nano that pitted two 14-year-old girls against each other was reached Thursday in DuPage County Circuit Court, putting to rest the months-old case that made headlines locally and in the blogging world.

The settlement had Waubonsie Valley High School freshman Stephanie Eick, of Naperville, handing over her white, 30 gigabyte video iPod that she received last Christmas to Shannon Derrick, also a freshman at Waubonsie.

“I want to congratulate you on being able to settle this,” Associate Judge Dorothy French told the girls and their families during their brief court appearance.

Source: Months-old dispute over iPod finally settled

Great iPod Case settled

Teen gets new one, but plans to auction it off to do some good

By Christy Gutowski
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer
Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006

In the end, Shannon won’t get a new iPod out of the deal.

And she couldn’t be happier.

A DuPage County small claims court judge this morning dismissed the long-running feud over a teen’s borrowing and alleged careless returning of another teen’s iPod, which vanished. The settlement agreed to in court calls for:

• The defendants, Stephanie Eick’s family, of Naperville, to give Shannon Derrick an iPod, slightly used, to replace the one that was lost or stolen.

• The plaintiffs, Shannon and her mother Melanie McCarthy of Aurora, to put that iPod up for sale on eBay.

Source: Daily Herald | News

Girls settle feud over missing iPod | The Beacon News

November 10, 2006

By KATE R. HOULIHAN Staff writer

WHEATON -- A settlement in the case of a missing iPod Nano that pitted two 14-year-old girls against each other was reached Thursday in DuPage County Circuit Court, putting to rest the months-old case that made headlines locally and in the blogging world.

To end the dispute, Waubonsie Valley High School freshman Stephanie Eick of Naperville handed over her white, 30-gigabyte video iPod she received last Christmas to Shannon Derrick, also a freshman at Waubonsie.

"I want to congratulate you on being able to settle this," Associate Judge Dorothy French told the girls and their families during their brief court appearance.

Source: The Beacon News

Steve Eick here again.  Last Thursday we had our pre-trial settlement conference with Judge Dorothy F. French, Eighteenth Judicial Circuit. In small claims court cases settlement conferences are pretty rare, although it’s also pretty rare for 14-year kids to be suing each other. (back story on the stolen ipod lawsuit, here, here, here, and here)

Judge French said, from what she has read, the media has completely blown this case. It seemed to her that both girls are victims of a crime. The real criminal is the kid who took the iPod from Shannon’s unattended purse. If the case were to go to trial, Ms. McCarthy would need to prove that Stephanie was negligent in returning the iPod, which according to Stephanie was placed in Shannon’s purse on her desk while Shannon was in the room and according to Ms. McCarthy was placed on her desk next to her purse while Shannon was in the bathroom. Furthermore, in Illinois minors generally need to be at least 15-years old to assume responsibility and thus Ms. McCarthy would need to prove the return, whether to the purse or desk, was grossly negligent when applied to a 13-year old. As a defendant, we would need to argue that Stephanie’s actions were reasonable for a 13-year old.

In the event that Ms. McCarthy was successful in obtaining a judgment, unless Stephanie is a heiress, which she is not, the judgment would go into collections proceedings. As a minor, without assets, a job, or even the potential of getting a job, Ms McCarthy would have difficulty enforcing the judgment.

Judge French recommended that the parties attempt to resolve the dispute without a trial since a trial would leave at least one side and perhaps two unhappy. She also pointed out that in the event of a trial she would ignore anything she had read in the media, listen to the evidence, and make her decision. She suggested several creative, “out of the box” solutions.

Although we feel Stephanie’s actions were completely appropriate, we put two settlement offers on the table: my original offer of $100 and a second offer of Stephanie’s iPod 30 GB Video for the stolen 2 GB iPod Nano. We are meeting again in Judge French’s quarters on Nov 9.

At the risk of further alienating my readers (Dax, really, I'm migrating family content to a family blog!).  Here's a blog post that refers to sites that linked to Steve's blog post.  Very meta.  Google juice, nonetheless...

In what is slowly snowballing into the Trial of the Century (and being only 2006, we can safely say the Trial of the Millennium), the dispute between the families of Shannon Derrick and Stephanie Eick over a stolen iPod will not, unfortunately, be resolved in the hallowed halls of Judge Judy's tough-but-fair courtroom. Amusingly, the plaintiff's mother originally saw the show as a quick way to resolve the matter on a level playing field, even though this whole incident could have been put to bed weeks ago had said mother not rejected a free iPod and associated swag donated by an anonymous do-gooder. As much as we'd love to hear JJ's take on this silly matter, since Eick's parents have been dropped from the suit and now only the piggybank of 14-year-old Stephanie is being pursued, it's up to her to approve a change of venue from Illinois to California.

Source: Sadly, iPod girls will not get publicly berated by Judge Judy - Engadget

Web Site Run By Uncle: Family Declines Show

While a spokesman for the Judge Judy show would not offer any official comment Thursday, the Web site AndyEick.com announced that the Eick family had declined to appear on the nationally syndicated television show.

"I want to confirm we have been in discussions with the Judge Judy Reality TV show and decided to pass," reads the site, hosted by an uncle of Stephanie Eick, one of the girls involved in the iPod dispute.

Source: Families Bickering Over iPod Won't See Judge Judy

 

Judge Judy Might Not Be Hearing iPod Case

Family Sued Over iPod Loss Reportedly Declines To Appear

(Naperville Sun) NAPERVILLE, Ill. A trip to California to let Judge Judith Sheindlin rule on the case of a missing iPod no longer appears to be in the cards for two local high-schoolers.
While a spokesman for the "Judge Judy" show would not offer any official comment Thursday, on the Web site AndyEick.com, hosted by the uncle of 14-year-old Stephanie Eick, her father, Stephen, announced that the Eick family had declined to appear on the nationally syndicated show.

Source: Judge Judy Might Not Be Hearing iPod Case

UPDATE:  The end of a nuisance Lawsuit

Steve Eick here again. I want to confirm that we have been in discussions with the Judge Judy Reality TV show and decided to pass. Both Susan and I have been dismissed from the lawsuit and now Ms. McCarthy through her daughter is suing my 14-year old. Since Stephanie is being sued, a change of venue is her choice. She thought about the Judge Judy TV show, realized that she would miss two days of school and diving practice (She is on the high school diving team), and told me to pass. Both Susan and I support Stephanie’s decision. We had (and still have) the opportunity to do the Judge Mathis TV show which is filmed locally in Chicago. We both work and don’t see the logic in traveling to California to settle a dispute that could be resolved locally in a couple hours.

I am very proud of Stephanie. My daughter’s version of events is quite different from Ms. McCarthy’s and has now been corroborated by several other kids who witnessed the incident. Stephanie has received tremendous support from the other students at Waubonsie high school. Several students have come to tell her that they support her and will be her friend.

 Engadget again?  3 Posts on this?  Must be a slow gadget month.  I still haven't heard from my brother if the show is a sure thing, they are still negotiating with the show...By the time this is settled everyone will want the next gen iPod's anyway...

Girl's missing iPod case headed for Judge Judy?

Posted Sep 21st 2006 4:45PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Portable Audio

It's probably a bit late to call this one "getting out of hand," but, well, it is. After starting out with a rather frivolous lawsuit in the first place, and then moving on to greater heights when Shannon Derrik's mom turned down a free iPod nano delivered to their door, the debacle looks to be headed to the television via the Judge Judy show. The families had formerly turned down an offer to appear on the Judge Mathis show, but now it looks like the the promise of a one-day showdown and the lack of attorneys on Judge Judy was just too good to ignore, since they've both tentatively agreed to appear on the show. "I think this way it'll be more fair. It'll just be me against him," said Shannon's mom, Melanie McCarthy. "If we go on the show, at least it'll be over within one day and we can go on with our lives." Apparently the DuPage County judge that is currently trying the case was about to consider a request to dismiss the small claims case (which is going after $355, plus court costs), but we suppose that just wouldn't involve enough public humiliation to satisfy all parties involved.

Source: Girl's missing iPod case headed for Judge Judy? - Engadget

tags: iPod, lawsuit

 Judge Mathis out!  Judge Judy in!

By Christy Gutowski
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer
Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006

The dispute that arose when an Aurora schoolgirl lost her beloved pink iPod after loaning it to a friend is due in court today in DuPage County.

But a California judge who is watched by millions of television viewers may end up having the final word.

Both sides tentatively agreed to fight it out on the “Judge Judy” show, which airs weekdays on WBBM-TV, Channel 2.

The national exposure is the latest twist to an overblown teenage quarrel that generated a lawsuit, a media frenzy and thousands of Internet forum opinions.

Source: Daily Herald (cached)

tags: iPod, lawsuit

Jasmine: "One, Two, Three, Four, Five, ..."

Libby: "DADDY! Jasmine count me!  Jasmine count meeeee!"

I suppose adoption stories always resonate with me! (Adopted daughter, Biological daughter)  Reading the chart, it looks like I'm one of 10,000 with a Asian adoption.  Jasmine is from Xi'an, and the year I was there the China government only allowed 100 girls from the providence, and Jasmine was #96. 

What I can't understand is why society is putting any restriction on adoption when so many children need homes.  Let's have this discussion after every available child has been adopted and cared for.

Overcoming Adoption’s Racial Barriers

By LYNETTE CLEMETSON and RON NIXON

When Martina Brockway and Mike Timble, a white couple in Chicago, decided to adopt a child, Ms. Brockway went to an adoption agency presentation at a black church to make it clear they wanted an African-American baby.

Their biological daughter, Rumeur, 3, is accumulating black dolls in preparation for her new brother or sister. Black-themed children’s books like “Please, Baby, Please” by the filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, share shelf space with Elmo and Dr. Seuss.

But the couple’s decision provoked some uneasy responses. One of Mr. Timble’s white friends asked, “Aren’t there any white kids available?”

Source: Overcoming Adoption’s Racial Barriers - New York Times

tags: adoption