Those of us in Washington are well aware that dead people can vote. But did you know that they can also sue?

For two-and-a-half years the Lakin Law Firm has carried on a Madison County class action lawsuit with a dead plaintiff.

Manuel Hernandez of Granite City, who Circuit Judge Daniel Stack certified to represent a class of plaintiffs in a suit against American Family Insurance, died Jan. 25, 2004, but Jeffrey Millar of the Lakin firm did not tell Stack.

It just slipped his mind, I guess. For two-and-a-half years.

It gets better.

Millar has confirmed the death of his client, but he has not answered questions that American Family Insurance submitted about his knowledge of it.

Millar objected to the questions, arguing to Stack that American Family Insurance should submit them not to Hernandez’s attorney but to Hernandez himself.

That’s right. The lawyer objects to being asked when he learned about the death of his client because he argues that under Illinois court rules questions like that need to be addressed directly to his client (who is dead, just in case it slipped your mind also.)