Not all lawyers are seedy shysters.

Far too many are. The judges and ethics commissions who are tasked with keeping the bad lawyers in check are either not able to keep up with it, or they prefer to protect the status quo.

I’ve written about a few of the most egregious. William Spiller, an appointed minor’s counsel in California. Another minor’s counsel, Kenneth P. Sherman, who finally asked to be recused from my custody case after endangering my son’s life and giving both my sons a serious handicap in their journey to manhood. William Zac White in Arkansas, who shouted “bitch” in the courthouse and called me a “bitch” during a hearing, obtained a $200,000 property for his client as part of a fraud that Mr. White was well aware of, and obtained a default on a case where he did not serve summons on the defendant (which was set aside later).

But what of the lawyers who probably want to be good guys, but the pesky truth gets in the way?

My good childhood friend who is a lawyer in California once asked me what the Bible would say about a situation she encountered. Opposing counsel on a case filed a document with a proof of service that said he delivered the document to my friend’s office on a Friday, but he actually slipped it under her door sometime during the weekend. The document had a fax stamp on the bottom that showed opposing counsel faxed it to his client for signature Friday evening.

In one of my cases, California Attorney Keith Cochran represented one person in two different capacities. The clerk erroneously only entered Mr. Cochran’s client once on the electronic docket. Instead of asking the clerk to add the second capacity, Mr. Cochran left his client as an individual off the representation statement on the cover of the response to the complaint. I asked the clerk to add the individual to the docket, which he did, and filed a motion for default. That motion was denied with the excuse that the individual was referred to on page 6 of the response in a footnote. That excuse might have flown if presented in a motion to set aside default, but it was a fatal error for Judge Janis Sammartino to decide there was no default and motion to set aside default was not necessary.

I am suing notorious debt buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly traded PRA Group, Inc. PRA has ripped off hundreds of thousands of people by suing or trying to gain voluntary payment on unverifiable debt. Last month Portfolio Recovery stipulated to the second 7-figure settlement of complaints lodged against it by the CFPB that discuss this conduct.

After I filed suit PRA set my alleged account balance to zero. They did not say they were “waiving” or “cancelling” the debt. They did not send me or file a 1099-C cancellation of debt form with the I.R.S. PRA’s attorney claimed in open court that the debt was waived, instead of admitting there was no reliable record of the debt and no one knows what the borrowed money was used to purchase.

PRA attorneys are from prestigious lawfirms, Rose Law firm of Hillary Clinton fame and Troutman Pepper, a big-business defense firm.

Portfolio Recovery basically told the I.R.S. one thing and the court another.

If PRA has reason to believe the debt truly existed, then failing to file the 1099-C was a violation of 26 CFR section 1.6050P.

If PRA filed the 1099-C, they would be in bigger trouble for tax fraud. It is easy for PRA to bully individuals, but they don’t want to take on the I.R.S.

(Spoiler alert: I have the address for the I.R.S.)

The problem is that many judges look the other way or poo-poo the attorneys’ transgressions.

Judge Lee P. Rudofsky opined that the failure of the debt buyer to put in writing to me and the IRS that the debt was waived or cancelled was not proof that the debt did not exist at the time PRA called me and wrote letters demanding that I owed $2,297.63.

It is hard to believe that a Cornell and Harvard graduate can be that naive. But a belief is not a fact according to Judge Rudofsky.

If you have a bridge to sell, perhaps Judge Rudofsky is in the market for one.