Senate Bill To Make Federal Court Documents Fee Free: Three Cheers for Senator Rob Portman et al.
Hooray! Some smart senators already proposed a bill that would make access to court documents through PACER free to all but patrons who download documents valued at $25,000 per year. Presently, the door to free access is closed once anyone downloads $30 worth per quarter, which is about 300 pages.
If you have any suggestions on how citizens can encourage passage of this bill, please comment or send a private message to bohemian_books@yahoo.com.
For now, here are a couple FREE Docs of the Day:
I’m not usually a fan of some of these senators, such as Ms. Feinstein, but my hat is off to them today.
Sponsor: Sen. Portman, Rob [R-OH] (Introduced 08/04/2021)
Co-Sponsor(s):
Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR]
Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL]
Sen. Hawley, Josh [R-MO]
Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
Sen. Leahy, Patrick J. [D-VT]
Sen. Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA]
Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI]
Sen. Kennedy, John [R-LA]
Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE]
Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT]
Sen. Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI]
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]
Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA]
Sen. Ossoff, Jon [D-GA]
Can I do anything about a corrupt court? And should I try?
This is the question a friend and colleague asked me yesterday. We had one of those phone conversations where we had to take a break to deal with a store clerk or make the grandkids lunch. But the question is one that deserves attention.
My friend thinks, if I am understanding her correctly, that there are Bible verses that instruct us to let it go, don’t file a lawsuit, don’t rebuke a wrongdoer, because the effect will not be correcting their behavior. It will cause dis-ease for you. She points to Proverbs 9, verse 7 to 12, KJV.
7 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
12 If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
My interpretation is different than hers. I think you need to read all of chapter 8 and 9 together.
8 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
15 By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
16 By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
18 Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
19 My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:
21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.
36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
(To me, this is Jesus speaking through the prophesy of Solomon. I didn’t study at a theological seminary any more than I went to law school. But I read and came to my understanding before reading the commentary on Wikipedia and the Wiki editors make a connection, as well. Not as strong and direct as mine. Many scholars give Wisdom an incarnation as a woman. I hear Jesus saying, “blessed are they that keep my ways.”)
9 Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
2 She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
3 She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,
4 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
5 Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.
6 Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
7 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
12 If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.
13 A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.
14 For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,
15 To call passengers who go right on their ways:
16 Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
17 Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
This shows the metaphor and analogy between Wisdom and Foolishness as two women. They are not literal women.
Foolishness clamors. Wisdom instructs.
Back to the questions. Can I do anything about a corrupt court? And should I try?
Don’t think you will change the conduct or even the motivations of a wicked person. If someone chooses evil, they will not say “oh, thank you for pointing out my error; I repent of my sins and will make you whole.”
In fact, the evil one will come at you with everything he’s got. Lies, deceit, gaslighting.
He will steal your time. He will steal your serenity if you don’t love yourself the way God loves you.
You may never “win” silver, gold and rubies.
There is something intangible that you will gain. (Proverbs 8:10-11 and 18-19) You will have the opportunity to love your friends.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13, KJV.
When you fight injustice, because you have standing and may be compensated financially or with more time with your children, your enemies will not be kind. They will clamor. They will steal the sweet water of wisdom. They are in the depths of hell, and want you to join them.
I say, lay down your life. Do the uncomfortable. It is only in losing your life that you gain life everlasting.
What is Court Corruption?
Court Corruption. It might look like a lawyer walking into the judge’s chambers with a briefcase full of cash and leaving without one.
It is usually more subtle than that.
Let’s look to my new favorite book: “The Student’s Reference Dictionary”, an abridged version of Noah Webster’s “American Dictionary of English Language”, 1847.
Corruption: 1. The act of corrupting, or state of being corrupt or putrid; the destruction of the natural form of bodies, by the separation of the component parts, or by disorganization, in the process of putrefaction. Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. – Ps. xvi.
7. Bribery. He obtained his suit by corruption.
8. In law, taint; impurity of blood, in consequence of an act of attainder of treason or felony, by which a person is disabled to inherit lands from an ancestor, nor can retain those in his possession, nor transmit them by descent to his heirs.
Hey, that opens up the definition of corruption to a whole lot of common-place scenarios.
On a personal level, Judge Susan Weaver of Searcy County Arkansas allowed Mike Pietrczak and William White to commit fraud, the consequence which was taking possession of land from me and my descendants.
On the grander scale, when people oppress other people through battery and even murder, then take the oppressed people’s right to possession of land, that is corruption in the legal system. Even before there was a law on the books that made slavery or genocide “illegal”.
A corrupt court is a court that allows for manifest injustice.
Debt Buyer Lawsuit Mills Who Hound People that Don’t Owe the Debt
There are good attorneys out there. Steve Lehto is one of my faves. Enjoy his take on litigious, vexatious debt collectors.
Fanciful Friday: Net Worth and Punitive Damages
As per Yahoo Finance, the parent company of the defendant in my FDCPA, Outrage and Intrusion on Seclusion case has a net worth (assets minus liabilities) of $1,240,000,000. (That is $1.24 Billion.)
It takes money to make money, usually, so PRA Group, Inc. borrowed about $2.6 billion. That is more than double its net worth.
First, is that even legal? As an individual, I was investing in blue chip stocks, not schlock, and the maximum I could borrow, using the stocks as collateral, was less than the amount I had in stocks and did not take my other assets, like real estate, into consideration.
So, if I formed a corporation, a legal entity that can evaporate as easily as it is created, I would be able to borrow twice as much?
I am also curious how assets of a debt buyer are determined. Do they count the schmata loans they purchase at face value, even though they only pay pennies on the dollar? Or do they use the expected value?
These are important questions if you file a suit against Portfolio Recovery Associates for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on you or intruding on your seclusion. Net worth of the company is taken into consideration for determining punitive damages, in a fair and just world.
The same company that wants to cry poverty in court benefits in pushing up stock value by claiming to have sound finances to current and prospective shareholders.
I’m musing on PRA’s financial health as I prepare for appeal and hopefully trial, and watching as the price of PRAA stock tries to push down through the $17.74 ten-year floor.
[UPDATE 10/19/2023. While I was paying attention to my appeal this week, PRAA broke through the floor.]
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Please comment or send a private, anonymous, confidential or background only message to bohemian_books@yahoo.com.
Help Build a Public Library of Court Documents Free of Charge to Yourself
Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.
Our courts are supposed to be transparent and accessible to the public. Most are not.
For instance, the Federal District Courts use an electronic filing system called PACER. Public Access to Court Electronic Records is not paid for in full by tax dollars and filing fees. Citizens are charged 10 cents per page to view and download documents.
There is a cap of $3.00 per document for most filings. (Transcripts have no cap.) And each person is forgiven their charges if they do not exceed $30 per quarter.
If you are a litigant in a case and use electronic filing, which requires a PACER account, you receive one free access to each document in your case that does not count toward your quarterly charges.
Some courts, including the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, won’t let non-attorneys who represent themselves file electronically. This seems to be a violation of the right to equal protection. A pro se litigant is required to print four copies of each document she files and drive it to the courthouse or mail it and hope it arrives and is acceptable to the clerk.
Let’s say you file 100 documents, each 25 pages. That is 10,000 pages at 10 cents each to copy, which equals an expense your represented opponent does not have equal to $1,000 for copies. Delivery to the clerk, whether by mail or in person, is approximately $30, so another $3,000.
If the judge lets your opponent designate material as “Confidential”, then you need to file another set of redacted copies.
If you want a file stamped copy for your records, in case something gets changed down the way, which has happened to me, you must include the download in your quarterly charges.
For someone like me who lives on a $639 per month pension, the costs of filing can use up her entire annual income.
The electronic filing manual and Local Rules contradict each other. The former forbids any access to electronic filing by non-attorneys. The later makes it permissible but only by filing a motion and having that motion approved. I filed such a motion and Judge Lee P. Rudofsky denied it. (See the Doc of the Day, at the bottom of this post.)
Judges like Lee P. Rudofsky and Billy Roy Wilson are deceptive or flat out lie about what a pro se litigant wrote in their filings when supporting the Corrupt Judicial Officer’s opinion. The ordinary person can’t afford to pull up all the documents that were the basis for the opinion, at 10 cents per page. So, few will see what was actually written or said in depositions and hearings.
The law libraries in Arkansas do not provide free PACER access to patrons. The libraries are not given free access and cannot absorb the cost.
In the Eastern District of Arkansas, you can pull up the documents for free at the kiosk in the clerk’s office. This means you must do your research during business hours. They do not allow you to load the documents onto a thumb drive or other electronic storage. It costs 10 cents per page to get paper printouts of the documents you might want to quote.
If you happen to have documents with a PACER file stamp, please send them by email to bohemian_books@yahoo.com. They will be featured as “Doc of the Day” for FREE download by the rest of us.
Think about signing up for PACER, which is free, and let me know if you want some ideas on how to spend your $30 worth of free downloads. Your service to our country will be appreciated.
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Pop Quiz: Who said, “let them eat cake”?
A. Judge Lee P. Rudofsky
B. Marie Antoinette
C. Both of the above.
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Docs of the Day:
Anatomy of a Bankruptcy: How a debt collector’s defense attorney dug himself in so deep.
It is difficult to listen to Portfolio Recovery Associate’s lead attorney, James K. Trefil of Troutman Pepper spew lies, downplay the spoliation of evidence and insinuate that I owed a debt of $2,297.63 to Capital One, when I know he got himself deep in debt and then filed for bankruptcy while bringing in an $11,000 per month income. It seems like a somewhat sociopathic case of transference.
Ironically, as you can see in the claims register found on PACER, $10,437.91 of Mr. and Mrs. Trefil’s debt was owed to Capital One. It would be a hoot if the same debt that was extinguished in bankruptcy also appeared on one of the portfolios the bank sold to Mr. Trefil’s client. The portfolios purchased by PRA are known to be riddled with errors, according to the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau).
Hopefully you find looking at a bankruptcy case novel and interesting. I cannot afford to pull up all the documents on PACER. If you have an account and don’t usually hit your $30 per quarter worth of free docs limit, please download more of this case and send copies to me. I’ll share with the class.
(If corrupt judicial officers keep ruling against me, and the appellate courts fail to correct them, I may need to file for bankruptcy myself. The Trefil case is probably a good template to learn from. It was filed by an attorney on behalf of an attorney.)
From what I posted below for you to download FREE, there is a picture of a lawyer living beyond his means. Imagine that. If you are an ordinary person, you probably wonder how a couple earning six figures with one child can spend all that money, and then some.
To start, their mortgage for a townhouse was $4,875 per month. In 2006.
Geez! In 2006 I lived in a cool old beach house in California with a whitewater view and paid $1,600 per month. That place was big enough to work from home and give two kids their own rooms.
Sometimes it is better to rent than to buy, like in the overheated market early this century.
The Trefils also carried $70,000 worth of credit card debt and line of credit of $47,981.
Oddly, the value of their consumer goods owned was less than $17,000 and they drove a Honda Accord worth $6,150.
Sadly, they paid over $700 per month for health insurance and still had medical bills they were responsible for of almost $35,000.
Still, that just does not add up. I have similar personal property, and less than 1/10th the income. My trick is buying everything I can find at yard sales.
What caused me to go into this lawyer’s bankruptcy with you, my friends? Well, his team is now claiming that I should pay the costs of litigation for the billion-dollar company (that has a $2.6B credit line available) because, even though my only income last year was a $630 per month pension, I have debilitating illnesses, lost $500,000 of my own working capital in the COVID-Crash and had to fight a dozen court cases pro se, I undoubtedly have enough assets left over to pick up the bill.
After James Trefil filed for bankruptcy, he had at least 17 more years to earn income and has a healthy social security account built up.
Screenshot of the Author’s FICO score today.
The Chevron Doctrine and the Hypocrisy of Federal District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky
The Doc of the Day is a link to an article posted on Defense firm Taft/’s website and reprinted on Lexology. If you are going to fight for your rights and be part of the movement to give access to our courts to the ordinary working person, you should sign up for daily emails from Lexology. It is free.
It is important when debating to understand your opponent’s argument, even before your opponent makes that argument. (I was on debate team throughout college and while at Taft High School, coincidentally named, which had one of the finest academic records for a public school in the nation.)
You don’t need to agree with your opponents to listen to what they have to say.
The Taft/ author, Sohan Dasgupta, Ph.D., got it all wrong. Judge Lee P. Rudofsky makes the same mistake.
Dasgupta claimed the defenders of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC “maintain that the federal agency in question knows best what the statute it routinely applies means. Unsurprisingly, that assurance does not satisfy Chevron’s detractors. Even if that is an accurate understanding of administrative practice, Chevron’s critics contend, this abdication of the judicial role allows the executive to color outside its lane and to set aside any concern about democratic accountability.”
First, I must edit the Doctor of Philosophy’s prose. He mixed metaphors. Either the executive colors outside the lines or drives outside his lane, not both.
Back to the legal principals behind the Chevron Doctrine. Critics like Judge Rudofsky don’t really want the executive to stay in his lane; The supposedly “Federalist” judges want exclusive use of the road.
As explained by Dr. Dasgupta, the Chevron “doctrine stands for the overall proposition that unless a federal agency’s interpretation of a statute is unreasonable, the agency effectively gets to decide what an ambiguous statute means. Federal judges must, in those circumstances, heed the determinations of executive branch bureaucrats, both in executive agencies and independent ones.”
He continues that Chevron’s critics “sometimes also believe that the executive branch has its own tendentious view of the law, which will affect its interpretation — a deficiency from which neutral federal judges do not ordinarily suffer. While presidential control of the political appointees in executive agencies is, of course, direct — career civil servants, on the other hand, enjoy insulation from removal by the president, who is the head of the executive branch — independent agency co-heads often are removable only for good cause.”
Herein lies the fallacy. Judge Rudofsky and his ilk claim it is not Constitutional to have appointed agency heads who cannot be removed, barring an act of God. Have you ever tried to have a federal judge removed? People have tried to have Judge Rudofsky removed, not from the bench, only from a single case. It is a daunting task.
Rudofsky not only interprets the legislature’s unambiguous language improperly, he reinvents the meaning of litigants’ rendition of the facts of the case. Then he dares the litigant, take it to appeal (which translates into the judge’s native New Yorkese as “so sue me”).
Adding insult to injury, judges invented the doctrine of Absolute Judicial Immunity, which makes it impossible to sue a judge in civil court for running all over your rights, no matter how malicious his motivations. (The executive branch enjoys the slightly lower protection of the doctrine of Qualified Immunity.)
The Rudofskys roll right over the legislature, then back up to run over litigants, then speed away spreading a bed of roofing nails behind them that are sure to disable law enforcement’s pursuit. This is the road they want our nation to be on.
Stanley Mosk and William Spiller Sr. and Jr. Take One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Short Story
“Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” Jeremiah 31:15 (KJV)
Blacks brought to this country on slave ships suffered the most heinous crimes against humanity, separation from family, rape, torture and sanctioned murder. Blacks continued to suffer these injustices long after the statutory abolition of slavery.
There were lesser insults to African-American people, not as dramatic, but disturbing and soul shaping none-the-less. It destroys self-esteem to be excluded from playing with other kids (or grown-ups) because of the color of your skin. That kind of exclusion is heartbreaking. But it is obviously not as abhorrent as having your baby torn from your arms and given to your oppressors.
This is the story of two black men, a father and a son. The father suffered indignity and was denied the opportunity of making big money playing professional golf, because of his skin color. The son uses other arbitrary and capricious criteria to determine which children he will separate from their loving parents.
The longest serving justice on the California Supreme Court, Stanley Mosk, was a friend to these two men, and to the African-American Community as a whole. Along with other works protecting the Constitution and equality, he is credited with convincing the PGA to drop its unconstitutional rule of excluding non-Caucasians from its professional golf tournaments in 1961.
Most of the articles I found about Stanley Mosk and his efforts to desegregate golf attribute his success to a collaboration with an African-American man, golf great Charlie Sifford. But their work built upon that of another Black man named William Spiller, Sr. The elder Spiller was a vocal crusader for the right of Black people to play in the PGA. Sadly, by the time the restriction was lifted, Spiller Sr. was past his prime and did not compete in the PGA.
The Los Angeles Times wrote an article about Spiller Senior at Spiller Junior’s urging: (excerpted)
“Decades after golf tournaments threw him out because he was black, Spiller would jolt awake, sit up in his bed, shout the names of the long-deceased people who ran those tournaments.
“Sometimes he would grab his gun, stalk into the living room, wave the pistol, promise 3 a.m. revenge.
“’I’ll get them for this, you’ll see! I’ll get them!’”
Still, Stanley Mosk and William Spiller, Sr. forged a friendship in the struggle for racial justice.
Spiller Senior’s son, William Spiller, Jr. did not take up golf. He became an attorney though and continued his father’s friendship with Stanley Mosk. He became the darling of the Superior Court because of that legacy.
Spiller Junior got into the “club” of clickish attorneys in Los Angeles due to Mosk’s involvement in the Civil Rights movement alongside Spiller Senior.
Junior hit a seven-figure income by being appointed to represent minors in contentious custody cases.
It is ironic that Attorney Spiller is reputed to do the dirty work for judges who have chosen favorites in many of these cases for reasons that don’t include serving justice. Spiller’s victims are predominately Black women, though he is also known as an equal opportunity hater.
One Spiller case in the news right now is the struggle of Tanisha Foster who conceived a child with late rapper Nipsey Hussle. Foster wants to be reunited with her daughter, but Spiller is favoring Hussle’s family who control his daughter’s impressive inheritance. Follow the money.
There are many cases that don’t involve celebrities… the plight of Donicia Augustus, Maria Chiarello, schoolteachers, women of faith, and probably many who are not seen due to poverty and lack of education.
One motivation for these separations is money. Appointed minor’s counselors like Spiller make big bucks, much of it taxpayer dollars, by fanning the flames in contentious divorces. There is little oversight in the disbursements to the selected attorneys, including Spiller, who monopolize the appointed court collateral cottage industry.
The judges are the slave owners in the scenario of these unjust family law rulings. William Spiller is an overseer. With harsh indifference, he rips mothers and children apart.
This tale is perplexing and needs to be told, because instead of looking on Spiller with disdain, the legal community in L.A. embraces him and holds him in high esteem. Should we puke or should we laugh at the stupidity of these “learned” men and women, who make Spiller the keynote speaker at a conference entitled Cultural Competency in Family Law Practice?
Did none of them research Spiller’s record of discipline with the Bar for an act of moral turpitude? Can none of them hear the deep anguish and bitter weeping of Rachel for her children in Ramah?
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Doc of the Day
A bit of scripture.
“Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” Jeremiah 31:15 (KJV)
A Higher Law 