Reverse Robin Hood: How Rich Legal System Insiders Rob from the Poor (and Middle Class)
What is your hourly wage? $15? $100?
Or are you an attorney who charges $250 to $550 per hour? And do you double bill your time shamelessly?
The attorney does have to pay his rent out of that astronomical fee. But he charges the client for his assistant and secretarial time on top of his hourly wage.
But, lawyers argue, regular folk are not required to hire an attorney. They can do the work themselves, if it is on their own behalf.
Except that so many judges have a bias against self-represented litigants. I have had judges base decisions against me on sentences the judges misquoted. (Judge Lee P. Rudofsky did this to me.) I have had a judge act with such an appearance of bias he received public discipline. (Former Commissioner Alan H. Friedenthal, deceased.) I have had Judge Susan Weaver do mental contortions in order to transfer ownership of 40 acres with a beautiful cabin from me as trustee to a man who wrote his intentions to defraud me in an exhibit that I showed to the judge.
Judge Weaver relied on the interpretation of the law against the unauthorized practice of law to apply to trustees who try to represent the interests of all the persons involved in the trust relationship.
My contention is that since I am the sole beneficiary, grantor and trustee, and I removed all contingent beneficiaries, I am allowed to represent everyone in the trust relationship now. This is a question that may need to be decided by SCOTUS.
Most trusts would not want to remove contingent beneficiaries. One of the main reasons to create a trust is to avoid probate. Judge Weaver drained my trust of all assets and gave a judgment against the trust that would make it foolish to put any more assets into the trust. So, as is, the trust was useless for the terminated contingent beneficiaries.
Even without a corrupt judge on the case, lawyers are expensive. As an individual I have a case on appeal involving an LLC. The actual money damages in the case are capped at about $120,000. An award of emotional distress and punitive damages is highly speculative. The attorney fees on a similar case were about $1M. No attorney wants to take this case on contingency. It does not make cents for them. (Pardon my pun.)
If you don’t already have “extra money” laying around, like $1,000,000, your trust will not be able to afford attorney fees.
If anyone sues the trustee for trust assets, the poor and middle-class trusts will be forced to settle or maybe just lose everything. The trusts will be drained of assets whether by the trustee’s attorney or the opposing party.
This is a serious disincentive for anyone but the affluent to create a trust.
One attorney estimated probate costs to be four times as high as creating a trust that avoids probate. (4% of assets instead of 1%)
As with sales tax, the less money a person has, the more probate costs hurt. Their heirs, of course.
Attorney: $829,846 – Client: 37 cents
I kid you not.
Here is a copy of the settlement check to the client. Me.
There was a class action suit against stock brokerage Scottrade. It had something to do with Scottrade reporting qualified dividends as substitute payments. The two are treated differently for income tax purposes.
Scottrade settled.
A copy of the settlement agreement can be downloaded below.
Look at section 11. That is the attorney fees section. The attorneys can ask the court for up to $829,846. Past awards in similar cases shows a pattern of judges rubberstamping the motion for attorney fees.
The total of attorney fees and disbursements to the clients (all class members) is $2,325,000. There is a shitload of class members.
My disbursement came out to 37 cents.
If the administrator had to pay retail for postage, the postage cost more than I received.
There is something out-a-wack in our legal system.
The Process of Writing an Appellant’s Brief for Pro Se Litigants
This blog’s readership is growing but I am too busy to write these days. So, I will share a brief glimpse into the work I have accomplished this week.
I am not an attorney. I am a self-represented litigant.
I am working on two appeals and a third case may be headed to trial and then appeal.
If you are faced with an appeal as a pro se litigant, it may seem like a daunting job. It overwhelmed me.
Here are some tips I used that helped me to feel the fear and do it anyways:
- Turn the job into bite size pieces.
- Read the Rules!
- Make a “skeleton”.
What I mean by a “skeleton” is that you find the rules of appellate procedure. The Supreme Court Clerk and Library in Arkansas were both helpful to me. Reach out to the Supreme Court Clerk in your jurisdiction for guidance to the rules if you can’t find them online.
Find a sample brief online that was granted. Again, the Clerk may be able to help you with this.
Make an outline that includes each mandatory section.
Then go through the Clerk’s Portion of the transcript in order, filling in the sections as you go. You should also use the Reporter’s Transcript, even if it is inaccurate, like the one Jana Perry falsified in my case. (The Supreme Court of Arkansas denied my petition for writ of mandate or certiorari to settle the record but did not say why.)
As an example, I am including a downloadable copy of my own work in progress on a case that concerns a corrupt judge, Susan Kaye Weaver. This is an interesting case with over 1,000 pages in the record. Hopefully yours is a normal case with one or a few honest errors.
My saving grace was documenting my objections all along. The opposing counsel whined about how many motions I filed. (He insisted on calling motions “pleadings”. Amateur!) But now I feel like I preserved most of my objections for appeal.
This is NOT legal advice. It is not even a complete or final document. I reserve the right to alter it in any way before filing.
UPDATE: November 23, 2022. The brief is complete! Or to be more accurate, the briefs are complete.
My case involves a trust of which I am trustee, settlor and sole beneficiary. Still, the judge wanted to keep me from advocating for “the trust”. Plaintiff should have named me as trustee, not the trust, but that is getting buried in the minutia.
I had a novel argument that I am not advocating for anyone but myself, so it is my Constitutional right to represent myself.
I am adding the two separate briefs below, one for me as an individual and one as trustee.
I’ll share some hints on how to organize your own papers after the Thanksgiving weekend.
Our God is an awesome God! Be blessed.
The (Lack of) Integrity in the Courts
“That is why there is an investigation sir. Any time there is an allegation that the integrity of this judicial process has been compromised, especially with a juror I take it incredibly seriously, which is why I’ve turned it over to the Sheriff’s Department.” – Judge Jennifer Darow, presiding over the Darrell Brooks Christmas Parade Murder Trial.
Arkansas Court of Appeals District 2 Judges Mike Murphy and Bart Viden do not seem to have the same sensibility as Judge Darow.
I made the credible claim that at least two transcripts from proceedings that I was present for were purposefully falsified by the court reporter to benefit the opposition. It is important to note that after seven months of forcing me to litigate, I was dismissed with prejudice. But my rights were still seized from me and property that should have gone to my children after I passed was given to the man who maliciously prosecuted me.
I filed a motion to “settle the record” in the COA, and it was denied without reason given. The opposing party had not filed a response.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has now denied my petition for writ of mandate to play the recording of the hearings and correct the transcripts before my appellate brief on the case is due. (See the order below. I originally wrote this post before reading my emails and incorrectly said the Ark. Sup. Ct. did not rule as of today.) The opposing party did not file a brief in opposition. The Supreme Court justices did not give any reason for the denial.
The prosecutors in the Darrell Brooks trial were allowed to play the video of the harrowing assault. We were not told that a transcript is “the official record” of what happened that tragic day, and that we should trust the version typed out by a court reporter.
Why are layers of court personnel and the Sheriff in Searcy County Arkansas allowed to bury the evidence of their own wrongdoing? Why did the trial court judge, Susan Weaver, the appellate court judges, Mike Murphy and Bart Viden, and the Arkansas supreme court justices refuse to allow the recordings to be heard by the public?
There is no integrity in the Courts. At least not in this neck of the woods.
Welcome to Readers from Around the World
This morning, for us in the U.S., there were three readers in China who viewed this blog.
This is exciting for me.
My posts this past year have concentrated on a corrupt court staff in Searcy County, Arkansas. The same staff works in Faulkner County, Arkansas also. Neither county has a significant population.
Unfortunately, the corruption in these small and medium size towns in the United States is probably indicative of how courts around the country are run.
The travesty of justice that was done to me in Searcy County is before the Arkansas Court of Appeals now.
There is also a related petition for writ of mandate before the Arkansas Supreme Court asking to play the recordings of hearings while projecting the inaccurate transcripts made by the court reporter onto a screen.
It is mind boggling to me that the courts have spent over a year and untold taxpayer dollars to keep the recordings under wraps. Why would they hide the truth from the public?
Let’s ask the Chinese.
Judge Susan Weaver Oppresses Arkansans
“Now you know what it feels like to be Black.”
I was fighting corruption in the family law courts in California. My own parental rights were violated by a commissioner named Alan Friedenthal (deceased). Eventually, the Commission on Judicial Performance and State Supreme Court found Friedenthal appeared to have a bias against me. But his Draconian orders were never overturned.
An African American colleague made the statement quoted above to me.
I moved to Arkansas to try to escape the repression. Judge Susan Weaver has gone out of her way to deny my Constitutional right to due process in my adopted home. Escape is hopeless.
I find myself thinking of my ancestors from two and more generations back. They were Jews in what is now the Ukraine. They had their property taken with no just reason, and then were slaughtered. My Paternal Grandmother escaped to Poland, migrated to Germany before Hitler took power and then made it to the United States. Nine of her siblings did not escape.
Jewish people often say “forgive, but never forget.” Unfortunately, some of the less than honest judicial officers are of Jewish descent. They have forgotten.
When police, judges or the Furor rationalize their theft of property, liberty and life based on skin color or religion, they are scapegoating. When mean-spirited government employees use their power to do these same things because they can get away with it, they are being as oppressive as the Nazis and the Klan.
It is not some irrational hatred based on genetics that drives the current oppressors. They victimize anyone they can get away with victimizing. They do anything to grab power and line their pockets.
It is sick and disturbing.
Exposing Commissioner Alan Friedenthal, Attorney William Spiller, Commissioner Glenda Veasey and their ilk did not ingratiate me to the other judges in California. In fact, a Stanford-Hastings trained attorney who represented me on a matter advised me to never step foot in a courthouse in California again. He was right.
So far, Arkansas courts and attorneys do not seem any better.
More Errors In Orders Issued by Arkansas Judge Susan Weaver
I am writing an appellant’s brief in the Searcy County Arkansas case Pietrczak v. Me, 65-CV-21-20. I will post some of the highlights, as I work. This is installment two, from the section “Points of Appeal and Principal Authorities”. (The format does not translate, so the numbering is different than in the appellant’s brief.)
- The Court dismissed the Appellant as an individual with prejudice on March 28, 2022 and failed to dismiss the unrepresented Common Defense Doctrine Defendant. In the Court’s judgement against the defaulting defendant, the Court specifically made adverse rulings against the appearing Appellant and seized her property rights without allowing her to defend herself. The Court created law of the case adverse to the appearing Appellant that harms her ability to prevail on her dismissed counterclaim when the order to dismiss it is reversed on appeal. The law of the case created is adverse to the appearing Appellant when she files a case for malicious prosecution. During the hearing of March 17, 2022 from which the adverse order arose, the appearing Appellant was restrained from making objections, cross examining the witness, presenting evidence and testifying. Arkansas has long recognized the common-defense doctrine, which provides that an answer that is timely filed by a co-defendant inures to the benefit of a defaulting co-defendant. *Sutter v. Payne, 337 Ark. 330, 989 S.W.2d 887 (1999)
- The Court tricked Appellant into making unilateral disclosures of the evidence she intended to use at trial, by having the Trial Court Administrator give Appellant specific instructions by telephone (and Zoom call) on how and when to file the exhibits before the August 4, 2021 hearing, knowing the Court intended to continue the trial. Appellee Plaintiff submitted no exhibits. This was a denial of due process.
- Ark. R. App. P. Civ. 26 to 37
- Defendant “Laura Lynn” was misnamed on the complaint. Appellee failed to correct the misnomer by motion for leave to amend despite the appearing Appellant’s incessant admonishments of her correct, legal name. Therefore, there should be no judgement, rulings or findings adverse to Laura Lynn Hammett.
- Ark. R. Civ. P. 4(b)
- Defendant “Rural Revival Living Trust” was misnamed on the complaint. Appellee failed to correct the misnomer despite the appearing Appellant’s incessant admonishments that a trust is not a proper party. Therefore, there can be no findings against Laura Lynn Hammett as Trustee of the Rural Revival Living Trust, the Common Defense Doctrine defendant of “Laura Lynn”.
- Ark. R. Civ. P. 4(b)
- Plaintiff “Micheal Pietrczak” was misnamed. The allegation in the Complaint is that the plaintiff is a person with power of attorney, Walter Pietrczak. Therefore, an award to Micheal Pietrczak is not appropriate.
- Matter of Hamilton Living Tr. Dated Sept. 22, 2003, 2019 Ark. App. 76, 571 S.W. 3d 53 (2019)
- Ark. R. Civ. P. 4(b)
- Walter Pietrczak lacked standing to bring the suit on Micheal Pietrczak’s behalf, because Micheal Pietrczak swore that he revoked the power of attorney before the suit was filed and specifically denied alleging all the facts alleged in the Complaint.
- McKibben v. Mullis, 79 Ark. App. 382, 90 S.W.3d 442 (2002)
- A.C.A. § 16-62-102
All kibbitzing is appreciated. Chime in on the comments if you know any caselaw that upholds or disagrees with my statements I made on my own behalf. (I am not an attorney, and my blog is not legal advice. This is a pro se document written on my own behalf.)
Arkansas Judge Violates Basic Due Process
For the next 30 days, I am writing an appellant’s brief in the Searcy County Arkansas case Pietrczak v. Me, 65-CV-21-20. I will post some of the highlights, as I work.
It is important to note that I reported Judge Susan Kaye Weaver to the Judicial Disciplinary and Disability Commission before the transcript of the first hearing was falsified. The JDDC declined to take action.
Federal Judge Billy Roy Wilson dismissed a case I filed regarding the falsification of the record. His order of dismissal was so deceptive, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed my appeal summarily, with no briefing allowed.
Perhaps if the courts hide facts from the public, the public will not become aware of the lack of integrity in the courts. Judges like Susan Weaver are given leave to unjustly transfer property from the elderly, often without summons served, to their favored attorneys’ clients with impunity.
Points of Appeal and Principal Authorities
1. The Court appeared to have a bias against the Appellant from before the first hearing and refused to recuse herself. All judicial officers who appear to have a bias must recuse themselves.
- United States Constitution Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment, Due Process Clause.
2. The Court participated in the falsification of the record in an attempt to legitimize legal errors and abuses of discretion. The transcripts are required to be verbatim records of what was said in court.
- United States Constitution Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment, Due Process Clause.
- Ark. R. App. P. Civ. 6
3. The Court refused to correct the record. This denied Appellant the most basic Constitutional right to due process.
- United States Constitution Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment, Due Process Clause.
- Ark. R. App. P. Civ. 6
4. The Court dismissed the Appellant with prejudice on March 28, 2022 and failed to dismiss the unrepresented Common Defense Doctrine Defendant. In the Court’s judgement against the defaulting defendant, the Court specifically made adverse rulings against the Appellant and seized Appellant’s property rights without allowing Appellant to defend herself. Arkansas has long recognized the common-defense doctrine, which provides that an answer that is timely filed by a co-defendant inures to the benefit of a defaulting co-defendant.
- Sutter v. Payne, 337 Ark. 330, 989 S.W.2d 887 (1999)
Courts Acting More Like Mobs
In one of those freakish moments when I don’t know what buttons I pressed on my phone, a Messenger chain from 2011 popped up.
This was between me and a man who was a litigant in California. He was Northern Cal, I was Southern. We never met in person. This was our last communication.
HIM: Do you still have a friendly contact at the CJP? If so, I would like her contact information. I want to file another complaint about Tulare County Superior Court.
ME: The more they [the court powers that be] figure I’ve been right since day one, the nastier they get with me. I used to talk to Charlene Drummer. Now everything needs to be in writing for me. That’s fine. No one can say “gee, we didn’t know that.”
HIM: That is precisely what is happening over here. It is easier to keep burying me than to acknowledge that I was telling the truth and therefore they acted more like a mob than a court.
Thanks to the little green men that live in my phone, or God, or whoever caused this random decade old message to appear. I feel like I just saw a billboard at the side of the interstate that said, “DON’T GIVE UP! The harder they push back, the more you know you are right.”
A Higher Law 
Attorney Violates Judge’s Admonishment 43 Minutes After It Is Issued
Of course, Judge Susan Weaver of Searcy County Arkansas accepted the impermissible filing. She and Attorney William Zac White seem to enjoy a special relationship.
Judge Weaver filed the letter admonishing both parties to cease copying emails to the court at 4:25 PM on August 20, 2021. The letter was dated August 19, 2021. The childish duo apparently does not realize there is a time and date stamp on filings.
Attorney White filed a bizarre letter to the Court, attaching yet another interparty email immediately after. The clerk or judge needs to approve all filings before they are posted on the electronic system. Mr. White’s filing was approved and posted at 5:08 PM, 43 minutes after the judge’s letter was posted.
Notice that Mr. White’s letter was approved and posted after business hours. Now, that is service!
Here are the letters.
Judge Susan Weaver said not a word about her pet attorney’s missive.
Since Judge Weaver allows male attorneys to call 60-year-old female self-represented defendants “bitch” in open court, why would she be bothered by this unprofessional conduct? “Ms. Hammett is one of the most unpleasant opposing counsels or parties I have had the misfortune of dealing with in 14 years of practicing law.” That is appropriate to write in a letter and file in a court file. NOT.
Then there was the exhibit attached. Judge Weaver had just finished striking every exhibit filed by Ms. Hammett (me), including exhibits to a counterclaim and motions. But Weaver let the exhibit of Mr. White’s response email stand for eternity. She must find it appropriate for Mr. White to write: “I’ll be practicing law long after you have crawled back under the rock you came from.”
I am still hopeful that Zac White will lose his law license. I am hopeful that the voters will remove Judge Weaver from office in 2024. It is likely though that whoever it is that has had her back this far will pull strings, call in favors and do whatever it takes to have the election results overturned.
All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others. – George Orwell
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