The Justice Network is engaged in advocacy, education, news gathering and dissemination, helping people fight injustice, and reducing inefficiencies in the legal system through the private sector.

This is a beta test version web site. Comments are welcome. info@YouSue.org

Read about my vision here

I strive for accuracy. Please advise if you see an error. 

Thank you. Neil Gillespie

Forgive Them, They Know Not What They Are Doing- A Gutwrenching Story
Matt Weidner

Fighting For The American People
January 22, 2012

Last week I made a pilgrimage of sorts. I traveled to Florida’s Capitol City, Tallahassee. The trip was long, inconvenient and expensive and quite frankly I did not exactly go willingly.  I had been summoned to the Capitol as part of my punishment for speaking out, but I do not want to dwell on that.  I decided that I would take in all the experience had to offer and truly use the experience to gain and deliver understanding.

My core message is that our nation and our state are in grave peril because we are no longer a nation of laws.  The legislative and executive branches are entirely captured by the corruption of corporations and the judicial branch has withered into a twig. This disturbing reality is most clearly demonstrated in the State of Florida where the corporations that own our government have whittled down the budget of our (their) entire judicial system to less than 1% of the state government budget.  Fundamentally, I want judges, attorneys and all thinking people to wake up and begin speaking out against the tyranny that this disturbing situation presents.  This profession of The Law especially, must especially stand up and begin advocating for a restoration of the Rule of Law that we have all taken an Oath to uphold. Read more here

My Dear Fellow Attorneys:
Matt Weidner

Fighting For The American People
January 20, 2012

I have spent this week, the week we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr and his accomplishments during the civil rights movement, thinking about the very real parallels between that tumultuous time and where we are today in this country.  Especially today, when I serving a sentence in a jail of sorts, I have been considering how King and his followers were constantly attacked.  The attacks King and his followers suffered are not unlike the attacks that are visited upon those few who are standing up to defend consumers, fight for basic rights and the Rule of Law….

My Dear Fellow Attorneys:

While confined here in a foreclosure courtroom, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of myself and the other foreclosure and consumer defense attorneys by those who do not understand that the work of defending the helpless is the highest calling of the legal profession. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. Read more here

Move to Amend
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Move to Amend is a United States national, grassroots organization that works toward removing the influence of money in politics by calling for a constitutional amendment ending corporate personhood and declaring that money is not speech. The nonpartisan group was created in response to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling. The ruling held that corporations had a First Amendment right to make expenditures from their general treasuries supporting or opposing candidates for political office. Move to Amend argues that the Court's decision disrupts the democratic process by granting disproportionate influence to the wealthy.

Move to Amend was instrumental in getting the Los Angeles City Council to vote unanimously to end corporate personhood on December 6, 2011, though the vote was largely symbolic. Read more here

"Occupy the Courts" Protests Hit Supreme Court and Federal Courthouses Nationwide
The Blog of Legal Times
Posted by Tony Mauro
Photos by Andrew Ramonas
January 20, 2012

The "occupy" movement took its campaign against corporate domination to the federal judiciary on Friday, storming the U.S. Supreme Court building and demonstrating at other federal courthouses nationwide to protest the high court’s 2010 "Citizens United" decision.

"Corporations are not persons, and money is not political speech!" proclaimed "Occupy the Courts" leader David Cobb in front of several hundred people at a grassy area on U.S. Capitol grounds across the street from the Supreme Court.

Demonstrators, some of them from the Occupy Wall Street encampments in Washington, later moved across the street to the Court, where they pushed through a police barricade and ran up the Court’s steps almost to the columns that guard the bronze front doors. Court police allowed the demonstrators to advance, even though federal law prohibits demonstrations on Court grounds. Finally, an hour after the protesters entered onto Court property, police began making arrests and ordering remaining demonstrators down the steps. Late Friday afternoon, a Court spokeswoman said a dozen people had been arrested.

Read more here

Breaking: Supreme Court Police are Arresting "Occupy" Protesters

Move to Amend 28th Amendment

Section 1 [A corporation is not a person and can be regulated]

The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. 

Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.

The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.

Section 2 [Money is not speech and can be regulated]

Federal, State and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, for the purpose of influencing in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure.

Federal, State and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.

The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.

Section 3

Nothing contained in this amendment shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press. Read more here

Group Opposing Citizens United Pushes ‘Occupy the Courts’ Protest
ABA Journal Law News Now
by Debra Cassens Weiss
January 5, 2012

A group called Move to Amend is calling for a one-day "Occupy the Courts" demonstration to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision finding that corporations have a First Amendment right to support political candidates.

The group dispatched a press release calling for protests at federal courthouses on Jan. 20 to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The Recorder’s Legal Pad blog and the New York Observer have stories.

The group’s website has permit applications for would-be protesters, handbills and posters to promote the events, and instructions on how to make a "corporate personhood costume" (PDF). There is also a "corporate personhood song" (PDF) to be sung to the tune of "This Land Is Your Land." The song asserts that corporations "rape and plunder the world’s resources" and "dump big money into elections." First Amendment rights have been stolen by corporations, the song asserts. "Those rights belong to you and me."

Legal Pad has doubts about the federal courts’ reception to such protests. "Now, anyone who’s been through a security screening at a federal building recently knows they aren’t exactly warm and welcoming places for ‘occupations,’ " the blog says. "No word on how courthouse security folks are handling those protest plans." Read more here

My permit to Occupy the Courts in Ocala, Florida was denied by Chris Burns of the GSA during a phone call January 19, 2012. Mr. Burns said they have not been issuing permits for Occupy the Courts on federal property in the Middle District of Florida. Burns said this is in agreement with the U.S. Marshals, Homeland Security, and the GSA. Mr. Burns said one exception was made for a small courtyard at the courthouse in Ft. Myers. 

Unhappy Birthday to You, Citizens United!
by Karen Garcia
January 19, 2012

Yet another Black Friday will dawn in America tomorrow. The infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision will enter its Terrible Twos and toddle its corpulent corporatist self into a third year of obscene existence.

More than a hundred raucous birthday parties will be hosted and attended by demonstrators protesting the unprecedented infusion of billions of dollars of democracy-destroying anonymous money into politics. From Move to Amend, the activist group which has spearheaded the drive for a constitutional amendment to overturn C.U. Read more here

Scott Nearing was brilliant, without doubt, influencing generations over his century-long life by advocating what he believed to be a back-to-nature lifestyle of economic and social purity. "If I am rich and you are poor," Nearing wrote, "both of us are corrupted by inequality."  The politics, economy, and technology of today may provide a new foundation for his message. Read more here on the Justice Network

Roundup: Treatment of reporters at NYC Occupy raid

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

November 17, 2011

New York City police are facing tough criticism for their treatment of reporters covering Tuesday's overnight raid of the Zuccotti Park base of the Occupy Wall Street movement for what some journalists are calling and hashtagging a "media blackout."

According to reports by the Associated Press, at least half a dozen journalists, including NYPD-credentialed reporters, were arrested in and around the early-morning eviction: an AP reporter, an AP photographer, a New York Daily News reporter, a freelancer for NPR, a blogger for at The New York Times’ Local East Village, a Vanity Fair correspondent, a news editor for DNAinfo.com and a number of freelancers.

Others reported that police pushed journalists back and even roughed them up to keep journalists from getting close to the raid on Zuccotti Park, where police arrested about 200 protestors under orders from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to clear the encampment for health and safety reasons.

The behavior of authorities toward the media set off a flurry of defense and condemnation as some press advocates questioned if the police were deliberately stifling coverage of the operation. Read more here

LA Mayor Orders Homeless Removed During Thanksgiving Photo-op with Kardashian and Hewett
GoHarrison.com
November 25, 2011

Mayor Antonio Villagairosa, while celebrating his personal financial and social abundance–displaying the latter amidst the fleshy bosoms of Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Love Hewett–ordered the removal of the homeless from the lawn of City Hall while simultaneously photo-opping a Thanksgiving event to show he and his celeb friends performing their annual hand-feeding of the homeless.

Feeding the homeless on camera while purging them off-camera is a strategic ploy worthy only of Chicago’s former Mayor Daley.

The plan? All "occupiers" must be off city property by midnight Sunday Nov. 28 (12:01 am, Monday morning), when City Hall will be declared a "City Park". America’s newest park will now have posted hours of "operation"–before and after which, police will be authorized to arrest the same citizen-owners of this new mud-clotted, cracked-cement encircled park. While the National Park Service seems unaware that Mayor Villaraigosa is inventing patchwork parks to un-park America’s newest breed of homeless, the political chicanery is not lost on irony. In smart politics, Mr. Villagairosa has declared the several flights of Spring Street sidewalk steps occupiable. In this way, Angelinos can fit side-by-side, teetering precariously on cement steps, Cirque de Soleil-style. Read more here

Surprise, Homeland Security Coordinates #OWS Crackdowns
Wonkette
November 15, 2011

Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now, and has been for some time. But it’s also now confirmed that it’s now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today. (Oh, and tonight, too: Seattle is being busted up by the riot cops right now, so be careful out there.) Read more here

Pepper-Spray Brutality at UC Davis
The Atlantic
by James Fallows
November 19, 2011

Selected passages

This Occupy moment is not going to end any time soon. That is not just because of the underlying 99%-1% tensions but also because of police response of this sort -- and because there have been so many similar videos coming from cities across the country.
 
I can't see any legitimate basis for police action like what is shown here. Watch that first minute and think how we'd react if we saw it coming from some riot-control unit in China, or in Syria. The calm of the officer who walks up and in a leisurely way pepper-sprays unarmed and passive people right in the face? We'd think: this is what happens when authority is unaccountable and has lost any sense of human connection to a subject population. Read the full story here

Scott Olsen

"We are Confused" Oakland Police Officer's Association Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland
Zero Hedge
by 4closureFraud 
November 1, 2011

An Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland from the Oakland Police Officer’s Association

1 November 2011 – Oakland, Ca.

We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours.

As your police officers, we are confused. Read more here

Occupy Tampa
Gaslight Park Protest

October 6, 2011
by The Justice Network

America is broken. That was the message of the Occupy Tampa protesters in Gaslight Park Thursday. The peaceful assembly was attended by several hundred diverse protesters. Although the park is located right across from Tampa Police headquarters, no officers showed up in the park, and only a handful watched from afar. Read more here

Chris Hedges: "This one could take them all down."

Occupy TVNY has this interview with Chris Hedges, who, during the major global protests on Saturday, compared Occupy Wall Street to the other movements he’s covered around the world, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Read more on truthdig

Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, ideals, thoughts, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie. Read more on Wikipedia

Hypocrisy on Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Patriotic Millionaires

We are here representing a group of 200 Americans with incomes over $1 million per year. To put that figure in perspective, the United States has a population of around 308 million people. Of those people, roughly 400,000 have incomes of over $1 million a year. For those of you without calculators handy, we are NOT the 1%, we are the 0.1%. . . and we should pay a higher tax rate. We want to pay a higher tax rate. And in response to a suggestion from Grover Norquist, Senator Hatch and other conservatives, that we just write an extra check to the IRS, let us clarify our position. We want EVERYONE in the country who is fortunate enough to make more than a million a year to pay a higher tax rate. This ‘everyone’ will include the 50% of congress people and senators who are millionaires. Read more here November 16, 2011 Statement to the Press 

A year ago I launched the Justice Network with this website and the domain name "YouSue.org". This domain was chosen in the spirit of YouTube, the video-sharing website that empowered ordinary people to produce and share video. The name is also short and easy to search.

U.S. Civil Court System Needs Major Overhaul, New Book Declares
PBS News Hour
October 18, 2011

In "Rebuilding Justice: Civil Courts in Jeopardy and Why You Should Care," co-authors Rebecca Love Kourlis and Dirk Olin examine problems and potential improvements in the U.S. civil court system, where 30 million cases are filed every year. Ray Suarez and Kourlis discuss the authors' call for a major overhaul of the system. Read more here

Laurence Tribe is a constitutional scholar, a former Harvard Law School Professor, and was Senior Counselor for Access to Justice at the US Justice Department. At a speech in June 2010 at the American Constitution Society, Tribe called Americans’ access to justice a "dramatically understated" crisis, Main Justice reports. "The whole system of justice in America is broken," Tribe said. "The entire legal system is largely structured to be labyrinthine, inaccessible, unusable." Read more on the ABA Journal.

Foreclosure defense lawyer Matt Weidner was investigated by the Florida Bar for "exercising free speech in the courtroom" according to a story in the ABA Journal Law News Now. The Matt Weidner blog provides insightful information and social commentary. Matt also blogs about a "quiet and powerful revolution that is slowly and methodically making its way across this country" that is "a direct response to the White Collar Criminal Anarchy that stretches from sea to shining sea". Thanks Matt!

Injustice The Film: a Film About Greed and Corruption in the American Lawsuit Industry

You may have heard about the movie, "Hot Coffee," which recently aired on HBO. The film was made by a plaintiff lawyer and was described in the Miami Herald as an "unpaid advertisement for personal-injury attorneys and their eternal quest for jackpot justice." Fortunately, the Institute for Legal Reform at the US Chamber of Commerce has just finished a movie that tells the truth about lawsuit abuse. The movie is titled, "Injustice: a Film About Greed and Corruption in the American Lawsuit Industry." Read more here

Larry Klayman is a lawyer and author, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, and  a member of The Florida Bar. Larry spoke to Book TV about his book "Whores, Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment", and claims "Our legal system has frankly broken down, it has become a cesspool". Larry claims the system has broken down because of "Judges not making decisions on the merits, but on the basis of feathering the nests of those who got them their jobs" and "Lawyers who don’t tell the truth". Watch the YouTube video.

Attorney and journalist Amy Bach spent eight years investigating the widespread courtroom failures that each day upend lives across America. In the process, she discovered how the professionals who work in the system, however well intentioned, cannot see the harm they are doing to the people they serve. The book is Ordinary Injustice, How America Holds Court. Read more about Amy Bach on the Ordinary Injustice Website.

Former US Attorney and Harvard Law School grad David W. Marston gave his opinion of the justice system in Malice Aforethought: How Lawyers Use Our Secret Rules to Get Rich, Get Sex, Get Even...and Get Away with It.

This critique compares the practice of law and the justice system to the Mafia.

"They all have undergone the same tough initiation, and once admitted to membership, all have sworn the same oath. They live by their own rules and have fiercely resisted efforts by outsiders to penetrate their clan. The have a code of silence that makes the Mafia’s dreaded omerta seem gossipy. And while the organization rigidly limits the operations of its members to their assigned turf, their criminal activities within these areas are surprisingly varied." (Page 22, paragraphs 4 & 5)

"It’s not the Mafia. Not the Medellin drug cartel…The members are all lawyers. And the organization is the American legal profession." (Pages 23-24)

New Documentary Takes Eye Opening Look at Efforts to Stop Citizens From Being Able to Find Justice in Court
4closurefraud.org
July 31, 2011

A new HBO documentary takes an eye opening look at efforts to stop consumers from being able to find justice in court. Many Americans have bought into the notion that lawsuits are out of control and the judicial system needs to be reformed. The film "Hot Coffee" contends terms like "lawsuit lottery" and "greedy trial lawyers" were actually planted in the public psyche and repeated over and over after being word-smithed and focus-grouped in a public relations campaign by corporate America. "Hot Coffee" reveals how this well planned, well funded crusade has been very successful in stopping consumers from gaining access to the courts when they’ve been harmed, physically or financially. Read more here

Foreclosure defense lawyer Chip Parker of Jacksonville faced a Florida Bar complaint for comments he made during a CNN interview, according to a story in the ABA Journal Law News Now. He told the network, "Foreclosure courts throughout the state of Florida have adopted a system of ramming foreclosure cases through the final judgments and sale—with very little regard to the rule of law." He also complained of "an attack upon the citizens of the state of Florida by retired judges."

Law Professor Benjamin H. Barton is the author of The Lawyer-Judge Bias in the American Legal System. Barton writes that virtually all American judges are former lawyers, a shared background that results in the lawyer-judge bias. This book argues that these lawyer-judges instinctively favor the legal profession in their decisions and that this bias has far-reaching and deleterious effects on American law. Read reviews on Overlawyered, Larry Ribstein, Glenn Reynolds, and Cato’s Dan Mitchell. Professor Barton also submitted an amici brief (PDF) with Darryl Brown in the Supreme Court case Turner v. Rogers. 

Joan Heffington is the founder and CEO of the Association for Honest Attorneys (A.H.A!), and author of the book "Ten Secrets You Must Know Before Hiring a Lawyer". Joan speaks for many Americans when she asks: Do attorneys "beat people up" to win lawsuits? We think this is the best-kept secret in America today. It also seems that no matter how good your case is, the side with the most money to pay their attorney wins. So where's the justice? Read more here

As Wall St. Polices Itself, Prosecutors Use Softer Approach
The New York Times
by Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story
July 7, 2011

As the financial storm brewed in the summer of 2008 and institutions feared for their survival, a bit of good news bubbled through large banks and the law firms that defend them.

Federal prosecutors officially adopted new guidelines about charging corporations with crimes — a softer approach that, longtime white-collar lawyers and former federal prosecutors say, helps explain the dearth of criminal cases despite a raft of inquiries into the financial crisis. Read more here

Philip K. Howard

Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law
Philip K. Howard, Author

Philip K. Howard, a lawyer, advises leaders of both parties on legal and regulatory reform. He is chair of Common Good and a contributor to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. In his latest prescriptive survey of American law abuse and its consequences, Howard (The Death of Common Sense, The Collapse of the Common Good) sticks to the formula: one ghastly anecdote after another demonstrating how the justice system hinders freedom and confounds Americans who simply want to do the right thing. Either through litigation or the fear of it, Howard argues, we've ceded our everyday decision-making to the lawyers (Howard writes we "might as well give a legal club to the most unreasonable and selfish person in the enterprise") resulting in everything from "no running on the 

playground" signs, to a 5-year-old handcuffed at school by police; from diminishing health care quality and spiraling costs to doctors afraid of discussing treatments among themselves over email. Chair of nonpartisan advocacy organization Common Good, Howard has a great deal of knowledge and a catalog of abuses that will elicit fury and despair. For the third time in some 15 years, Howard agitates for change by asking "How did the land of freedom become a legal minefield?"; in this time of financial depression and political hope, Howard may have found the perfect moment to sound his alarm. Read more

World Justice Project, Rule of Law Index, 2011

Huffington Post story
June 12, 2011

WASHINGTON -- The United States trails most of Western Europe in protecting the right of ordinary citizens to have access to a lawyer regardless of their ability to pay, according to a report released Monday.

World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index 2011 ranked the United States 21st among 66 countries it studied in assuring access to legal counsel. The U.S. did even worse when it came to affording a lawyer, ranking 52nd. Legal assistance is expensive or unavailable to the average person, according to the independent, global human rights group's survey. Read more here

Free Keene.com

"I have 21 years of Army service going back to the Vietnam War. My loyalty to the government should be a given. It is gone. I am certain it will never return regardless of how long I might have lived." - Thomas James Ball in his "last statement" before he self-immolated in front of the courthouse that was integral in destroying his life. Read more here

Thomas Ball

Thomas James Ball self-immolated, could not pay child support

Thomas James Ball reached his breaking point. Driven to desperation by a system that bankrupted him and destroyed his family, Ball walked up to the main door of the Keene County, New Hampshire courthouse, doused himself with gasoline, and lit himself ablaze. Hardly anyone seems to have noticed. Read more here

The case is Neil J Gillespie v. Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, Florida, et al., Case No. 5:10-cv-00503-WTH-DAB, US District Court, Middle District of Florida, Ocala Division, filed September 28, 2010.

The Complaint is on the litigation page

This lawsuit is about the basic requirements of justice, fairness and equality that we should all expect from our courts. The ADA part of this lawsuit is relevant to persons with disabilities and access to courts. The Civil Rights part of the lawsuit is important to all pro se litigants. Judge Isom’s essay, Professionalism and Litigation Ethics, 28 STETSON L. REV. 323, describes a two-tier legal system in Florida that favors certain attorneys. Read more here

Dr. Karin Huffer

Dr. Karin Huffer is the author of ‘Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome’ and founder of Legal Victim Assistance Advocates

Read more about Dr. Huffer and Legal Abuse Syndrome here on the Justice Network

"Huffer describes how many victims of white-collar crime, court abuse and bureaucratic bungling have come to suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of having brushed up against various phases of our legal system." -- Alan M.Dershowitz, Professor, Harvard Law School

Buy the book Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome on Amazon.com

ACLU Charges High-Speed Florida Foreclosure Courts Deprive Homeowners Of Chance To Defend Homes

April 7, 2011

"Mass Foreclosure Docket" In Lee County Ignores Procedural Safeguards In Rush To Clear Cases

Allen H. Libow

Influential Florida attorney sued for malicious prosecution
The Miami Mirror
By David Arthur Walters
June 27, 2011

MIAMI BEACH – David Johnson and his wife Jane Johnson, former residents of Palm Beach County, have filed a complaint in the circuit court of Palm Beach County against Palm Beach attorney Allen H. Libow, his wife Melissa Libow, and Boca Raton law firm Libow & Shaheen LLP et al, for malicious prosecution, conspiracy to commit malicious prosecution, and abuse of process, in regards to a defamation action first asserted by the defendants against the Johnsons in 2004 for filing an absolutely privileged complaint against Libow with The Florida Bar, the agency of the Florida Supreme Court that licenses lawyers in the state, regulates their conduct, and presently represents mainly the political and business interests of the dominant professional elite.

The defamation suit against the Johnsons was prosecuted by Mrs. Libow’s father, affluent Miami attorney Arthur W. Tifford, who has not yet been named as a defendant in the Johnsons’ malicious prosecution complaint, and who has now appeared to defend his son-in-law from that complaint. According to the court docket, attorneys Lisa Weiss and Bruce L. Udolf of Boca Raton law firm Udolf Libow have appeared to defend Mrs. Libow. The Johnsons are represented by Steven Jeffrey Rothman. (See case 502011CA001121XXXXMB) Read more here

David Arthur Walters

Beware of Filing Complaints Against Attorneys with The Florida Bar
The Miami Mirror
by David Arthur Walters
February 21, 2011

What would you do if you found yourself in a situation where you were being forced by an affluent and well connected member of the Florida Bar to choose between succumbing to his legally and ethically questionable demand to pay $100,000 for a $1,600 legal bill you believed you did not owe in the first place, or else submit to his inordinate power as a wealthy officer of the court to financially ruin you? What if you thought his demand was a form of extortion, i.e. a coercive threat to wrench or twist money out of you, a threat that used to come under the broader heading of "libel" in the old days? Read more here on the Justice Network

Susan DeMichelle

California deposition reporter Susan DeMichelle sued Tampa lawyer Michael Laurato to get paid for services. Conflict enters fourth year. Read more on the Justice Network.

In 2007 Mr. Laurato hired DeMichelle Deposition Reporters of Northern CA but refused to pay a $481 invoice. After unsuccessful attempts to resolve the matter she obtained a judgment against him in California court. In 2008 she sought to enforce the judgment in Hillsborough County Small Claims Court, Case No. 09-CC-006533. Mr. Laurato commenced a declaratory judgment action against her August 13, 2009. The case went to bench trial October 25, 2010 before The Honorable Eric Myers, who ruled in favor of Ms. DeMichelle. To defend this case she hired attorney Brian Stayton and traveled 3,000 miles to attend the hearing. Mr. Laurato appealed Judge Myers ruling December 27, 2010, Appellate Case No. 10-CA-024210, Hillsborough Circuit Civil Court. Read more on the Justice Network

RICO lawsuit against The Florida Bar over conflict with Lawyers Cooperative Insurance. Case style Meryl Lanson, et al v. The Florida Bar, et al, Case No. 9:08-cv-80422, US District Court, Southern District of Florida. Lanson’s lawyer, Mary Alice Gwynn is also a plaintiff. Complaint filed April 21, 2008, voluntary dismissal July 28, 2008. Read more here. Complaint below in PDF.

Fred Phelps, WBC pastor

Fred Phelps is a disbarred lawyer and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). Phelps has 13 children, 11 of whom are lawyers. Phelps and his church routinely picket the funerals of American service personal killed in the line of duty. Albert Snyder, the father of Matthew Snyder, a Marine who died in the Iraq War, sued Phelps. The case Snyder v. Phelps was decided by the US Supreme Court. The Court ruled in favor of Phelps in an 8-1 decision, holding that their speech related to a public issue, and was disseminated on a public sidewalk.

Justice Samuel Alito, was the lone dissenting justice in this case, beginning his dissent with, "Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case." He concluded, "In order to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated, it is not necessary to allow the brutalization of innocent victims like petitioner."

Opinion: To all the free speech advocates, try saying anything like the Phelps diatribe to a judge, or put it in a pleading, and see how far you get. Sanctions? Contempt? Disbarment?

When the SCOTUS allows free speech in a courtroom or pleading, no matter how hateful, I’ll buy the free speech argument. Otherwise this is little more than government sanctioned desecration of a US serviceman and his family during a funeral. Thanks Justice Alito! - Neil Gillespie

Jack Cafferty

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

For the first time maybe since the Vietnam War or certainly since the civil rights movement, there are some darkening storm clouds on the civility horizon. A growing number of voices are continuing to suggest that if this economy doesn't turn around, and people can't start feeling optimistic about their futures again, we could be headed for some ugly scenarios. A new CNN poll says 48 percent of Americans think the country is headed for another Great Depression in the next twelve months. That is a stunning number. Read more here

Charlie Engle

In Prison for Taking a Liar Loan

The New York Times

By JOE NOCERA
March 25, 2011

A few weeks ago, when the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide, I wrote a column lamenting the fact that none of the big fish were likely to go to prison for their roles in the financial crisis. Soon after that column ran, I received an e-mail from a man named Richard Engle, who informed me that I was wrong. There was, in fact, someone behind bars for what he’d supposedly done during the subprime bubble. It was his 48-year-old son, Charlie.

On Valentine’s Day, the elder Mr. Engle said, his son had entered a minimum-security prison in Beaver, W.Va., to begin serving a 21-month sentence for mortgage fraud. He then proceeded to tell me the tale of how federal agents nabbed his son — a tale he backed up with reams of documents and records that suggest, if nothing else, that when the federal government is truly motivated, there is no mountain it won’t move to prosecute someone it wants to nail. And it was definitely motivated to nail Charlie Engle.

Read more here

Neil H. MacBride

Neil H. MacBride was nominated by President Obama. Under MacBride's tenure, his office prosecuted 48 year old Charlie Engle for allegedly stating a false income on his mortgage application. During the investigation prosecutors used an undercover female agent to seduce Mr. Engle and extract evidence. Mr. Engle was sentenced to almost two years in prison for defaulting on his loan. Meanwhile, the CEO of Countrywide Mortgage Company walks free. Read more on Wikipedia and in the New York Times

Under Threat of Foreclosure
St. Petersburg Times
March 20, 2011

Florida's foreclosure crisis seems like a never-ending nightmare. Mortgages are caught up in MERS, an electronic database that most homeowners never heard of until the foreclosure crisis. Homeowners in foreclosure are worried that robo signing by lenders' employees may have led to mortgage fraud. The mortgage process itself is under scrutiny by the courts and government regulators who are asking: How could something so simple as a home loan go so terribly wrong? Read more here

Why the Foreclosure Mess Settlement Proposal Can't Fix the Damage

Daily Finance

By ABIGAIL FIELD

March 18, 2011

Ever since this fall, when the mortgage industry's robo-signing scandal first broke, people have been aware that banks have been illegally foreclosing on homes. Now there's a huge fight over what to do about that, mostly focused on a 27-page proposal that was supposed to represent the consensus of the 50 state attorneys general, but apparently doesn't. On top of that effort came a report of a "shock and awe" modification push from the federal government, but as Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism details, it's neither good policy nor practical. Read more here

Robert Trigaux

Why sloppy foreclosure process could undermine Florida
St. Petersburg Times
by Robert Trigaux, Times Business Columnist
October 3, 2010

There's no polite way to put this. A growing cancer is infecting the backlogged legal process of foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homes in Florida.

It's endangering the legal and economic stability of this state. And it's exposing an appalling lack of leadership, first for allowing such a breakdown in the legal system and, now, for failing to own up to this mess and get it fixed

How bad is it? Laws governing who actually owns a foreclosed home are becoming so suspect a new buzzword is emerging: blighted titles. Even the tepid rebound of Florida's economy may face crippling delays in resolving hundreds of thousands of foreclosures in the Sunshine State.

What's wrong? The accuracy and truthfulness of an immense flood of legal documents and affidavits some lenders and their hired lawyers use to foreclose on homes have come under such critical attack that some major banks are suspending their court cases pending internal reviews.

"Sheer volume allowed perversions in the legal system to be overlooked," says Mark Stopa, a Tampa lawyer who helps people fight foreclosures. Read more here

The Florida Bar: Weathering Florida's Foreclosure Crisis A service of the Bar's Consumer Protection Law Committee

No Magic Bullet

Wharton Magazine

By Steven Kurutz

Winter 2011

"Equally troubling is the number of homeowners underwater, with mortgage loans that exceed the value of their property, which ticked up to 23.2 percent, meaning nearly 14 million U.S. homes have negative equity—a statistic unlikely to shore up home values. All of this has economists, politicians and the American people wondering how much longer the country will remain mired in the housing mess, and how we can pull ourselves out without sliding into the no-growth economy of 1990s Japan". Read more here in the Wharton Magazine

House wants to give Scott sole power to appoint judges

The Tampa Tribune

by William March

March 18, 2011

TALLAHASSEE A move to restructure the Florida court system, giving more power in choosing judges to Gov. Rick Scott, moved forward in the state House Thursday despite objections that the bills are an attempt to take control of the state judiciary. "This is a very scary thing – we're supposed to have separation of powers," said Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie, during debate on one of three bills that passed through a House committee Thursday. "These amendments are direct infringements on what's supposed to be a separate branch of government." Read more here

Hold on Tight to What We Have
The Florida Bar Journal
by Mayanne Downs, March 2011

Brace yourself. We’re in for another wild ride fighting for the judiciary as a co-equal third branch of government - and not just another state agency. The Florida Legislature is back in session, and lawmakers are constrained by a budget shortfall of at least $3.6 billion and a new governor insistent on cutting $2 billion in taxes and $5 billion in spending. We’ve got to hold on tight to what we already have for the judicial branch, while seeking a more stable long-term funding source not so dependent on foreclosure filing fees. Read more here

David J. Stern: The man behind the crumbling foreclosure empire

Sun Sentinel, By Diane C. Lade
March 15, 2011

Attorney David J. Stern has spent much of the past year in the spotlight, as reports of legal troubles plaguing Florida's home foreclosure system continue to emerge.

Stern's Plantation-based foreclosure practice is one of eight under investigation by the Florida attorney general for allegations of fabricating documents, slipshod paperwork and questionable fees.

The mortgage lenders who once loved him have severed their business ties with him. DJSP Enterprises, a company he created to handle nonlegal foreclosure work, has been sued by former employees who claim the company violated layoff notification laws as it slashed its staff to about 50. Last week, Stern announced that he will cease the law firm's home repossession operations
March 31.

The details of the lifestyle Stern, 50, built from the hundreds of millions his law firm and DJSP made repossessing people's homes are legend: an armada of luxury vehicles that includes Porsches and Ferraris, two private jets, an 8,300-foot, $7.2 million vacation cabin near Vail. Read more here

Joe Negron

Florida Sen. Joe Negron is quoted in the Palm Beach Post defending Foreclosure Mills: "In most occupations, whether it’s making doughnuts or running a sporting goods store, having more volume is better than having less volume. It may, in fact, be a commentary on your capability and your competitive advantage rather than something that we should disparage," Negron said. "Foreclosure mill could also be called very busy law firm because you provide excellent service to your clients."

Matt Weidner says (sarcastically) I would like to apologize to all the Foreclosure Mills out there (excuse me, I mean Most Excellent Law Firms). I, and other members of the press had been using the term in a derogatory manner, but according to a State Senator, this is not at all fair. Read more here

Sen. J.D. Alexander

Sen. J.D. Alexander suggests paying Florida judges bonuses to hear more cases
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

By Steve Bousquet

March 23, 2011

An incentive plan for trial court judges to speed up their dockets gets a hostile reception.

TALLAHASSEE - As Florida courts groan under the weight of heavy case backlogs, a powerful senator is suggesting a highly controversial remedy: paying judges more money to hear more cases. Republican Sen. J.D. Alexander, the influential budget chairman from Lake Wales, wants to pay trial court judges up to an additional $12,000 a year if they meet specific numerical quarterly performance goals. The extra money would be dished out in $3,000 increments. Read more

Some Hillsborough Co., Florida judges apparently only work part-time hours while collecting a full-time salary of $142,178 plus benefits. This came to my attention June 15, 2010 during the 13th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) interviews to fill the vacancy created when Judge Black was appointed to the 2dDCA. I attended the interviews as a nonlawyer observer. The JNC interviews are open to the public. The JNC was so concerned about judicial workloads that applicants were specifically asked what hours they planned to keep if appointed. 

Applicant Ryan Christopher Rodems (left) described to the JNC criticism he heard about Hillsborough judges leaving court early on Fridays. The situation was so pervasive, Rodems told the JNC, that one could "fire a bullet" in the Hillsborough courthouse it was so empty. On the left is Rodems’ photograph submitted with his application for judge. The photo is not recent and looks about ten years old. (Rodems is heavier and balding now) 

Read the email between JNC Chair Pedro Bajo and Neil Gillespie discussing Rodems’ "fire a bullet" comment, provided below in PDF. Read more on the Justice Network

Michael Moore

Michael Moore

March 5, 2011

America is not broke

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic...Read more here

Warren Buffett says "There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning." Buffett also says the rich should be paying more taxes, and claims his tax rate is lower that that of his secretary. Read more on Freakonomics

Warren Buffet says the term "death tax" is intellectually dishonest. Buffett further debunks the myth with the example of Lenona Helmsley’s dog ‘Trouble’ who stood to inherit either $12 million, or $22 million without the estate tax. Buffett said dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise in America.

Buffett on Wikipedia

Inside Job is a 2010 documentary film about the financial crisis of 2007-2010 directed by Charles H. Ferguson. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2010. Ferguson has described the film as being about "the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption." The film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2011. Read more here on Wikipedia

INSIDE JOB Official Trailer in HD!

Attorney Matt Weidner asks "When will Amerika? Judges? Law Enforcement? "Leaders"? Anyone stand up and fight the tyranny and treason that is happening across our country?... I think Amerika is not a democracy but a Kleptocracy. Both parties…all parties are working as hard and as fast as they can to steal, connive, cheat and dupe everyone else, particularly those less economically sophisticated or powerful." Read more here

Kleptocracy is not a sometime thing. It is about looting anything that can be looted, as much as it can be looted, anywhere it can be looted. It is a serious, and very criminal, undertaking. And it has real victims. People's lives are ruined by it. People die from it. Read more here

Hard times generation: homeless kids
CBS News, 60 Minutes
by Scott Pelley

March 6, 2011

For some children, socializing and learning are being cruelly complicated by homelessness, as Scott Pelley reports from Florida, where school buses now stop at motels for children who've lost their homes. One of the consequences of the recession that you don't hear a lot about is the record number of children descending into poverty.

The government considers a family of four to be impoverished if they take in less than $22,000 a year. Based on that standard, and government projections of unemployment, it is estimated the poverty rate for kids in this country will soon hit 25 percent. Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression.

In Seminole County, near Orlando, Fla., so many kids have lost their homes that school busses now stop at dozens of cheap motels where families crowd into rooms, living week to week. Read more here on the Justice Network

The $50,000 Kiddie Birthday Party
Philadelphia Magazine
By Vicki Glembocki
October 29, 2010

Tiffany Gabbay: She had outrageous parties as a kid. Ponies. Petting zoos. When she was nine, her parents sent her and her friends in a limo to the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, where they had a suite, and candy served to them on silver platters. "I want to pass that on to my daughter," she says. Read more here

C-Span Video Library

Senator Sanders Filibuster Dec. 10, 2010

The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class
US Senator Bernie Sanders, Author

On Friday, December 10, 2010, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders walked on to the floor of the United States Senate and began speaking. It turned out to be a very long speech, lasting over eight and a half hours. And it hit a nerve. Millions followed the speech online until the traffic crashed the Senate server. A huge, positive grassroots response tied up the phones in the senator’s offices in Vermont and Washington. President Obama reportedly held an impromptu press conference with former President Clinton to deflect media attention away from Sanders’ speech. Editorials and news coverage appeared throughout the world.

In his speech, Sanders blasted the agreement that President Obama struck with Republicans, which extended the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, lowered estate tax rates for the very, very rich, and set a terrible precedent by establishing a "payroll tax holiday" diverting revenue away from the Social Security Trust Fund, and threatening the fund’s very future.

Senator Bernie Sanders is the longest-serving Independent in the history of the United States Congress. He has represented Vermont in the Senate for four years and in the House for sixteen years. He served four terms as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, during which time the city was recognized as one of the most livable cities in America. Read more here on Amazon.com

Friends of Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders on Wikipedia

Eliot Spitzer is the only American who ever took substantive action to stop Wall Street before it wrecked Main Street, according to the Draft Spitzer blog

Read about Client 9: The Eliot Spitzer case: How we were bamboozled on Salon.com

Client 9 takes an in-depth look at the rapid rise and dramatic fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. As NY's Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer prosecuted crimes by America’s largest financial institutions and some of the most powerful executives in the country. After his election as Governor, many believed he was on his way to becoming the President. Then The New York Times revealed that Spitzer had been caught seeing prostitutes, and the "Sheriff of Wall Street" fell quickly from grace. With unique access, the film explores the hidden contours of hubris, sex and power.

Eliot Spitzer on Wikipedia

Carl Hiaasen on Florida: "The Sunshine State is a paradise of scandals teeming with drifters, deadbeats, and misfits drawn here by some dark primordial calling like demented trout. And you'd be surprised how many of them decide to run for public office."

Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald

Carl Hiaasen official website

Carl Hiaasen Wikipedia

LawBidding.com has changed to ExpertBids.com. Nick Cronin, Founder of LawBidding.com, notified users by email March 15, 2011 of the change. ExpertBids.com is a similar site and clients will continue to be able to receive free, personalized bids from lawyers. In addition, we have now expanded our service to include accountants and consultants. In creating ExpertBids.com we wanted to create a consolidated professional services marketplace, where clients could connect with lawyers, accountants, and consultants.

An Easier Way to Find a Lawyer
Posted by Nadine Heintz at 8:31AM
INC.com, February 9, 2010

A website called LawBidding.com aims to lower legal costs for businesses by giving them a forum to solicit bids from attorneys.

The service is free to both lawyers and prospective clients. Here's how it works: Companies post a description of a legal problem that will be viewed only by lawyers registered with LawBidding. Posts can be anonymous, though a location is required. Lawyers can browse case descriptions and make bids based on a flat fee, hourly rate, or contingency. Prospective clients can check out each bidder's profile page, including information pertaining to state licenses, and communicate with lawyers over public and private threads. There is no obligation to accept a bid.

LawBidding, which was founded by corporate attorney Nick Cronin, currently has more than 300 open cases related to a variety of issues, including employment law, partnerships, and trademarks. There are more than 1,000 lawyers registered on the site. Even if a company doesn't find the right fit, the site could, at the very least, be a good resource for pricing out legal representation.

I witnessed the following while attending a Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) interview in Tampa June 15, 2010 as a civilian observer. This was the 13th Circuit JNC, Hillsborough County, Florida. One commission member asked an applicant for judge if the applicant had seen any behavior from a judge in court that was unprofessional.

The applicant responded that a judge said to a woman who was obviously pregnant and about to give birth, words to the effect "Would you like this garbage can moved closer to you in case you have the baby?" The judge was referring to a trash can in the courtroom.

The JNC asked this question of a number of applicants. Some applicants responded with examples of judicial misconduct. Others applicants were evasive or brushed-off the question. My notes show that applicants who described bad behavior by judges to the JNC were nominated at a rate lower than applicants who did not describe bad behavior by judges to the JNC. Initially I dismissed this as coincidence.

But in hindsight, and with the benefit of subsequent information, in my opinion it is possible that this question is used as a screening tool to eliminate applicants critical of sitting judges, to ensure that nominees, if appointed, will be team players and look the other way if they see another judge engage in misconduct.

Read the email between JNC Chair Pedro Bajo and Neil Gillespie discussing the "garbage can" comment, provided below in PDF. Read more on the Justice Network

Benjamin Franklin said "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately" at the signing of the Declaration of Independence on August 2nd 1776.

This is true today, metaphorically, with those who confront injustice in Florida courts. One example is Ninth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Belvin Perry who signed a Florida Administrative Court Order in response to representatives of the national non-profit organization Fully Informed Jury Association handing out pamphlets outside the Orange County Courthouse, according a news release by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The organization advocates "jury nullification," where jurors can ignore the judge’s instructions if they are "voting their conscience." Iloilo Marguerite Jones of the jury association described the organization as an "educational outfit . . . [whose members] believe in the right of free speech, and peaceful and orderly dissemination of information." Members described the handouts as jury "education" information for distribution to sitting or potential jurors. http://fija.org/

On February 8, 2010 Fifth Judicial Circuit Judge David B. Eddy, Marion County, Florida, wrote a memorandum supporting the same pamphlets that are banned in the Ninth Judicial Circuit. See the Fully Informed Jury Association website for the memorandum.

Two Florida lawyers who called each other a "retard" and "scum sucking loser" in escalating e-mail insults have been sanctioned by the Florida Supreme Court.

Read more here on the Justice Network

Les Winston

Les Winston says in Florida all other professions except lawyers are governed by the Department of Business & Professional Regulation. Only lawyers regulate themselves through the Florida Bar. This has created a dangerous good old boys club and a lot of rotten apples. Read more here on the Justice Network

Disbar The Florida Bar on Facebook

Daily radio program about drawbacks of the Florida Bar as regulator. 

Attorney David W. Marston, former US Attorney and Harvard Law School grad compares the practice of law to the Mafia in his book "Malice Aforethought, How Lawyers Use Our Secret Rules To Get Rich, Get Sex, Get Even...And Get Away With It", an exposé of the American legal profession.

"They all have undergone the same tough initiation, and once admitted to membership, all have sworn the same oath. They live by their own rules and have fiercely resisted efforts by outsiders to penetrate their clan. The have a code of silence that makes the Mafia’s dreaded omerta seem gossipy. And while the organization rigidly limits the operations of its members to their assigned turf, their criminal activities within these areas are surprisingly varied." (Page 22, paragraphs 4 & 5)

David W Marston

"The organization enforces its own discipline, and outsiders can piece together only the most fragmentary picture of the process. But while hard statistics about crime and misconduct by its members remain elusive, there has unquestionably been a sharp escalation in recent years" (Page 23, paragraph 2)

"In every state, the organization has tentacles that reach into the legislature, as well as intimate knowledge of the local criminal justice system. Laws that might threaten operations are vigorously opposed, and when members are convicted of crimes, punishments are often lenient." (Page 23, paragraph 4)

"It’s not the Mafia. Not the Medellin drug cartel…The members are all lawyers. And the organization is the American legal profession." (Pages 23-24)

David W. Marston, Wikipedia Buy the book on Amazon.com

Famed trial lawyer Gerry Spence says judges should be drafted:

"Our judges should be drafted in the same manner that jurors are drafted-to act as judges for a limited calendar of cases after which they would be released to return to their practices. Every trial lawyer should be required to support the system in this fashion the same as every citizen is required to serve as a juror. If judges were drafted from the trial bar we would soon clear our dockets, because we could call up as many judges as were necessary to bring our dockets current. If judges were drafted, we would no longer be saddled for life with the political cronies of those in power, or be faced with judges who have received campaign contributions from our opponents. To be sure, we would experience some bad judges. But, Lord knows, we have them now - and often for life! On the other hand, we would benefit from the best minds in the legal business, who, under our present system, rarely seek the judiciary." - Gerry Spence, page 57, From Freedom to Slavery, The Rebirth of Tyranny in America Buy the book on Amazon.com

Gerry Spence's website

Gerry Spence Law Firm

Gerry Spence on Wikipedia

Attorney and journalist Amy Bach spent eight years investigating the widespread courtroom failures that each day upend lives across America. In the process, she discovered how the professionals who work in the system, however well intentioned, cannot see the harm they are doing to the people they serve. In a sweeping inquiry that moves from small-town Georgia to upstate New York, from Mississippi to Chicago, Ordinary Injustice shows us the tragic consequences that result when communities mistake the rules lawyers play by for the rule of law.

Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers Journal, Justice For Sale

How would you feel if you were in court and knew that the opposing lawyer had contributed money to the judge's campaign fund? This is not an improbable hypothetical question, but could be a commonplace occurrence in the 21 states where judges must raise money to campaign for their seats — often from people with business before the court.

Though many states have elected judges since their founding, in the past 30 years, judicial elections have morphed from low-key affairs to big money campaigns. From 1999-2008, judicial candidates raised $200.04 million, more than double the $85.4 million raised in the previous decade (1989-1998).

Because of the costs of running such a campaign, critics contend that judges have had to become politicians and fundraisers rather than jurists. In a poll by Justice at Stake, 97% of elected state Supreme Court justices said they were under pressure to raise money during their election years. Read more here

Read more about Judicial Misconduct on the Justice Netowrk