A few years ago, I had a Michigan attorney who advised me to settle a case with a client. I was to give my attorney the settlement money and he would then pass it on to the other person. My Michigan attorney kept the money and never passed it on! I was livid. I had to hire another attorney to defend me as to why I hadn't make that payment. I filed a complaint with the Michigan State Bar..they did nothing. I ended up having to file bankruptcy to cover all the costs. Some attorneys are so dishonest and ruin lives and it seems to be acceptable here in my state.
Attorneys are some of the slimiest bastards you'll ever meet. According to a major study, attorneys are the second most likely people to be remorseless psychopaths. Corporate CEO's are the #1 most likely to be psychopaths.
So when are the judges, BAR employees, and other lawyers who Girardi took on fantastical vacations & accepted gifts as bribes to ignore his crimes going to be arrested, disbarred, & thrown in jail?
Please don't expect accountability at the government and bar level. They are "just doing their job," and cannot possibly be expected to adhere to the impossibly high standards that they set for the rest of the "rich and entitled" "private practice" lawyers that (according to them) are just rolling in money and flush with support staff resources in order to comply with their knee-jerk, absurd rules that are merely a cover for the fact that they are a wholesale failure of an oversight organization!
You should do stand-up comedy..... Very Best Regards, Tom Scott 🗽 Author ● Speaker ● World's Leading Expert on the Corrupt U.S. Legal System _Our American Injustice System_ _Stack the Legal Odds in Your Favor_
This one irked me a little. They passed a new law because they said they needed standards. But Girardi had 100’s of complaints against him. It was the state bar that completely ignored all of them. It was the standards of practice that were the issue. It was the people enforcing those standards. What they should have done is make it a criminal offense for the bar to ignore complaints.
You mean the people he payed off, they were accomplices. It would not have mattered if they had the standards prior. What was lacking was Morals, and an executioners noose.
In California we find lawyers are not criminally proseucted for stealing as Giarardi did. Cross referenced bar actions, no related criminal charges in 99% of the cases we audited.
It's almost like We the People need to ensure there are enforceable rules on the behaviors of those who work in our justice system. Perhaps even ethics standards on a particular court of a very high standing?
@@jimmybutler1379Actually, yes. The state bar enacted new requirements for attorneys with trust accounts AND followed through with those who weren't following the new requirements.
@timdowney6721• this is amazing that there are regulatory oversight committees for so many professions except cops, they answer to nobody...but they cost municipalities and communities millions in lawsuits!!!
Tom Girardi could not have stolen $18 million by himself. Those judges that let him slide should be prosecuted. I don't care if they are retired, incapacitated, circling the drain, or dead. They still should be named and prosecuted. So should the California Bar Association members that did not take action. These people continued to enable his bad behavior and should be held accountable.
You went right to the question I was going to post... how is the failing and shielding State Bar held accountable as they clearly are complicit in allowing this malfeasance to occur. Who holds the CA (or other State) Bar(s) responsible?
@@johndododoe1411 Indeed, however, how many form letters have you received from the bar in response to legitimate grievances? Sounds a bit touchy. Why not do a records request of just how many complaints have been sent to the Bar that have been brushed over and dismissed. I am no apologist for the anemic ways in which the CA State Bar (or any other) manage or monitor questionable activity of those having membership within their club. Were the problem not so pervasive that may absolve the greater issue.
it was far more than $18mm and as for who let him off my first target would be those who fired the two Cal Bar investigators who tried to bring a case against him. Other investigators he hired their kids for (in at least one case) 7+ years and gave them very nice gifts. Also a tour working the state bar is considered a helpful thing to have on the CV if you are trying to be appointed a judge and Girardi was known to be a prominent advisor on making the short lists for such judgeships and so would be someone to protect for such hopefuls....that such a deal should render them unfit for that office is part of why they won't do anything about it as that would create a massive wave of appeals.
In PA, attorneys are supposed to "police" themselves. As a self-represented litigant, I discovered the hard way that opposing counsel can violate ethics rules. In my case, opposing counsel violated some ethics rules so I filed a motion to dismiss opposing counsel because of the violations. I discovered in Court that only an attorney can file such a motion and not somebody representing themselves. This, of course, means that attorneys can ignore ethics rules when in opposition to somebody who is self represented. Nice.
It's called Duty of Candor, and it's never practiced in the legal system. ALL attorneys are SUPPOSE to remain in a Court of Record until ALL cases are handled. The theory being, they are required to police the judge and other attorneys for proper conduct, but that never happens. With the occasional exception being small county court rooms. Common practice for all attorneys to have their cases heard first, then the plebs. This prevents any accountability b/c once the attorneys are vacated there is no one left to hold the 'courts' accountable for misconduct.
@@DontCryAboutIt They always believe the cop! I won against an officer in my state, but it was difficult, and I presented evidence and a witness! Once they looked over my case and evidence, they dismissed it before it went to court!! :)
Oh I KNOW !! the rules do NOT apply to them ONLY YOU ! motions ignored, discovery zilch, sufficiency requests ignored, objections ignored, even in writing !! what a pony show "court" is ! I have ZERO faith in "neutrality" as REQUIRED !!
Up in Alaska we had a prosecutor attempt to violate the Brady Law, and when it was found out, they just switched to a different prosecutor and pretended that they hadn't done anything wrong. 😳 2 prosecutors later the judge dismissed charges with prejudice, but probably only because the defendant finally saved up the money for getting a private attorney. (So in the long run the prosecution wasting so much time playing "hot potato" with the case ended up biting them in the butt)
Maybe the state bar has special rights to request information from the bank? They could ask the bank if a trusted account exist with the name of the attorney. A form only makes sense if there is some sort of application or verficatation of the information provided with the form.
The California attorney trust account reporting is done online and only takes a few minutes. No matter how big a procrastinator an attorney is, there really is no excuse for not getting this done.
I’m a recovering lawyer. I’m mostly retired now, and have been away from law practice for a few years. Things like this make me remember why I don’t miss it.
Attorneys stealing from trust accts isn’t new. I’ve witnessed it myself in the mid 2000s with my ex wifes niece and nephew after their parents died in a car accident when they were 8 and 10 and who’s trust acct was slowly drained over the following ten year period. The family smelled a rat when it came time for the kids to go to college and collect their trust and it was only 1/3rd what it was supposed to be. The home was paid off and the children were raised by their grandmother who moved in to care for them. The family hired another attorney, and a forensic accountant that discovered that nearly $5 million had been misappropriated over a 9-10 year period.
That was not a very wise thing to do! Do not leave the money in an account the attorney has access to!!! Take the money into your own possession!!! You can then invest it, or whatever. I could not sleep knowing an attorney had my money in his trust account!!
@@orppranator5230 I don't believe in inheritance. Whatever you earned in life should go back to the society that provided the opportunities for you to excel.
I worked for a lawyer in Chicago. She was constantly bouncing checks in her trust acct. she would have employees tell clients the check was mailed and give fake check now and fake tracking no. I contacted Illinois state bar about her. They did nothing and said I was a disgruntled ex employee because the employees checks bounced as well. She had to have her all CHANNEL wardrobe and didn't care about anyone else. I couldn't believe they didn't even investigate it.
Yes and when the public need the BAR to help them deal with a crap attorney, they are either out of "funding" for that year or don't agree to pursue the bandits.
I’m in Dallas, know a mother whose son was left a cripple due to substandard medical care, the case in non professional opinion sounded slam dunk, and it was, a very quick settlement for six million was agreed upon. She got a check for $600k and was told a trust was set up for care for the lifetime for her child. Fast forward a decade and the lawyer claimed massive expenses, and says that he advised his client to set up a trust fund, not that he would. While they did pay for the kids initial medical care, and she doesn’t contest that, it wasn’t close to the 60% she was told it was… but the burden of proof was on her.
@@milothegreatful - Part of that’s is normal, a lawyer will somewhat selectively take a financial risk, to make the need for medical care clear to a judge/jury. Lawyers get 40% of a cases winnings, plus expenses like the medical care he has paid for. But she (the boys mom) wasn’t the brightest, and IMO got taken advantage of. But while she did get an attorney, from what I understand the case went nowhere. The real loser was that child, who will essentially be a ward of the state for life.
@@scottmcshannon6821 Some of the most unethical people I have dealt with were attorneys. Generally if you brought a legal problem to them, they would make it much bigger to reap the rewards (to them) of additional litigation.
When I applied for social security disability I signed paperwork agreeing to 40%. When I got my settlement the lawyer tried to claim we had agreed to 50%. This lawyer had done a great job and got the money super fast. He had earned a glowing review and I would have sent him several more clients, then he went and tried to be greedy for an extra 10%. Fortunately I had kept my paper work, it took a couple of extra weeks to get my money, and made me really annoyed. It was just dishonest. (This was in Oregon)
The idea that California didn’t have trust account registration requirements until now is just shocking to me-it’s been part of renewing your bar license in my state (Utah) for at least 15 years…
I can almost guarantee you that there are many other states that don’t require this either. There are still states that are arguing whether 14 year old can get married so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there are several states that don’t have that most basic of protections. If I had to guess South Carolina may not have had these protections because it was way too easy for that Murdaugh guy to steal his clients money.
@@kenyattaclay7666 BTW, state legislatures arguing whether a 14yo can marry have absolutely nothing to do with requirements set up by a state's Bar Association.
My ex wifes divorce attorney never disclosed 9 grand my ex wife received as part of my disability claim back pay, I was required to pay half of mine (15 grand) to her. SSA determines who gets what. She kept and spent the 9 grand. The bar did not find any criminal wrongdoing but they did find misconduct and unethical practice.
This happens everywhere. I live in Mississippi. A very good friend of mine who was an attorney and responsible for conservatorship accounts like Britney Spears and others declared NCM. He had a very long practice doing this as well as other law practices. A trust account is like a big cookie jar. The cookies have to be counted by someone. Unfortunately for my friend when his cookie jar was counted it was discovered that he had been eating half of the cookies. He killed himself when this was discovered. Trust accounts are ubiquitous and they are something that must be from time to time audited because humans are involved all the time and humans make mistakes and sometimes get greedy.
In my jurisdiction, our Trust accounts are audited annually by an external CPA and the Law Society additionally randomly audits Trust accounts, about every 3 years. The Law Society enforces compulsory insurance to cover clients for layers fiddling the Trust accounts.
My GF is an attorney and she and I have talked about this subject a lot. One of the things that will get an attorney is trouble the quickest is ethics lapses and not fulfilling fiduciary duty when handling your client's money! This is what sunk F Lee Bailey!
In 1989 I started researching my genealogy. I discovered my grandfather’s brother, a great uncle, was an attorney in California. In 1959, my grandmother received a call from a nurse in Houston, Texas that he died. I check the California Bar Association and discovered he passed the bar in 1915 and he was still listed as an active attorney. I mailed the California bar a copy of his death certificate, knowing, damn well, they would not believe me without this record. They investigated and eventually listed him as deceased. He must have been an amazing person; in the 1910 US census he was listed as a musician aboard a US Navy ship, USS California.
Most likely the lawyer database had a special "exception" flag on account of the registration being so old, they didn't have a record of when this guy ceased to be an attorney, they don't have his current information and the data entry guy can't just disbar a guy because the state bar lost records from many decades ago. If he's actually dead there's no harm in waiting for someone like you to clear things up.
Wow, this really interested me because my grandson (young adult) got a referral for an attorney because a woman hit him while he was in his bicycle as she was leaving a car wash. He was thrown several feet into the air, hit and run but bystanders got her license plates. He said they (the law office)were giving him the runaround about the settlement, she had insurance and employed. I do not think he was ever paid a dime. I am going to reach out to him to find out, we are in California
He should get a full settlement sheet, where every single penny went. They had to get his signature/permission to settle either he or his parents if he’s a minor.
@@bewawolf19 Drugs made by pharmaceuticals such as Vicodin or Tylenol are much worse than doctors will let on and of course everyone's been scared off of aspirin and give even babies Tylenol. It's hepatotoxic. Meanwhile, cannabis was perceived as a black persons' drug, therefore Wm.Randolph Hearst asked friends to make it illegal.
How could you forget the most recent with the Murdoch case? Filing against his own insurance and keeping the money plus stealing the money from his firm and clients.
Love how Steve follows up with examples of exceptions, explaining how someone can be the bad guy, yet then making sure to tell us how someone can only appear to be in the wrong.
I guess if you've been a lawyer/investigator for long enough, you figure out how to protect yourself by thinking what could happen if you're wrong, how you or something could be wrong, or something like that. Sounds a lot like health scepticism and introspection.
Think about it, it's basically the 5th amendment at play. Just because they don't want to talk, doesn't mean they did something and talking about it will get them into trouble.
I really do enjoy your honesty, Steve. One thing you said though, the money goes to him, and he takes a SMALL slice for himself. For us, 40% now is not a "Small Slice" Especially for a case that is Black and White and there is only some "Negotiations" involved. I won a lawsuit against a lawyer and after a $30,000 judgement I got $3,000. I am glad you are honest.
I worked as a litigation paralegal and related work for over 43 years for law firms and a government agency in NY City. One of the most common ways for small firms and individual lawyers to get suspended was improper handling of client trust accounts. Often those attorneys who got into trouble had drug, alcohol or gambling addictions, in divorce proceedings, had made bad financial investments or just lived too high of a lifestyle. Hopefully CA and other states have updated their regulations on client trust accounts and caught up with their disciplinary proceedings from the pandemic shutdowns.
The way my state dealt finding out notaries had died was by instituting an annual report. Now, notaries have to register every year and pay 25 bucks. If they don't they are suspended and eventually lose their commission.
@@kellidinit3725 In my state the commission is for life, so before this there were notaries listed as active from the 1800's. No one bothered to tell the state they were DEAD.
When I was a notary, it was a four-year appointment. During my single appointment, they quit requiring a notary for car titles, so I just let it lapse since 90% of the reason I got it just went away.
As a tax accountant with several attorney clients, I bet a lot just left it. They’re the worst group for getting me their tax info at the last minute before the extended deadline.
I've had that problem where I deposited a check, waited for it to clear and show as available funds in my account, but the bank bounced a check I wrote on those funds. Their response was 'oh, gee sorry, it wasn't cleared yet' even though it showed cleared in my account. So yeah, I can empathize with folks that have that happen in a more high-stakes situation like an attorney writing checks to his clients.
Client trust accounts need to be everywhere. It’s just practice in such a business. It’s also called a paper trail. Big guys ask where it all went it’s all on paper..
Two of my high school friends (married couple) are practicing attorneys in South Carolina. The last time I saw them they told me of a scandal involving their law firm. Seems as though one of their partners conspired with three bank officers to loot escrow accounts of clients. All four committed suicide after their sceme was discovered... Another attorney I knew was an aviation enthusiast who once co authored a book on the P-61. He was suspected of stealing original source material from the Smithsonian. The man also claimed in person to be a General in the Air Force Reserve, but investigation by OSI showed he had only been an aviation cadet who failed the course... In the early 1990's he was found to be committing to same crime(s) as the above. When the police came to his door with a warrant for his arrest he shot himself...
Thank you. Nice to hear things are tightening up. That's what happened with Murdaugh, too, and they had no idea he was doing that. The whole firm was hurt. It would be nice to get notified when that trial begins. I hope someone covers it.
Florida recently found someone was using the Official Stamp of an engineer who had been deceased for years. His stamp was showing up on properties for their xx year REQUIRED certification so the buildings could be considered safe & habitable. All of these LICENCING professions & their state agencies MUST DO BETTER!
I have had interactions with four attorneys in my life. Three were some of the best people I met, great honest, understanding people who cared about right and wrong and other people. A fourth I knew was extremely self serving and stayed hammered drunk after 5:00 pm each day. He was good during the day at making money for himself and doing what he had to do. He batted about five hundred in the cases he took and charged a ton of money, almost to much but he sold the sizzle and could brag nonstop for hours. His after 5:00 good drinking buddies were judges, other attorneys and high ranking police officers, fire fighters and city officials. Sounds a bit like the attorney in the story but not crooked like him. The attorney I knew just stacked the deck in his own favor. He bought a few drinks for the right people and took care of number one, himself, first. I just didn’t like what I saw about the guy. If you saw what I saw, he wasn’t giving attorneys a good name. He may have over charged and won a few cases with his personality but I don’t think he would outright steal anyone’s money.
"Keep a small amount for himself", yeah right. They usually get half the award. California only suspended attorneys that didn't give the state a kickback. "Paperwork" cold hard cash.
You mean the state or the state bar association? Anyways, taking about half as a percentage should only be on contingency contracts where the client pays nothing if loosing the case . Otherwise the lawyers cut should match an itemized bill for work done (which can still be inflated) .
Funny story - I have a friend who is a California attorney. Several years ago he was paying his personal household bills. He ran out of blank checks in his check book so he grabbed another pack of blank checks from the desk drawer. Unfortunately, his household checks and his trust account checks were the same color and he did not look closely at them. You guessed it, he attempted to pay gas, water, electricity etc, bills with trust account checks. He mostly handled criminal cases and did not need a trust account for these. But he took on one personal injury case and it settled. The money had already been properly distributed and the only money left in the trust account was what the bank required to open the account and was the property of the attorney, a state bar approved procedure. Of course all of these checks bounced and he received the ugly letter. He was able to satisfactorily explain the mistake, but it was a pain in the neck.
Four years of college and I wind up working for 26 years, 6 days a week, at dad's cabinet shop in a plush suburb of Chicago, restoring antiques and stuff, and continuing dad's shop after he closed his, I kept his little sign he kept by the door..."YOUR CHECK IS IN THE MAIL", now by my door, and, I do take checks, on blue moons only!
NO LAWYER Should EVER get their hands on monies owed to a client...2 cheques can be made out,,1 for the client and 1 for the lawyer....how difficult can that be?
The house in Miami surrounded by the condos built by the crafty developer; is now being hounded by the developer calling code enforcement who has issued a daily fine. This homeowner should be left alone.
his wife Erika: "oh my god Thomas!!! you have been SCAMMING PEOPLE? this is too much i'm going to have to divorce you. don't mind the fact that my divorce attorney is 30 years old and chiseled like a Greek statue and hung like a horse. or the fact that we meet 3 times a week. it's because i can't take the LIES"
During a disability hearing, the judge requested more records from my attorney, it wasn't until it was too late that I discovered my attorney never complied and in such, the judge decided that since the records were never sent that I must not have been seeing any doctors and my case was decided against me. Six years of fighting down the drain even though it was my doctor who recommended I apply due to health and physical issues.
A man was annoyed with some lawyers in his town. He took out a full page ad in the newspaper. It read, "Half of the lawyers in this town are crooked". The lawyers weren't going to allow that so they approached the judge and implored him to haul the man in for defamation and insist he print a retraction. The man stood before the judge and was given the choice of paying for a retraction or face law suits that could add up to millions. He agreed to pay for a retraction. The next day a full page ad in the paper boldly stated, "Half the lawyers in this town are NOT crooked".
I have learned many things listening to you Steve.. Thank you for that. You do a service to your industry informing people what to expect before it gets to that phone call.. Bravo Sir! And a Mopar fan too.. I saw those videos as well.. That turbine car was a peach.. You are a great human being my friend. Well done.
Your profesion and the system is overrun with so much corruption, especially in California, i's outrageous and sickening. It's awesome to see people actually getting busted for their crimes. Of course, they've gotten away with crimes they'll never have to pay for. Suspended, a slap on the wrist for lining there pockets on top of charging their clients $400 an hpur.
All currency is digital these days, and has been for over a decade. Any bank that tells you they have to sit on a check in order to wait for it to clear is not only lying, they are skimming interest and investment profit off the top. It's your money. These villains need to go to prison if they can't present it to you in 0.2 seconds
This right here. If somebody charges my debit card it's immediate. But if i deposit a check, i have to wait? Same with credit cards, if i dispute a fraudulent charge, it takes weeks to get my money back. But only instants for a miscreant to steal my money.
I deposited a personal check from out of state, and it only took a couple days for it to clear. But if we'd done Venmo or something, it would have been instant.
I'm going back to court to report an Assistant DA has lied to the court about me in my mothers trust. Missing funds, bonds undeclared, hiding papers from my attorney.
The Federal Government has rules regarding the amount of time a bank has to "clear" a deposited check. The times vary by type of check and if it's local or not. But I have encountered numerous instances where a bank sits on a check longer than allowed before it clears.
Steve, I saw one of those Housewives shows that my daughter had on. Girardi's wife spent the whole show whining about how the courts want to take away her diamonds and all this stuff. It was just crazy!
In the world of niche and small publishers, it is staggering how lax standards are. I have a handful of bank accounts (I also have a not for profit association I help run) and it is incredibly easy to maintain accounting. Meanwhile I know tons of artists and writers who are surprised I send funds from a business account (nowadays they often know because the email is different), because they are used to quick transfers from people's personal accounts.
As always, another great video. The lawyer mentioned, may have had something to do with the Erin Brockovich movie, but the law firm that she was with was Masry and Vititoe, owned and run by Ed Masry and Jim Vititoe, both of whom were outstanding in their fields of practice.
Since when is 35 or 40% a "small slice"? However, you did redeem yourself Steve with the "century or two younger" comment. 🤣 Love your channel and keep up the good work.
1. No, it's because they dropped the ball on Tom Girardi and are now reviewing other things they haven't been doing a good job of overseeing. 2. I'm not aware the State Bar gets a cut of anything when you open a trust account. Even if they get paid a processing fee, it's a one-time fee for processing the paperwork you send to report the creation of the trust account; can't imagine it would be much of a fee.
@@addanametocontinue Tom Girardi got away with stealing from clients for decades, and the CA Bar didn't care. When the money in the Lion Air case was being discussed and the other law firm asked questions of the CA Bar they were threatened to shut up by the CA Bar, or every lawyer they employed who was licenced in California would be investigated. The other law firm is based in Chicago, and was the local lawyers for the case. Someone / multiple people needed to be on the take.
Good looks are overrated when looking for a romantic partner. Most women can see beyond appearances and see the true beauty of what's inside your bank account.
There are an awful lot of Attorneys. Just how difficult is it to become an Attorney. Can I become an Attorney with online courses? Anyways, love the show and your general analysis of things. Cheers
There are crooks in every profession. Unfortunately when it happens with an attorney people are hesitant to go after him or her for obvious reasons. Thanks for a very informative channel. Respectfully
In Florida the State Bar has full oversight of the Trust accounts.... When I had a Trust Account I followed all the requirements of the Bar... Which requires to wait 10 days after depositing a settlement check before writing a check to a client and or third party providers... Such as doctors and or experts. Thank God I never had an issue with the trust account in those 12 years I had the account.
My attorney i paid $3k to defend my color of law case, he has been trying to throw me under the bus through the whole case which he has been involved in for 2yrs now.
In California, you have to register every year (and pay fees). If you are dead you are disenrolled for non payment by July 1. So i dont understand the concept that attorneys are still active when they are dead.
A coworker of mine asked me what she should do about a rent dispute. She told me she was not paying her rent. I told her to set the rent money aside just in case she has to pay it later... she did not, and she lost the dispute. She then asked me to lend her money to pay the back rent. LOL huh No!
What do you call 1,600 disbarred lawyers?
A good start!
A drop in the bucket, damn near impossible to get disbarred in California.
Yes and especially in CA
I'm not surprised. Been expecting some action on lawyers. Look up meaning of B A R.
😂
Lol. The only joke I ever remember. I once used it on a guy I went out with, after he told me he was an attorney.
A few years ago, I had a Michigan attorney who advised me to settle a case with a client. I was to give my attorney the settlement money and he would then pass it on to the other person. My Michigan attorney kept the money and never passed it on! I was livid. I had to hire another attorney to defend me as to why I hadn't make that payment. I filed a complaint with the Michigan State Bar..they did nothing. I ended up having to file bankruptcy to cover all the costs. Some attorneys are so dishonest and ruin lives and it seems to be acceptable here in my state.
Attorneys are some of the slimiest bastards you'll ever meet. According to a major study, attorneys are the second most likely people to be remorseless psychopaths. Corporate CEO's are the #1 most likely to be psychopaths.
Bar association looked into it and found nothing wrong! The usual excuse in law enforcement.
To me it seems attorneys are more there to triple all expenses for themselves.
I really think it's a scam...get you to settle...give them the $ and they go scott free!
You need to get Nick and Bruno to talk to him.
So when are the judges, BAR employees, and other lawyers who Girardi took on fantastical vacations & accepted gifts as bribes to ignore his crimes going to be arrested, disbarred, & thrown in jail?
As soon as Biden goes to jail for China and Russia deals.
Ha! Good one, you almost made me think you were serious!
Never... ever ever
Please don't expect accountability at the government and bar level. They are "just doing their job," and cannot possibly be expected to adhere to the impossibly high standards that they set for the rest of the "rich and entitled" "private practice" lawyers that (according to them) are just rolling in money and flush with support staff resources in order to comply with their knee-jerk, absurd rules that are merely a cover for the fact that they are a wholesale failure of an oversight organization!
You should do stand-up comedy.....
Very Best Regards,
Tom Scott 🗽
Author ● Speaker ● World's Leading Expert on the Corrupt U.S. Legal System
_Our American Injustice System_
_Stack the Legal Odds in Your Favor_
This one irked me a little. They passed a new law because they said they needed standards. But Girardi had 100’s of complaints against him. It was the state bar that completely ignored all of them. It was the standards of practice that were the issue. It was the people enforcing those standards. What they should have done is make it a criminal offense for the bar to ignore complaints.
Who is the state bar? They do not want to be accountable. Best to make it someone else's problem.
You mean the people he payed off, they were accomplices. It would not have mattered if they had the standards prior. What was lacking was Morals, and an executioners noose.
YES!!!!!
In California we find lawyers are not criminally proseucted for stealing as Giarardi did. Cross referenced bar actions, no related criminal charges in 99% of the cases we audited.
It's almost like We the People need to ensure there are enforceable rules on the behaviors of those who work in our justice system.
Perhaps even ethics standards on a particular court of a very high standing?
It’s good to see authorities actually enforcing laws and standards.
If that is what is going on !...
Too bad they rarely do it to corrupt DAs and Judges.
It's a shame it took the millions Girardi stole for CA to finally set this up
@@jimmybutler1379Actually, yes. The state bar enacted new requirements for attorneys with trust accounts AND followed through with those who weren't following the new requirements.
@timdowney6721• this is amazing that there are regulatory oversight committees for so many professions except cops, they answer to nobody...but they cost municipalities and communities millions in lawsuits!!!
Tom Girardi could not have stolen $18 million by himself. Those judges that let him slide should be prosecuted. I don't care if they are retired, incapacitated, circling the drain, or dead. They still should be named and prosecuted. So should the California Bar Association members that did not take action. These people continued to enable his bad behavior and should be held accountable.
You went right to the question I was going to post... how is the failing and shielding State Bar held accountable as they clearly are complicit in allowing this malfeasance to occur. Who holds the CA (or other State) Bar(s) responsible?
@@yesm450There's a huge gap between failing to catch someone and being complicit!
Amen- say that louder
@@johndododoe1411 Indeed, however, how many form letters have you received from the bar in response to legitimate grievances? Sounds a bit touchy. Why not do a records request of just how many complaints have been sent to the Bar that have been brushed over and dismissed. I am no apologist for the anemic ways in which the CA State Bar (or any other) manage or monitor questionable activity of those having membership within their club. Were the problem not so pervasive that may absolve the greater issue.
it was far more than $18mm and as for who let him off my first target would be those who fired the two Cal Bar investigators who tried to bring a case against him. Other investigators he hired their kids for (in at least one case) 7+ years and gave them very nice gifts. Also a tour working the state bar is considered a helpful thing to have on the CV if you are trying to be appointed a judge and Girardi was known to be a prominent advisor on making the short lists for such judgeships and so would be someone to protect for such hopefuls....that such a deal should render them unfit for that office is part of why they won't do anything about it as that would create a massive wave of appeals.
In PA, attorneys are supposed to "police" themselves. As a self-represented litigant, I discovered the hard way that opposing counsel can violate ethics rules. In my case, opposing counsel violated some ethics rules so I filed a motion to dismiss opposing counsel because of the violations. I discovered in Court that only an attorney can file such a motion and not somebody representing themselves. This, of course, means that attorneys can ignore ethics rules when in opposition to somebody who is self represented. Nice.
It's called Duty of Candor, and it's never practiced in the legal system. ALL attorneys are SUPPOSE to remain in a Court of Record until ALL cases are handled. The theory being, they are required to police the judge and other attorneys for proper conduct, but that never happens. With the occasional exception being small county court rooms. Common practice for all attorneys to have their cases heard first, then the plebs. This prevents any accountability b/c once the attorneys are vacated there is no one left to hold the 'courts' accountable for misconduct.
@@DontCryAboutIt They always believe the cop! I won against an officer in my state, but it was difficult, and I presented evidence and a witness! Once they looked over my case and evidence, they dismissed it before it went to court!! :)
Oh I KNOW !! the rules do NOT apply to them ONLY YOU ! motions ignored, discovery zilch, sufficiency requests ignored, objections ignored, even in writing !! what a pony show "court" is ! I have ZERO faith in "neutrality" as REQUIRED !!
Up in Alaska we had a prosecutor attempt to violate the Brady Law, and when it was found out, they just switched to a different prosecutor and pretended that they hadn't done anything wrong. 😳 2 prosecutors later the judge dismissed charges with prejudice, but probably only because the defendant finally saved up the money for getting a private attorney. (So in the long run the prosecution wasting so much time playing "hot potato" with the case ended up biting them in the butt)
Family Court ?
If an attorney were to steal client funds, he/she would probably be willing to file false forms.
I’m sure that making a thief pinky-swear that he’s in compliance has a great deterrent effect!
Maybe the state bar has special rights to request information from the bank? They could ask the bank if a trusted account exist with the name of the attorney. A form only makes sense if there is some sort of
application or verficatation of the information provided with the form.
The California attorney trust account reporting is done online and only takes a few minutes. No matter how big a procrastinator an attorney is, there really is no excuse for not getting this done.
I’m a recovering lawyer. I’m mostly retired now, and have been away from law practice for a few years. Things like this make me remember why I don’t miss it.
can you help me to know how to find out how much of my inheritance the selling of the house i inherited gose to my attorney and probate here in Cali
is that you, Jimmy?
@ditto1958 what is it that you don't miss? Is it lawyers stealing from clients or the state catching up with thieving lawyers?
Attorneys stealing from trust accts isn’t new. I’ve witnessed it myself in the mid 2000s with my ex wifes niece and nephew after their parents died in a car accident when they were 8 and 10 and who’s trust acct was slowly drained over the following ten year period. The family smelled a rat when it came time for the kids to go to college and collect their trust and it was only 1/3rd what it was supposed to be. The home was paid off and the children were raised by their grandmother who moved in to care for them. The family hired another attorney, and a forensic accountant that discovered that nearly $5 million had been misappropriated over a 9-10 year period.
Was the family able to get any of that back?
You mean embezzled. Misappropriation sounds like a paper mistake. These lawyers are THIEVES.
That was not a very wise thing to do! Do not leave the money in an account the attorney has access to!!! Take the money into your own possession!!! You can then invest it, or whatever. I could not sleep knowing an attorney had my money in his trust account!!
I hope he got punished.
@@huwhitecavebeast1972 Nope.
All attorneys who pass away without reporting their death to the state bar association will be suspended!
And fined!
@@davidbeppler3032 Don’t give them ideas on how to steal money from their inheriting children.
@@orppranator5230 I don't believe in inheritance. Whatever you earned in life should go back to the society that provided the opportunities for you to excel.
😂😅
@@davidbeppler3032you would be a fool then.
I worked for a lawyer in Chicago. She was constantly bouncing checks in her trust acct. she would have employees tell clients the check was mailed and give fake check now and fake tracking no. I contacted Illinois state bar about her. They did nothing and said I was a disgruntled ex employee because the employees checks bounced as well. She had to have her all CHANNEL wardrobe and didn't care about anyone else. I couldn't believe they didn't even investigate it.
Oh she should have been disbarred.
Wow! That’s ridiculous. It’s not safe playing with peoples money like that
Looking out for their own.
Illinois - The most corrupt state in the country. Go figure. Im sure they were in on it.
The bar let Girardi get away with it for decades. Eff the bar, in their own words: Justice delayed is justice denied.
Yes and when the public need the BAR to help them deal with a crap attorney, they are either out of "funding" for that year or don't agree to pursue the bandits.
I’m in Dallas, know a mother whose son was left a cripple due to substandard medical care, the case in non professional opinion sounded slam dunk, and it was, a very quick settlement for six million was agreed upon. She got a check for $600k and was told a trust was set up for care for the lifetime for her child. Fast forward a decade and the lawyer claimed massive expenses, and says that he advised his client to set up a trust fund, not that he would. While they did pay for the kids initial medical care, and she doesn’t contest that, it wasn’t close to the 60% she was told it was… but the burden of proof was on her.
As a Texan that really disappoints me and is very sad to hear.
@@milothegreatful - Part of that’s is normal, a lawyer will somewhat selectively take a financial risk, to make the need for medical care clear to a judge/jury. Lawyers get 40% of a cases winnings, plus expenses like the medical care he has paid for. But she (the boys mom) wasn’t the brightest, and IMO got taken advantage of. But while she did get an attorney, from what I understand the case went nowhere. The real loser was that child, who will essentially be a ward of the state for life.
Lawyers here charge 30% plus disbursements plus 13% TAX. Its 43% if there ar eno disbursements.
never trust your lawyer.
@@scottmcshannon6821 Some of the most unethical people I have dealt with were attorneys. Generally if you brought a legal problem to them, they would make it much bigger to reap the rewards (to them) of additional litigation.
When I applied for social security disability I signed paperwork agreeing to 40%. When I got my settlement the lawyer tried to claim we had agreed to 50%.
This lawyer had done a great job and got the money super fast. He had earned a glowing review and I would have sent him several more clients, then he went and tried to be greedy for an extra 10%.
Fortunately I had kept my paper work, it took a couple of extra weeks to get my money, and made me really annoyed. It was just dishonest. (This was in Oregon)
The idea that California didn’t have trust account registration requirements until now is just shocking to me-it’s been part of renewing your bar license in my state (Utah) for at least 15 years…
Utah dropped the score to 260. Kinda wild, I bet we get a lot more corrupt ppl because of that
I can almost guarantee you that there are many other states that don’t require this either. There are still states that are arguing whether 14 year old can get married so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there are several states that don’t have that most basic of protections.
If I had to guess South Carolina may not have had these protections because it was way too easy for that Murdaugh guy to steal his clients money.
@@kenyattaclay7666Well, "guarantee" is a strong word. Do you know how many states don't have legal trust account requirements?
@@kenyattaclay7666
BTW, state legislatures arguing whether a 14yo can marry have absolutely nothing to do with requirements set up by a state's Bar Association.
@@kenyattaclay7666Nice strawman, liberal.
My ex wifes divorce attorney never disclosed 9 grand my ex wife received as part of my disability claim back pay, I was required to pay half of mine (15 grand) to her. SSA determines who gets what. She kept and spent the 9 grand. The bar did not find any criminal wrongdoing but they did find misconduct and unethical practice.
This happens everywhere. I live in Mississippi. A very good friend of mine who was an attorney and responsible for conservatorship accounts like Britney Spears and others declared NCM. He had a very long practice doing this as well as other law practices. A trust account is like a big cookie jar. The cookies have to be counted by someone. Unfortunately for my friend when his cookie jar was counted it was discovered that he had been eating half of the cookies. He killed himself when this was discovered. Trust accounts are ubiquitous and they are something that must be from time to time audited because humans are involved all the time and humans make mistakes and sometimes get greedy.
In my jurisdiction, our Trust accounts are audited annually by an external CPA and the Law Society additionally randomly audits Trust accounts, about every 3 years. The Law Society enforces compulsory insurance to cover clients for layers fiddling the Trust accounts.
"singing lessons she needed, but they didn't work"... "he took care of people, not just those who married him"
Absolutely brutal!
My GF is an attorney and she and I have talked about this subject a lot. One of the things that will get an attorney is trouble the quickest is ethics lapses and not fulfilling fiduciary duty when handling your client's money! This is what sunk F Lee Bailey!
...making it much more sus when DAs don't prosecute and courts won't convict!!!
F Lee Bailey had a helicopter and landing pad in his backyard in Marshfield Ma. I knew his pilot.
In 1989 I started researching my genealogy. I discovered my grandfather’s brother, a great uncle, was an attorney in California. In 1959, my grandmother received a call from a nurse in Houston, Texas that he died. I check the California Bar Association and discovered he passed the bar in 1915 and he was still listed as an active attorney. I mailed the California bar a copy of his death certificate, knowing, damn well, they would not believe me without this record. They investigated and eventually listed him as deceased.
He must have been an amazing person; in the 1910 US census he was listed as a musician aboard a US Navy ship, USS California.
Most likely the lawyer database had a special "exception" flag on account of the registration being so old, they didn't have a record of when this guy ceased to be an attorney, they don't have his current information and the data entry guy can't just disbar a guy because the state bar lost records from many decades ago. If he's actually dead there's no harm in waiting for someone like you to clear things up.
@johnwasileski7380
Was this the ship that was attacked at Pearl Harbor?
Good thing you did that. Cali would have probably sent YOU a bill for your great uncle not complying with the new trust account requirements!!
how many of the dead voted in 2020
@@garymickus6412 No. The USS California that was attacked at Pearl Harbor wasn't completed until after WW1.
Wow, this really interested me because my grandson (young adult) got a referral for an attorney because a woman hit him while he was in his bicycle as she was leaving a car wash. He was thrown several feet into the air, hit and run but bystanders got her license plates. He said they (the law office)were giving him the runaround about the settlement, she had insurance and employed. I do not think he was ever paid a dime. I am going to reach out to him to find out, we are in California
He should get a full settlement sheet, where every single penny went.
They had to get his signature/permission to settle either he or his parents if he’s a minor.
Wonderful News I pray more justice goes to "So Called" Law Enforcement PERSONNEL we are victims of police misconduct
@@aklemmer8936Bot account spotted
@@aklemmer8936 Just pay the traffic ticket and stop doing illegal drugs.
@@bewawolf19 Drugs made by pharmaceuticals such as Vicodin or Tylenol are much worse than doctors will let on and of course everyone's been scared off of aspirin and give even babies Tylenol. It's hepatotoxic. Meanwhile, cannabis was perceived as a black persons' drug, therefore Wm.Randolph Hearst asked friends to make it illegal.
How could you forget the most recent with the Murdoch case? Filing against his own insurance and keeping the money plus stealing the money from his firm and clients.
I'm still stuck on that age difference. "She's a century or two younger than him." Wow.
She was 28 when she married Tom Girardi, and he was 60. Steve is just massively exaggerating.
Love how Steve follows up with examples of exceptions, explaining how someone can be the bad guy, yet then making sure to tell us how someone can only appear to be in the wrong.
I think that's being transparent with the law
I guess if you've been a lawyer/investigator for long enough, you figure out how to protect yourself by thinking what could happen if you're wrong, how you or something could be wrong, or something like that.
Sounds a lot like health scepticism and introspection.
Think about it, it's basically the 5th amendment at play. Just because they don't want to talk, doesn't mean they did something and talking about it will get them into trouble.
One of the many ways Steve is a great teacher!😊
@@michaelwagner8859 teaching from experience, no doubt.
I really do enjoy your honesty, Steve. One thing you said though, the money goes to him, and he takes a SMALL slice for himself. For us, 40% now is not a "Small Slice" Especially for a
case that is Black and White and there is only some "Negotiations" involved. I won a lawsuit against a lawyer and after a $30,000 judgement I got $3,000. I am glad you are honest.
And iirc the amount you pay the lawyer isn’t considered an expense so you may pay taxes on more than you get
It’s about time we need to see some judges next
Preferably federal judges
Nice try all judges
I worked as a litigation paralegal and related work for over 43 years for law firms and a government agency in NY City. One of the most common ways for small firms and individual lawyers to get suspended was improper handling of client trust accounts. Often those attorneys who got into trouble had drug, alcohol or gambling addictions, in divorce proceedings, had made bad financial investments or just lived too high of a lifestyle. Hopefully CA and other states have updated their regulations on client trust accounts and caught up with their disciplinary proceedings from the pandemic shutdowns.
The way my state dealt finding out notaries had died was by instituting an annual report. Now, notaries have to register every year and pay 25 bucks. If they don't they are suspended and eventually lose their commission.
My friend is notary and she has to renew it as well. I guess I just assumed that’s how it it everywhere.
@@kellidinit3725 In my state the commission is for life, so before this there were notaries listed as active from the 1800's. No one bothered to tell the state they were DEAD.
When I was a notary, it was a four-year appointment. During my single appointment, they quit requiring a notary for car titles, so I just let it lapse since 90% of the reason I got it just went away.
As a tax accountant with several attorney clients, I bet a lot just left it. They’re the worst group for getting me their tax info at the last minute before the extended deadline.
I've had that problem where I deposited a check, waited for it to clear and show as available funds in my account, but the bank bounced a check I wrote on those funds. Their response was 'oh, gee sorry, it wasn't cleared yet' even though it showed cleared in my account. So yeah, I can empathize with folks that have that happen in a more high-stakes situation like an attorney writing checks to his clients.
Banks today need to have audits for the same reason...they abuse customers just as much as any other crap run business.
Client trust accounts need to be everywhere. It’s just practice in such a business. It’s also called a paper trail. Big guys ask where it all went it’s all on paper..
Two of my high school friends (married couple) are practicing attorneys in South Carolina. The last time I saw them they told me of a scandal involving their law firm. Seems as though one of their partners conspired with three bank officers to loot escrow accounts of clients. All four committed suicide after their sceme was discovered...
Another attorney I knew was an aviation enthusiast who once co authored a book on the P-61. He was suspected of stealing original source material from the Smithsonian. The man also claimed in person to be a General in the Air Force Reserve, but investigation by OSI showed he had only been an aviation cadet who failed the course...
In the early 1990's he was found to be committing to same crime(s) as the above. When the police came to his door with a warrant for his arrest he shot himself...
I have heard the Smithsonian referred to as Charlatan's Web.
At least they had the honesty to take themselves out instead of dragging out the case .
A Judge accepting vacations from individuals who have business in front of the Courts is evidently an epidemic.
Thank you. Nice to hear things are tightening up. That's what happened with Murdaugh, too, and they had no idea he was doing that. The whole firm was hurt.
It would be nice to get notified when that trial begins. I hope someone covers it.
Florida recently found someone was using the Official Stamp of an engineer who had been deceased for years. His stamp was showing up on properties for their xx year REQUIRED certification so the buildings could be considered safe & habitable. All of these LICENCING professions & their state agencies MUST DO BETTER!
I have had interactions with four attorneys in my life. Three were some of the best people I met, great honest, understanding people who cared about right and wrong and other people. A fourth I knew was extremely self serving and stayed hammered drunk after 5:00 pm each day. He was good during the day at making money for himself and doing what he had to do. He batted about five hundred in the cases he took and charged a ton of money, almost to much but he sold the sizzle and could brag nonstop for hours. His after 5:00 good drinking buddies were judges, other attorneys and high ranking police officers, fire fighters and city officials. Sounds a bit like the attorney in the story but not crooked like him. The attorney I knew just stacked the deck in his own favor. He bought a few drinks for the right people and took care of number one, himself, first. I just didn’t like what I saw about the guy. If you saw what I saw, he wasn’t giving attorneys a good name. He may have over charged and won a few cases with his personality but I don’t think he would outright steal anyone’s money.
I don't watch all of Steve's videos, but when they have a positive title, like this one, I just can't pass them up.
😂😂
reminds me of the lawyer joke punchline, " a good start."
"Keep a small amount for himself", yeah right. They usually get half the award.
California only suspended attorneys that didn't give the state a kickback. "Paperwork" cold hard cash.
Presidential flash cards....
You mean the state or the state bar association?
Anyways, taking about half as a percentage should only be on contingency contracts where the client pays nothing if loosing the case . Otherwise the lawyers cut should match an itemized bill for work done (which can still be inflated) .
Funny story - I have a friend who is a California attorney. Several years ago he was paying his personal household bills. He ran out of blank checks in his check book so he grabbed another pack of blank checks from the desk drawer. Unfortunately, his household checks and his trust account checks were the same color and he did not look closely at them. You guessed it, he attempted to pay gas, water, electricity etc, bills with trust account checks. He mostly handled criminal cases and did not need a trust account for these. But he took on one personal injury case and it settled. The money had already been properly distributed and the only money left in the trust account was what the bank required to open the account and was the property of the attorney, a state bar approved procedure. Of course all of these checks bounced and he received the ugly letter. He was able to satisfactorily explain the mistake, but it was a pain in the neck.
Four years of college and I wind up working for 26 years, 6 days a week, at dad's cabinet shop in a plush suburb of Chicago, restoring antiques and stuff, and continuing dad's shop after he closed his, I kept his little sign he kept by the door..."YOUR CHECK IS IN THE MAIL", now by my door, and, I do take checks, on blue moons only!
NO LAWYER Should EVER get their hands on monies owed to a client...2 cheques can be made out,,1 for the client and 1 for the lawyer....how difficult can that be?
"I was so busy recovering money for my clients that I didn't have time to comply with the trust fund rules."
How about the ones that would say "I hold no money in trust for clients, if I ever do, I will set up such an account"
There are SOME BAD PEOPLE that are lawyers. It is not the profession, but the person....
Actually, it was a buddy of mine who is a practicing attorney that said "90% of lawyers give the rest a bad name."
There are evil awful people in every profession.
this just reminds me of a great Quote "IF you don't Die as a Hero, you live long enough to become a Villain" perfectly suits this Gerady guy.
The house in Miami surrounded by the condos built by the crafty developer; is now being hounded by the developer calling code enforcement who has issued a daily fine. This homeowner should be left alone.
Self assessment ? Just like police investigating it self.
And the F B I
his wife Erika: "oh my god Thomas!!! you have been SCAMMING PEOPLE? this is too much i'm going to have to divorce you. don't mind the fact that my divorce attorney is 30 years old and chiseled like a Greek statue and hung like a horse. or the fact that we meet 3 times a week. it's because i can't take the LIES"
Why isn't the state bar sued since they were also the ones who failed to act and investigate?
This reminds me of the classic old joke "What do you call a bus full of lawyers at the bottom of a lake?" "A good start" :D
I made the same faux pas with that joke, and found out later Steve hate that joke.
During a disability hearing, the judge requested more records from my attorney, it wasn't until it was too late that I discovered my attorney never complied and in such, the judge decided that since the records were never sent that I must not have been seeing any doctors and my case was decided against me. Six years of fighting down the drain even though it was my doctor who recommended I apply due to health and physical issues.
That 1600 CA attorneys shorted their clients is surprising to no one.
The surprise is that ONLY 1600 are doing it. So far.
A man was annoyed with some lawyers in his town.
He took out a full page ad in the newspaper. It read, "Half of the lawyers in this town are crooked".
The lawyers weren't going to allow that so they approached the judge and implored him to haul the man in for defamation and insist he print a retraction.
The man stood before the judge and was given the choice of paying for a retraction or face law suits that could add up to millions. He agreed to pay for a retraction.
The next day a full page ad in the paper boldly stated, "Half the lawyers in this town are NOT crooked".
I have learned many things listening to you Steve.. Thank you for that. You do a service to your industry informing people what to expect before it gets to that phone call.. Bravo Sir! And a Mopar fan too.. I saw those videos as well.. That turbine car was a peach..
You are a great human being my friend. Well done.
When people die, they are buried 6 ft under. When a lawyer dies, they bury them twice as deep. That's because, deep down, they're nice people.
Your profesion and the system is overrun with so much corruption, especially in California, i's outrageous and sickening.
It's awesome to see people actually getting busted for their crimes. Of course, they've gotten away with crimes they'll never have to pay for. Suspended, a slap on the wrist for lining there pockets on top of charging their clients $400 an hpur.
Greed is contagious. Thank you for explaining this.
All currency is digital these days, and has been for over a decade. Any bank that tells you they have to sit on a check in order to wait for it to clear is not only lying, they are skimming interest and investment profit off the top. It's your money. These villains need to go to prison if they can't present it to you in 0.2 seconds
This right here. If somebody charges my debit card it's immediate. But if i deposit a check, i have to wait? Same with credit cards, if i dispute a fraudulent charge, it takes weeks to get my money back. But only instants for a miscreant to steal my money.
Yep 3 cents interest on 300 million adds up every 3 or 4 days.
I deposited a personal check from out of state, and it only took a couple days for it to clear. But if we'd done Venmo or something, it would have been instant.
I'm going back to court to report an Assistant DA has lied to the court about me in my mothers trust. Missing funds, bonds undeclared, hiding papers from my attorney.
The Federal Government has rules regarding the amount of time a bank has to "clear" a deposited check. The times vary by type of check and if it's local or not. But I have encountered numerous instances where a bank sits on a check longer than allowed before it clears.
It won’t matter now that we have Fednow. Instant payments in and out now. I
Steve, I saw one of those Housewives shows that my daughter had on. Girardi's wife spent the whole show whining about how the courts want to take away her diamonds and all this stuff. It was just crazy!
A century or 2 younger than him 😂. You got me with that one
The CA Bar ignored so many complaints about G, seems to be an over correction.
Is there a list of these attorneys?
"Erin Brokovich" is gonna need a sequel.
In the world of niche and small publishers, it is staggering how lax standards are. I have a handful of bank accounts (I also have a not for profit association I help run) and it is incredibly easy to maintain accounting. Meanwhile I know tons of artists and writers who are surprised I send funds from a business account (nowadays they often know because the email is different), because they are used to quick transfers from people's personal accounts.
Thank you for your good reporting. I look forward to watching more shows.
I'm sure this caused a lot of "Good start" jokes.
1600 California lawyers??? what are they going to do with the two blocks of Encino business office space?
hahaha
or a swath in Century City
If you're an attorney and the state wants to check if you're dead, the place to call to verify that is... Hell 😈😈 😄
They don't answer .
@@johndododoe1411 No, the voicemail box is full.
In Cali, an attorney should be required to send a legal affidavit that they have died within 30 days.
What do you call 1600 attorneys at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start
Found out after making the same joke here, that Steve hate it and doesnt think its funny. He probably won't see it, just a heads up.
As always, another great video. The lawyer mentioned, may have had something to do with the Erin Brockovich movie, but the law firm that she was with was Masry and Vititoe, owned and run by Ed Masry and Jim Vititoe, both of whom were outstanding in their fields of practice.
What if the Police did a Civil Asset Forfeiture on some or all of the money?
Boy would that be strange. Police doing honest work .
We need a good house cleaning of lawyers nationally,!
Since when is 35 or 40% a "small slice"? However, you did redeem yourself Steve with the "century or two younger" comment. 🤣 Love your channel and keep up the good work.
I thought he was describing part of the plot of Citizen Kane. Way younger, voice lessons needed but don't work.
It's now 50% when at trial !
I thought the same. Small slice, lol.
Would love to get the dependent administrator in Houston to finalize probate. Aug will be 4 years. (All assets have been sold)
Judges being influenced by money? That couldn't happen in any court, even the Supreme Court.
Wow, it only took 30 years for the California Bar to get it's act half-ass in order. What a joke.
If he married someone a "century or two younger than him" he is strong evidence of an alien life form.
Nah, some humans in the Bible etc. lived longer .
DOWNFALL: From lawyer to criminal embezzlers. Lock them Up!
It's a good start. But did the State Bar do this because they didn't get their cut of the money?
and they couldn't hide it anymore.
Yep.
1. No, it's because they dropped the ball on Tom Girardi and are now reviewing other things they haven't been doing a good job of overseeing.
2. I'm not aware the State Bar gets a cut of anything when you open a trust account. Even if they get paid a processing fee, it's a one-time fee for processing the paperwork you send to report the creation of the trust account; can't imagine it would be much of a fee.
@@addanametocontinue Tom Girardi got away with stealing from clients for decades, and the CA Bar didn't care. When the money in the Lion Air case was being discussed and the other law firm asked questions of the CA Bar they were threatened to shut up by the CA Bar, or every lawyer they employed who was licenced in California would be investigated. The other law firm is based in Chicago, and was the local lawyers for the case.
Someone / multiple people needed to be on the take.
@@addanametocontinue The difference between a fee and a cut, or bribe is the amount of money involved. Cuts or bribes are less expensive.
Until the lawyers get CAUGHT then they will act!
"A century or two younger than him" LOL
Good looks are overrated when looking for a romantic partner. Most women can see beyond appearances and see the true beauty of what's inside your bank account.
😂😂😂😂
"I've been to Nice/and the isle of Greece".
Great. Now I've got that song stuck in my head.
Thanks a lot for that
But has he sipped champagne on a yacht?
I was scrolling the comments to see if anyone else caught the song reference! Good job. :)
There are an awful lot of Attorneys. Just how difficult is it to become an Attorney. Can I become an Attorney with online courses? Anyways, love the show and your general analysis of things. Cheers
You just need to pass tbe bar exam
There are crooks in every profession. Unfortunately when it happens with an attorney people are hesitant to go after him or her for obvious reasons. Thanks for a very informative channel. Respectfully
Ben abandoning the short mike for a sky diving experience.
In Florida the State Bar has full oversight of the Trust accounts.... When I had a Trust Account I followed all the requirements of the Bar... Which requires to wait 10 days after depositing a settlement check before writing a check to a client and or third party providers... Such as doctors and or experts. Thank God I never had an issue with the trust account in those 12 years I had the account.
My attorney i paid $3k to defend my color of law case, he has been trying to throw me under the bus through the whole case which he has been involved in for 2yrs now.
File a ARDC complaint against him.
You should complain to the judge if that is the case and you have documentation that he has been trying to do that.
What the heck is a color of law case? Sounds like a "no case" which the attorney decided sucked.
@@DavidS94938
😂😂😂
In California, you have to register every year (and pay fees). If you are dead you are disenrolled for non payment by July 1. So i dont understand the concept that attorneys are still active when they are dead.
A coworker of mine asked me what she should do about a rent dispute. She told me she was not paying her rent. I told her to set the rent money aside just in case she has to pay it later... she did not, and she lost the dispute. She then asked me to lend her money to pay the back rent. LOL huh No!
Good man!
Hopefully all the corrupt officials protecting him get caught up in the trial and removed from office.
Only 1,600? !6 Thousand should be more like it!
Co-mingling of client funds; I had an attorney for a Fed-X accident; he tried to steal my money; CalBAR suspended him.
Califonia has gotten LAX about a lot of things. The state is a mess.
Anyone who's a member of the Federalist Society needs to be disbarred too!
Time to investigate all the attorneys if they doing their job right !
I injoy what you are doing with explaining the law and the truth about how the law is supposed to work. Good job! Keep up the good work.