The State Bar of California: Really?

Four years ago this Thanksgiving, a careless, speeding and inattentive driver, Tricia Ann Ortega, smashed into our car on an Orange County freeway. She was cruising along at about 80 mph and impacted us at about 70-75 mph. Our car was at less than half that speed in the process of slowing to a stop. I sustained life altering injuries.

Tricia's auto insurance company, Infinity Insurance, has in its employ the small law firm of Francine Kelly & Associates, of Cerritos, CA, who then assigned this matter to their in-house attorney, Sara F Young (State Bar 136681).

In the legal processes that followed, both my attorneys at the time, Barry Drucker & Jason Pollack, and Infinity Insurance employee attorney Sara Young, engaged in some very unethical and illegal practices, which were of adverse affect to me and to the benefit of Tricia Ann Ortega.

The illegal practices included acts of fraud, forgery, perjury under oath, subornation of perjury, collusion to hide assets and just plain old lying. You know the kind, blatantly not telling the truth. They didn't just do this to me, they did it in court, specifically to Judge Lisa Hart Cole.

These lawyers, Sara Young, Barry Drucker & Jason Pollack, perpetrated a whammy on that judge by fast pitching her a legal brief filled with evidence of their illegal acts and Judge Lisa Hart Cole closed her eyes on the law and let them do it (see: previous posts; Motions Smotions and Incompetence Rules the Day).

In August 2010 I submitted a complaint to the State Bar of California as to lawyer Sara Young setting forth the misconduct as to fraud, forgery, perjury under oath, subornation of perjury, and collusion. You can find that here:Three Declarations.

The criteria set by the California State Bar to investigate an attorney for wrong doing has nothing to do with the law, and everything to do with The State Bar Act and the Rules of Professional Conduct. If the attorney has violated either or both of these, based on the information presented and further independent investigation by the State Bar, then disciplinary action and/or prosecution is levied against the offending attorney. In this case, that offending attorney is Sara Young.

After 4 months I received a response from the State Bar of California, dated November 19, 2010. According to Complaint Analyst V. Escobar of the State Bar of California, attorney Sara Young did not violate the State Bar Act and/or the Rules of professional Conduct, or the law, in her blatant and proven acts of fraud, forgery, perjury under oath, subornation of perjury, and collusion to hide assets. The State Bar has determined that "No disciplinary action is warranted at this time."
They instead are playing the game Pass the Buck.

Complaint Analyst V. Escobar of the State Bar of California invited me to take this matter to the Civil court ("If the court makes a determination that the attorney engaged in misconduct, you may provide The State Bar with a copy of the ruling for consideration.") and to the California Supreme Court ("The Office of the Chief Trial Counsel will only reopen its file in this matter if the California Supreme Court issues an order granting your request.")

Essentially, the State Bar is showing that they are a powerless, lame duck organization, who cannot and will not cull their own herd unless told to by a higher legal authority, even in the face of clear and convincing evidence. And of course, if the Judge in the Civil State Court did nothing and let this matter slide, which she did, and the California State Bar did nothing, as they have just shown, then what, exactly, do you think the Supreme Court of California will do?

While I did do my best to bring this unethical and illegal conduct to the attention of the the court (see Motion to Contest), and more recently to the State Bar of California (see Three Declarations), both California Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole, and now Chief Trial Counsel of the State Bar of California, James E. Towery, have demonstrated through their documented complicity that the illegal misconduct and unethical behavior of attorney Sara F Young, as well as that of attorney's Barry Drucker & Jason Pollack, is perfectly okay, professionally and legally acceptable, and not punishable under the law.

Isn't it nice to know that lawyers are above the law, but you aren't?

The organizations and people put in place to deal with these types of matters clearly don't.

NOTE: Infinity Insurance Litigation Specialist Tamara Sharpe was informed early on of the illegal actions of her employee Sara Young and represented that Infinity Insurance condones this illegal behavior by their attorney as acceptable.