| ► Ohio Lawyer Weekly – 11/11/01 – Judicial watchdog’s site closed down by judge |
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Ohio Lawyer Weekly – Nov 11, 2001 – Judicial watchdog’s site closed down by judge
Judicial Watchdog's Site Closed Down By Judge
Reporting Of Attorney Disbarment At Issue
By J.P. Finet – Ohio Lawyers Weekly
David Palmer's controversial Web site aimed at exposing dishonest and incompetent attorneys and judges was recently ordered offline by a California judge, but the Ohio judicial watchdog said he will not be silenced.
While Palmer has gained notoriety among Ohio lawyers for his one-man fight against what he perceives to be corruption in the state's judiciary, his Web site was ordered offline by an Orange County judge for reporting on the California bar's suspension of an attorney. The attorney, Ronald Lais, claimed Palmer had defamed him and limited his ability to attract clients via the Internet.
"However, this lawyer was disbarred two years ago and was arrested in November and was charged with five felony counts for practicing law without a license," Palmer said. "He claimed I was defaming him and that the Web site was causing him financial harm. Well, you can't have financial harm when you don't have the legal right to practice."
Ironically, the same story was reported on numerous other Web sites, including that of the Orange County Register, yet Palmer noted that the judge did not order them offline. He added that the American Civil Liberties Union is currently looking into whether the judge limited his free speech rights.
Palmer vowed to continue fighting for his site even if the ACLU does not get behind him, but said he does not have the financial resources to fight a court battle in California by himself.
One reason Palmer believes his site may have been singled out for closure was that it was set up so that entering "Ronald Lais" into a search engine would generate the story of his disbarment on amoralethics.com as well as those associated with Lais's practice.
After the judge ordered his Web site shut down in November, Palmer said he moved the site to another host, but two weeks ago Lais used the court order to shut down the second site as well.
No Stranger To Controversy
Palmer first entered the public eye two years ago when he filed a complaint citing more than 50 counts of alleged theft in office by nine visiting judges. He dropped the charges after being promised that he could work with the Franklin County prosecutor's office and have full access to the judges' billing records at the Supreme Court of Ohio.
Before Palmer agreed to drop the charges, eight visiting judges repaid more than $7,000 they had received as stipends. He said he is continuing to investigate whether any visiting judges overbilled or double-billed the state.
In 2001, Palmer filed a complaint against Ohio Supreme Court Justice Deborah L. Cook that alleged she filed improper travel expenses in commuting between her Akron home and Columbus. The complaint was dismissed after the Supreme Court's administrative director acknowledged he approved payment for the expenses she incurred in commuting from her Akron office.
One-Man Crusade
Palmer, 57, operates as spokesman and staff for the Committee to Expose Dishonest and Incompetent Attorneys and Judges, which he has operated out of his daughter's Delaware County condominium. He recently moved to Delaware County from Maumee.
A retired former owner of a retail import business, Palmer said he gained his first experience with the legal system while in the Army. He said he served as a transcriptionist and performed many of the duties of a paralegal during his three-year stint in the armed forces.
After leaving the Army, Palmer said he took little interest in legal matters until his wife was severely injured in a 1987 Michigan automobile accident. He said a dispute arose as to how much of the benefits their insurer paid out to her should go to the attorneys, a matter which is still being litigated.
It was after litigating the issue of attorneys fees that Palmer said he first began investigating visiting judges. He said he was dissatisfied with the rulings made by the retired visiting judge.
"At the time, I didn't know what a retired visiting judge was, so I started by finding that out," Palmer said. "The first thing I did was order this judge's assignments, then I started looking at other judges and collecting payroll records. Now, it's ballooned to the point where I have the financial records of every retired and elected judge, appellate judge, Supreme Court justice and magistrate in the state of Ohio."
In addition to looking at judges, Palmer said he has been looking into the manner in which Ohio disciplines attorneys. He said that in 1994, he testified before an Ohio State Bar Association committee to review the state's disciplinary process for attorneys.
Palmer said he conducted a study of the disciplinary statistics for attorneys from all 50 states and the District of Columbia after it became clear the committee was ignoring his recommendations. He said the study showed Ohio ranked last in the nation in terms of attorneys disciplined.
"I don't profess or claim that every attorney or every judge is dishonest or incompetent," Palmer explained. "It's ridiculous to use that wide a brush, but there are more problems than [the disciplinary record shows]. For example, statistics in Ohio tell us, historically, if you want to find one incompetent or dishonest attorney, you have to put 600 of them in a room. That's ridiculous because I can find more than 1 out of 600 incompetent or unethical engineers, journalists or whatever profession."
Action Through Shame
When asked why he filed complaints of misconduct against members of the judiciary, Palmer explained that he was attempting to shame them into cleaning up their misconduct before they lose the public's trust.
"I tell people that if you don't clean up your act, you're going to be begging people to come in and do it for you," he said. "And when people do it for you, whether it be the Legislature or whatever, you usually don't like what you get."
Palmer said he believes many of the current ethical problems with Ohio's lawyers and judges relate to greed on their part. He added that the U.S. Supreme Court made a mistake when it allowed attorneys to begin advertising in 1994, paving the way for ads like those in Michigan that feature an attorney with a machine gun talking about shooting down insurance adjusters.
"If they portray greed in their ads then they are instilling it into the person they represent," Palmer said. "It's just a snowball effect that eliminates a lot of people's ability to get justice or it leaves a bad taste in their mouths."
Helping Others
In addition to serving as an ethical watchdog for Ohio's judiciary, Palmer said he also works to help others who believe they were wronged by the judicial system. He said he regularly receives calls from people seeking his assistance in either filing complaints or publicizing their cause.
One of the things Palmer said he passes along to those he works with is how to present information to the media in an easily-understood manner. He said most people who are seeking to publicize the fact they were wronged by a judge or attorney simply don't know where to start.
"Fifteen years ago, I was just as bad [as those who seek my help]," he said. "I'd grab a reporter and say, 'Look at this big box of stuff I've got,' No reporter has the time for that. So now I summarize the facts and don't give them to reporters until I know we have a good story they are interested in hearing."
In fact, it was the proffer of such assistance on his Web site which led to his hearing before the Board of Commissioners on the Unauthorized Practice of Law in 2001.
A complaint was filed with the board that Palmer was holding himself out as an attorney due to a link on amoralethics.com entitled "Free Legal Advice." The link proffered visitors advice on how to file complaints against attorneys and judges they believed to be dishonest.
Palmer said the disciplinary counsel could not find any evidence that somebody accessed his site believing him to be an attorney. The board also investigated allegations Palmer had represented himself as an attorney in a 1988 Appeals Court filing.
Palmer said he views the allegations that he engaged in the unauthorized practice of law as retaliation for the complaints he has filed against members of Ohio's judiciary.
"I think it's pretty safe to assume that the powers that be don't want to be the first cherry to fall from the tree and be the first to face criminal charges," he explained. "Because, once you make a finding that a judge engaged in misconduct, then it has to apply to every one of them that has done the same thing. ... Obviously, this was an attack on the messenger."
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