| ► Columbus Dispatch – 06/22/02 – Man who fought Web site on ethics faces five felonies |
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Columbus Dispatch – June 22, 2002 – Man who fought Web site on ethics faces five felonies Jon Craig
Dispatch Statehouse Reporter
The California resident has been charged with practicing law without a license
For judicial watchdog David Palmer of Powell, there is a Santa Claus.
Palmer’s Web site that blasted unethical lawyers and judges was shut down last October. But last week, the former California lawyer who got a court injunction to unplug Palmer’s sit was arrested.
Ronald E. Lais, 59, of Anaheim, California, was charged with five felony counts of practicing law without a license. He works as a child-custody consultant with offices in Santa Ana.
Lais could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Lais has been suspended twice since 1999 by the State Bar of California. He resigned his law license in March 2000 with charges pending against him in eight separate cases.
In a permanent injunction filed Oct. 29, Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco F. Firmat ordered that the Web site sponsored by Palmer be “disassociated and disconnected from all Internet search engines, indexes and providers.”
Palmer used the site to list grievances about lawyers and judges.
“I sent (Lais) an e-mail congratulating him,” Palmer said yesterday.
Lais’ stationery identifies him as an “international attorney…not licensed to practice in the U.S.”
However, the California Bar Journal says Lais was suspended from practicing law for two years in December 2000.
Las has said he’s licensed to practice in India. He briefly represented the parents of Nicole Simpson in their custody fight with O.J. Simpson.
“He continued to practice law while he was suspended and after he resigned,” Orange County Deputy District Attorney Ray Armstrong told The Orange County Register. “His advertising on the Internet is tantamount to his placing an ad on the lawyers page in the Yellow Pages.”
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