New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman establishes yet another double standard in occupational licensing in New York: unlicensed dentists (with diplomas from Russian medical schools) are a danger to consumers, no matter whether their work was good or bad

Recently, New York State Attorney General has "won" a case, establishing "lawfulness" of discrimination against out-of-state attorneys licensed in New York, which restricted diversity of providers and helped keep prices for legal services for in-state attorneys high for the consumers - which, no doubt, hurt consumers, and further "won" that case on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, after his assistant, under the guise of a law professor of the Albany Law School, had an opportunity to privately talk with a U.S. Supreme Court justice while providing an "award" and a freebie all expenses trip for her in the beginning of April this year - see reports that #SonyaSotomayor "privately" met with faculty of Albany Law School, see also that Eric Schneiderman's Assistant Attorney General Kent Sprotbery is part of that faculty.

Sonya Sotomayor did not recuse from deciding whether to grant or deny certiorari to Eric Schneiderman whose assistant may have privately met with her as member of the faculty of the Albany Law School after she was granted by that school an all-expenses-paid trip and an award.

That discrimination was further deepened by a state #judgeShirleyKornrich who further expanded the definition of what the physical office required of out-of-state attorneys should mean, and struck pleadings as filed by an out-of-state attorney without a REAL physical office.

After "winning" that case, obviously through corruption, New York Attorney General has announced that he is now protecting New Yorkers, and federal taxpayers, from a huge threat - from unlicensed dentists working under the supervision of two licensed dentists.

And, New York AG claims that criminal prosecution of those scoundrels is required because they allegedly defrauded Medicaid by billing for work of unlicensed dentists - who allegedly did various dentist procedures, including drilling and filling of cavities.

Here is the NY AG press release.

Of course, based on the press release, anybody who dons a medical scrub and looks into another person's mouth can be accused of a felony, unlicensed practice of dentistry.

And, what the ardent protector of the public the New York State AG (who habitually defends public officials sued for violations of New Yorkers' constitutional rights, but that's ok, that does not contradict the AG's stance as a human rights and public safety protector) does not disclose to the public is:

• whether those unlicensed dentists, not licensed in the State of New York, but obviously having medical diplomas from Russia and Uzbekistan (where qualifications of dentists are not lower than in this country) actually provided good quality of services, and whether they did any harm to any consumers of their services - and that is the key to the question whether Medicaid was defrauded.

That's the question No. 1.

The question No. 2 is - why the double standard?

New York courts have regularly granted to other professions a right to bill for unlicensed services and upheld validity of contracts with unlicensed professionals.

Here are examples.

In 2014, Judge Kevin Dowd of Chenango County Supreme Court, granted attorney fees for unsupervised drafting by an unlicensed paralegal.  Judge Dowd claimed that the challenge to such a practice as unlawful unauthorized practice of law, invalidating the claim of fees, is "mind-boggling", because, according to the judge who testified at that hearing as an unsworn witness for the plaintiffs asking for attorney fees for services of the unlicensed paralegal, "it was always done this way".  The case is Mokay v Mokay, Delaware County Index No. 695-2007, the decision is dated June 23, 2014.

Even earlier than that, in 2008, the same Judge Kevin Dowd granted a summary judgment enforcing a contract that was void TWICE because:

1. it was drafted by an unlicensed real estate firm; and because
2. it was not drafted by a licensed attorney, thus constituting unauthorized practice of law.

The case was Gjonaj v Sines, it was upheld on appeal by the 3rd Department in 2010.

Moreover, when the unlicensed real estate firm sued the consumer - and her attorney - for not paying the real estate fee while there was no proof that the real estate firm, and its broker, were licensed at the time of drafting and enforcing the contract, and while the real estate firm adamantly refused to provide the original of the license in discovery - while the Department of State no longer had such information because of its retention policy - Judge Dowd refused to dismiss the lawsuit and allowed it to proceed into eternity, literally, until the consumer under the void contract, the elderly homeowner whom Judge Dowd stripped of her home, Beverly Sines, died.

The name of the case is Demeree Realty v Sines.  I wrote about this case regarding Judge Dowd's patterns of recusal-reentry-retaliation against me.  Obviously, for pointing out Judge Dowd's complete lack of competency.

Actually, since the real property in question was worth close to a million dollars while Beverly Sines was forced, through a void contract, to sell it for 1/3 of its price to a real estate broker from New York City, and because the Mokay case was utterly illegal, yet, Judge Dowd, a subpoenaed witness in the Mokay trial, 

• through his law clerk, also a subpoenaed witness at the trial, threatened to arrest me and force me to appear in court despite medical leave based on injury;
• dismissed the jury;
• quashed his own subpoena;
• held a closed-door trial instead of adjournment because of documented medical leave of defendant's counsel,
• accepted evidence by boxes without looking at them, then
• blocked access to that already admitted evidence by the appellant, see also here;
• gave away that evidence before the appeal was complete and thus 
• helped the Appellate Division to dismiss the Mokay appeal without review on the merits because the appellant - naturally - could not provide a complete record on appeal because he was not allowed to see a large portion of the record and because Dowd caused that portion of the record to disappear from the court custody -

and because the judgment in question that Dowd "awarded" was over $300,000, including attorney fees for ex parte communications of Plaintiffs' counsel with Dowd and his law clerk, - I have a funny feeling that Dowd is not simply dirty, but very dirty, and that he received kickbacks from the "winning" parties in both cases.

Yet, whether Judge Dowd is not or is not a dirty judge, the fact remains that there are THREE cases in New York that I know of from personal experience where the fee by:

• an unlicensed paralegal billed by a lawyer who did not supervise the paralegal's drafting of legal pleadings; and

the real estate contract drafted by

• individuals who had no law license and no real estate license

were upheld by THREE state courts:

• Chenango County Supreme Court, Gjonaj v Sines and Demeree Realty, #JudgeKevinDowd;
• NYS Supreme Court, Appellate Division 3rd Judicial Department, Gjonaj v Sines;
• Delaware County Supreme Court, Mokay v Mokay, Judge Kevin Dowd.

So, New York courts allow contracts by unlicensed professionals to be enforced - if that is so, and that is so, there are court decisions as described above, how can New York then criminally charge some unlicensed professionals, but not others, for fraud for billing for their services?

Why licensed dentists billing for services of unlicensed dentists are chargeable with fraud while an attorney (and son of a judge, Richard Harlem) is not chargeable with fraud and aiding and abetting unauthorized practice of law while charging a legal fee for unsupervised drafting/legal services of an unlicensed paralegal?

So, if NY AG wants to be consistent now, does he want to charge Richard Harlem with fraud? 

But, there yet is a THIRD question - stripping unlicensed professionals of their fee for GOOD services (and we do not know whether their services were good or not, the press release does not say anything about that) may be unconscionable unjust enrichment - and some courts did hold that denying a fee to an unlicensed individual who provided a valuable service simply because he is unlicensed, is unjust enrichment, and that regulation of professions do not operate to protect a consumer from his obligation to pay for a good service.

For example, in 1973, a California court granted recovery of fees to an unlicensed contractor by saying:

"It performed in all other respects competently and without injury to any person ... We are not involved in aiding an incompetent or dishonest artisan.  ... The defendant received full value under the terms of the contract. The licensing law should not be used as a shield for the avoidance of a just obligation", see

Vitek, Inc., v. Alvarado Ice Palace, Inc., 34 Cal. App. 3d 586, 110 Cal. Rptr. 86, 92 (1973).

So, here are the questions, again:

1. Did the unlicensed dentists - and the two licensed dentists in whose office they allegedly worked - actually provided good services to the public?  At affordable prices?  Thus protecting public health where their clients would otherwise have gone without any dental care?
2. Does New York have a right to create double standards in occupational licensing, not prosecuting and even endorsing unlicensed paralegals and their employers, licensed attorneys, for engaging in unauthorized practice of law (as demonstrated in the Mokay v Mokay case), and endorsing unauthorized practice of law and unauthorized practice of real estate profession, as demonstrated in Gjonaj v Sines and Demeree Realty v Sines cases - but somehow deciding to prosecute unlicensed dentists working under the umbrella of licensed dentists - the very same thing as the unlicensed paralegal did, practicing law under the umbrella of licensed attorney and son of a judge #RichardHarlem, of Oneonta, NY, who charged LEGAL fees for unsupervised drafting of an unlicensed paralegal?
3. And, is the unlicensed dentists criminal case actually a good case for jury nullification?