THE EVOLUTION OF JUDICIAL TYRANNY IN THE UNITED STATES:

"If the judges interpret the laws themselves, and suffer none else to interpret, they may easily make, of the laws, [a shredded] shipman's hose!" - King James I of England, around 1616.

“No class of the community ought to be allowed freer scope in the expression or publication of opinions as to the capacity, impartiality or integrity of judges than members of the bar. They have the best opportunities of observing and forming a correct judgment. They are in constant attendance on the courts. Hundreds of those who are called on to vote never enter a court-house, or if they do, it is only at intervals as jurors, witnesses or parties. To say that an attorney can only act or speak on this subject under liability to be called to account and to be deprived of his profession and livelihood by the very judge or judges whom he may consider it his duty to attack and expose, is a position too monstrous to be entertained for a moment under our present system,” Justice Sharwood in Ex Parte Steinman and Hensel, 95 Pa 220, 238-39 (1880).

“This case illustrates to me the serious consequences to the Bar itself of not affording the full protections of the First Amendment to its applicants for admission. For this record shows that [the rejected attorney candidate] has many of the qualities that are needed in the American Bar. It shows not only that [the rejected attorney candidate] has followed a high moral, ethical and patriotic course in all of the activities of his life, but also that he combines these more common virtues with the uncommon virtue of courage to stand by his principles at any cost.

It is such men as these who have most greatly honored the profession of the law. The legal profession will lose much of its nobility and its glory if it is not constantly replenished with lawyers like these. To force the Bar to become a group of thoroughly orthodox, time-serving, government-fearing individuals is to humiliate and degrade it.” In Re Anastaplo, 18 Ill. 2d 182, 163 N.E.2d 429 (1959), cert. granted, 362 U.S. 968 (1960), affirmed over strong dissent, 366 U.S. 82 (1961), Justice Black, Chief Justice Douglas and Justice Brennan, dissenting.

" I do not believe that the practice of law is a "privilege" which empowers Government to deny lawyers their constitutional rights. The mere fact that a lawyer has important responsibilities in society does not require or even permit the State to deprive him of those protections of freedom set out in the Bill of Rights for the precise purpose of insuring the independence of the individual against the Government and those acting for the Government”. Lathrop v Donohue, 367 US 820 (1961), Justice Black, dissenting.

"The legal profession must take great care not to emulate the many occupational groups that have managed to convert licensure from a sharp weapon of public defense into blunt instrument of self-enrichment". Walter Gellhorn, "The Abuse of Occupational Licensing", University of Chicago Law Review, Volume 44 Issue 1, September of 1976.

“Because the law requires that judges no matter how corrupt, who do not act in the clear absence of jurisdiction while performing a judicial act, are immune from suit, former Judge Ciavarella will escape liability for the vast majority of his conduct in this action. This is, to be sure, against the popular will, but it is the very oath which he is alleged to have so indecently, cavalierly, baselessly and willfully violated for personal gain that requires this Court to find him immune from suit”, District Judge A. Richard Caputo in H.T., et al, v. Ciavarella, Jr, et al, Case No. 3:09-cv-00286-ARC in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Document 336, page 18, November 20, 2009. This is about judges who were sentencing kids to juvenile detention for kickbacks.


Saturday, May 14, 2016

To consumers of legal services: when you are told by the government that you must choose your court representative from licensed professionals because they are better trained, you may be duped. The list of law professors working for a bar-prep monopolist.

Yesterday, I wrote about a class action against the bar-prep course BarBri, owned by West Publications Corp.

The federal lawsuit (the complaint is included in full here), as it was in the previous blog, contained allegations as to how BarBri uses law school professors to promote its monopoly:





I obtained names of professors who teach for BarBri from BarBri's own online advertisements, and then grouped them by states and by schools.

Here are the lists.

From BarBri advertisements of faculty, here and here, I counted 


  • 54 professors from 
  • 18 jurisdictions and 
  • 38 law schools:


The 18 jurisdictions where BarBri hired law professors for its bar-prep courses (let's note that BarBri did not hire professors evenly from all 50 states):


  1. California
  2. Connecticut
  3. Delaware
  4. Florida
  5. Georgia
  6. Illinois
  7. Maryland
  8. Massachusets 
  9. Minnesota
  10. New  York
  11. New Jersey
  12. North Carolina
  13. Ohio
  14. Pennsylvania
  15. Texas
  16. Virginia
  17. Washington
  18. Washington, D.C.


The 38 law schools, with states and numbers of professors from that school involved in teaching for BarBri:



Loyola Law SchoolCalifornia2
University of Califronia, Irvine School of LawCalifornia1
Pepperdine University School of LawCalifornia1
University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)California1
University of Southern California Law SchoolCalifornia1
University of Connecticut Law SchoolConnecticut1
Yale Law SchoolConnecticut1
Widener University School of LawDelaware1
Florida International Univeristy College of LawFlorida1
University of Miami School of LawFlorida1
Emory School of LawGeorgia4
Northwestern University School of LawIllinois1
University of Illinois College of LawIllinois1
University of Baltimore School of LawMaryland1
Boston University School of LawMassachussetts 1
Harvard Law SchoolMassachussetts 1
Seton Hall University School of LawNew Jersey2
Brooklyn Law SchoolNew York1
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Yeshiva UniversityNew York1
Columbia Law SchoolNew York2
Cornell Law SchoolNew York1
Fordham School of LawNew York2
University of North Carolina School of LawNorth Carolina1
Duke University School of LawNorth Carolina2
Ohio State University Moritz College of LawOhio2
University of Pennsylvania School of LawPennsylvania1
University of Texas School of LawTexas1
University of Houston Law CenterTexas2
SMU Dedman School of LawTexas1
South Texas College of LawTexas1
University of Texas School of LawTexas1
George Mason School of Law Virginia1
Univeristy of Richmond School of LawVirginia1
Seattle University School of LawWashington1
University of Washington School of LawWashington1
University of Washington School of LawWashington 1
Catholic University of America Columbus School of LawWashington, D.C.1
George Washington University School of LawWashington, D.C.3



The list of 54 professors teaching for BarBri, as advertised by BarBri today:



Brian, RobertAssociate Clinical Professor of Law, Loyola Law School

California
Chemerinsky, ErwinDean, University of California, Irvine School of Law

California
Levenson, Laurie

Loyola School of LawCalifornia
Pushaw, RobertPepperdine University School of Law

California
Talley, EricUniversity of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)

California
Altman, ScottUniversity of Southern California Law School

California
Lahav, AlexandraUniversity of Connecticut Law School

Connecticut
Harrison, Robert

Yale Law SchoolConnecticut
Scheuer, LukeWidener University School of Law (DE)

Delaware
Carbot, ChristopherAssociate Director of Recruitment Adjunct Professor of Legal Skills and Values, Florida International University College of Law

Florida
Stotzky, IrwinUniversity of Miami School of Law

Florida
Satz, AniAssociate Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law

Georgia
Andieh, Robert

Emory School of LawGeorgia
Freer, Richard D.

Emory School of LawGeorgia
Holbrook, TimEmory University School of Law

Georgia
Redish, MartinNorthwestern University School of Law

Illinois
Bilz, KenwortheyUniversity of Illinois College of Law

Illinois
Sloan, AmyAssociate Dean for Academic Affairs & Professor of Law, Univeristy of Baltimore School of Law

Maryland
Lawson, GaryBoston University School of Law

Massachusetts 
Goldberg, John

Harvard Law SchoolMassachusetts 
Klass, AlexandraUniversity of Minnesota Law School

Minnesota
Sebok, AnthonyBenjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Yeshiva University

New  York
Ponsa, ChristinaColumbia University School of Law

New  York
Cornwell, KipSeton Hall University School of Law

New Jersey
Franzese, PaulaSeton Hall University School of Law

New Jersey
Reiss, DavidAssociate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

New York
Rossi, FaustCornell Law SchoolNew York
Kraus, Jody
David E. Kaufman & Leopold C. Glass 
Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University School of Law
New York
Neustadt, Frederick

Fordham School of LawNew York
Flaherty, MartinFordham University School of Law

New York
Arlen, JenniferNorma Z. Paige Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

New York
Kennedy, JosephAssociate Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law

North Carolina
Metzloff, ThomasDuke University School of Law

North Carolina
Salzman, JamesSamuel Fox Mordecai Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law

North Carolina
Cole, SarahOhio State University Moritz College of Law

Ohio
Dressler, JoshuaProfessor & Frank R. 
Strong Chair in Law, Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

Ohio
Robinson, PaulUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Law

Pennsylvania
Williams, SeanAssistant Professor of Law, University of Texas School of Law

Texas
Tilton-McCarthy, LisaAssociate Professor, University of Houston Law Center

Texas
Forrester, JulieSMU Dedman School of Law

Texas
Ryan, MeghanSMU Dedman School of Law

Texas
Rensberger, JeffreySouth Texas College of Law

Texas
Moll, DouglasUniversity of Houston Law Center

Texas
Johanson, StanleyUniversity of Texas School of Law

Texas
Alvare, HelenGeorge Mason School of Law

Virginia
Epstein, PaulUniveristy of Richmond School of Law

Virginia
Ramasastry, AnitaD. Wayne & Anne Gittinger Professor of Law Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law

Washington
Ahrens, DeborahSeattle University School of Law

Washington
Said, ZahrUniversity of Washington School of Law

Washington
Scordato, MarinCatholic University of America and Columbus School of Law

Washington, D.C.
Schooner, HeidiCatholic University of America—Columbus School of Law

Washington, D.C.
Schaffner, JoanGeorge Washington University Law SchoolWashington, D.C.

Fairfax, LisaGeorge Washington University Law SchoolWashington, D.C.

Schechter, RogerGeorge Washington University Law SchoolWashington, D.C.




These are some preliminary statistics.

I will post some more information about the professor, schools and conflicts of interests involved in law school professors of particular schools to teach at BarBri, and analysis of the statistics later on.

The lists above can be used by law students to verify whether their professors support monopolistic grasp of its employer BarBri in assignments of tasks at law school, as alleged in the federal complaint above.

It is obvious that law students, and law graduates, are entitled to see copies of contracts and earnings of professors from BarBri, to see which of the jobs, the law school faculty, or the BarBri faculty, is more lucrative.

It is especially important to see contracts of professors from both jobs if the law school is a state law school, and professors are state employees.

And, in view of information in the federal complaint that BarBri may be squashing competing scholarship, professors who work for BarBri may be participating in that squashing (of competitors' scholarship), to their own benefit.

BarBri boasts in its advertisements that the list of its "faculty" reads like "Who's Who".

Yet, in view of the class action, participation of professors in BarBri can demonstrate the opposite - that BarBri picks professors who are willing to bend to its ways.

Had I been in law school at this time, I would be really interested if what my professor is teaching me is the best available scholarship, or if the best available scholarship was squashed through BarBri methods, as part of the bargain between BarBri and participating professors.

After all, that's what BarBri was alleged to have done before, 





and by settling before trial, BarBri does not allow these issues to be tried and the truth revealed.

The issues are significant.

The federal lawsuit alleges that 

  • law school professors and "student representatives" were "co-opted" to drive competitive and good courses out - like the Bar Secrets that was created by a lawyer and psychologist and produced a 16% higher bar passage rate than BarBri, 
  • student government of law schools engaged in blocking advertisement of competitors;
  • moles hired to discredit competitors;
  • FBI agents hired to break into competitors' databases to obtain competitive materials.
Yes, those are allegations and, since the case settled, we will never know whether the allegations were true or not.

But, the allegations were there, were submitted under oath, and students have a right to ask whether what was alleged was really happening.

Here are some of the allegations - and I encourage my readers to read the entire complaint.













 And here are allegations about the Bar Secrets:










Law students, in my opinion, should be really worried whether 


  • their law professors;
  • student government and
  • the law review student team
are selling them out because they are bought up by BarBri, into accepting a product that is costly, but not better, or maybe worse than the possible competition which was suppressed.

As a disclaimer - I personally did not take BarBri, I took a competitive course that was not mentioned in the lawsuit.  The course came on an iPod, allowed me to re-listen to the course as many times as I wanted, had superior books and materials with it, and cost about 3 times less than BarBri.  Since I am not posting this blog to advertise any bar-prep courses, I do not feel I need to disclose the name of the course I took.

Yet, I remember how my friends from law school were complaining that they are only hearing the lecture once, and that is not enough for thorough understanding, while I could re-listen any number of times, and my materials were very satisfactory and clear.


*   *   *

 Let's not lose the perspective here in all these details.

We are talking about training in the profession that gained monopoly for court representation in this country based specifically on claims of superior training of licensed professionals.

At this time, consumers of legal services are REQUIRED to accept help from the government by having to choose for their court representation - in civil, family, and criminal cases, including death penalty cases - from only government-approved individuals, while the government controls those individuals' livelihoods, and the government actually is on the other side of cases where the most significant loss of constitutional rights may occur.

The government imposes upon the public its "vetted" individuals by the fairy tale of the alleged superior training of those government-vetted individuals.

THIS is how the licensed professionals are trained, in the allegations of law students themselves (all plaintiffs in the class actions were law students and law graduates).

So, when we, as consumers of legal services, are told that we cannot choose a court representative of our choice because the government "helps" us by training an army of such professionals to "protect us" 

- while those same trainees are suing in court to get good training, alleging that the good training is blocked by a monopolist that is buying up their law professors, imposing false advertising, blocking superior training courses and individuals from the market, and employing various tricks worthy of a bad TV crime story 

- we have a problem here, a matter of public concern of constitutional dimensions, and the settlement, which does not reach the issues raised in the lawsuit, will certainly not resolve this problem.

The quality of training of court representative is a serious issue of public concern, and any efforts thwarting provision of the best possible training of those exclusive, monopolistic court representative, undermines our democracy and access to court and justice for every one of us.

Therefore, in the context of this blog article, my question is - are those "star" professors participating in the process of undermining our democracy by financially benefiting and condoning the actions of the monopolist in the training of this country's exclusive court representatives?

My personal opinion is - they are.  They are paid to promote the monopoly, and they do promote the monopoly, and the monopoly of BarBri hurts every one of us.

As I said above, I will provide more information about the professors teaching for BarBri, their potential conflicts of interests and some analysis of the above statistics, a little later.

Stay tuned.

When a judge decides his own motion to recuse, a party's shooting heroin with the judge's brother is not a basis for recusal

Here is federal Judge John Adams.


In February of 2015, the mayor of the City of Akron, Ohio, accused the judge in an open interview to the press, of displaying his long-standing bias against the city during a trial - and thus affecting the jury:

"Attorneys described your demeanor as “searing judicial temperament against the City.” You continuously used inflections in your voice and negative facial expressions to portray to the jury your obvious disdain for the City as we defended against the Plaintiffs’ unwarranted claims."

Then, in November of 2015, Judge Adams refused to recuse from yet another case where he was supposed to:  a criminal case where the criminal defendant told the judge that he must testify at a criminal theft case involving his girlfriend and the judge's own nephew, and that the criminal defendant in question was using heroin with the judge's brother, sometimes in the presence of his minor son, the judge's nephew, for the period of 14 months.

Here is the judge's order refusing recusal.

Here is the defendant's writ of mandamus.

After the writ of mandamus was filed, Judge Adams agreed to impose a stay on the proceedings in this court until the writ was decided, but held the defendant in pre-trial detention for several months.

When the time of pre-trial detention was about the same as the time that the defendant would have served if convicted by the guidelines, the defense counsel asked Judge Adams to turn the case over for a bond hearing.

Judge Adams immediately retaliated by removing the stay from the proceedings and scheduling a trial, over objection of defense counsel, and while the petition for mandamus was pending.

The defense counsel was forced to file with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit a motion to speed up resolution of the writ of mandamus and to force Judge Adams' recusal.

The motion was filed on May 3, 2016.

It was nearly instantly decided and granted by the 6th Circuit.

The 6th Circuit removed Judge Adams from the case on May 9, 2016.

But, the damage was already done.

The defendant already spent time in pre-trial detention - which may not have happened had another judge presided over the case.

The defendant had to go through the stress and uncertainty of the writ of mandamus and expecting to be tried by an obviously biased judge with a personal, familial, interest in the outcome of the case.

The judge's claims that he did not see his nephew for a long time and that he was "estranged" from his brother really do not mean much when there is a mandate to recuse where close relatives of a judge are involved.

But, the case clearly shows how far the grounds for the so-called "duty to sit" and to "prevent judge-shopping" for parties can be stretched.

Judge Adams assumed the position of the "reasonable objective observer" and observed himself, as having no appearance of impropriety in presiding over the case of defendant who was using drugs with the judge's brother in the presence of the judge's nephew and who was supposed to testify, possibly against the judge's nephew, in an unrelated criminal trial.

And, of course, there will be no discipline upon the judge other than removal from the case.

And that is the whole problem - the judge will not learn his lesson and he will continue to do the same thing, and more, and worse.

The judge is young (for a U.S. judge - they "serve" well into the 90s), born in 1955, so he is "just" 61 now.

I am afraid this is not the last we have heard about this judge's misconduct.

I will follow this judge's future conduct and report it on the blog.

Stay tuned.


Friday, May 13, 2016

Time for robot judges?

According to New York Judiciary Law 90(2)(b), this conduct is prohibited to suspended or disbarred attorneys:


"The giving to another of an opinion as to the law or its application, or of any advice in relation thereto." So, the above behavior, in the eyes of the law, is unauthorized practice of law. Let's consider if a person does something like this:
  • understand your questions, 
  • respond with a hypothesis backed by references and citation.
In other words, a person asks a question about the law or its application, and the other person understands the question and answers it, with a "hypothesis" (possible solution) supported by research as to how to apply it based on existing law, with references and applications.

So, it is the practice of law, right?

What if the answering person is a robot?

And, if the valuable "judgment of a lawyer" can be assigned to a machine, what is the whole big thing about licensing?

If people can just ask a machine that is crammed with artificial intelligence to search the world-wide-web and come up with references of the law in a certain jurisdiction and solutions of any legal question.

And why do we need human judges then, with their inflated and ever growing salaries, benefits, entitlements and an entourage of families and friends who they serve - if machines can be better, quicker, fairer, cannot lose temper with you and cannot be corrupted?

For example, robot Ross, if put on the bench, will certainly not seek to spank young male nude criminal defendants and take their nude pictures for later enjoyment.

Or be biased.

Or be sexist, racist, or engage in any other kind of discrimination.

It will be programmed to apply "equality under the law" literally - without regard to status, rank, connection or wealth.

Right?

And, there will be no civil rights violations if Robot Judge Ross (or his clone) would apply the law as it is written, not bend it to the whims of those who greased his iron hand better.

What a wonderful world that would be...




The Delaware County, NY - the land of Jokers. The Tiska joke

Delaware County, New York, is the land of - well, jokers.

How else can one perceive what is going on in the case of People v Theodore Tiska?

Tiska is the former Sheriff's Deputy in Delaware County currently charged with attempted murder in Delaware County and prosecuted by people who knew him and, possibly, who have grudges against him.

Surely, as a matter of fairness, he should be investigated and held in jail not by his former employer.

Tiska's salary stops, as shown on seethroughny.net, stops in 2012, when he retired or resigned from Delaware County.



Tiska retired from Delaware County Sheriff's Department on August 17, 2012:



After Tiska retired - or forced to retire - things started to happen to him.

He was convicted for "criminal mischief" in 2014.

Now he is charged with attempted murder and is "about to lose his home".

And, the joker County has now placed Tiska into the jail where he previously worked - the County does realize it is a safety concern for Tiska and a lawsuit concern for the County taxpayers, but, the County decided they will "save money" that way.

While funneling money into different pet projects of local county officials - like Delaware Opportunities, Inc. or the recently ditched DS&S (ditched only because the patron county official former Social Services Commission William Moon was booted).

And the biggest joke is the "process" in the criminal proceedings.

John Hubbard, who knows Tiska personally, prosecutes him.

Judge Northrup, John Hubbard's former boss who never disclosed when he was himself the District Attorney that his Chief ADA John Hubbard was a law partner of Judge Northrup's predecessor County Judge Becker, and who also knows Tiska personally, presides.

And assigned attorney Andrew Puritz - who immediately signed a consent (waiver of 5th Amendment right to remain silent, yes, they say they won't use it in a trial if the plea negotiations fall through, but who is going to believe them?) for a pre-plea investigation - in an attempted murder case!

Investigation to be conducted by Tiska's prior (possibly, disgruntled) employer.

As I said, jokers abound in Delaware County.





DS&S elimination in Delaware County

No, don't hope that it is a DSS elimination - not yet.

Delaware County (NY) DSS Commissioner proudly announced recently the DS&S elimination - elimination of services of a tumor proprietary company of the former Commissioner, William Moon, that was "contracted" by DSS at the tune of nearly $200,000 a year to do clerical stuff and cleaning, while the same duties were available through employees in direct employment of the County.

The article does not raise the question that what Moon was doing was abuse of his office, personal enrichment, and was criminal.

I wonder what the feds will say about that.

It is also interesting that these issues about "DS&S" arise only after Moon was booted - and Spinney, and Becker, the entire trio.

And, since such issues arise only after a high-ranking public official is booted, the question arises - what other "DS&S"es are lurking out there sucking taxpayer money in a poor county?



Uncontrolled judicial misconduct: Judge Real, on the footsteps of Judges Free and Best

I wrote on this blog earlier about misconduct of judges Free and Best.  

Now comes another judge with a telling name involved in gross, systematic misconduct for decades - Judge Real.  Judge Manuel T. Real of the U.S. District Court for the District of California, to be exact.  Date of birth January 27, 1924.  Yes, Judge Real is 92 years of age.



What Judge Real was doing during his judicial career was absolutely unreal, what is also unreal is the fact that he is still allowed to be on the bench, and not behind bars.

In August of 2016, there was a blog indicating that Judge Manuel T. Real of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, at the age of 92, is "still abusing his power" - listing such "achievements" by the judge as:

1) interfering with defense's cross-examination in a criminal case, for which he was reversed, and conviction vacated;
2) being removed from cases by the appellate court at least 11 times for lack of objectivity - and that is, as of 2009, he was removed from a case at least one other time, yesterday;
3) having a reversal rate of 10 times "the average" for a federal judge, having been reversed completely 87 times plus 47 partial reversals - as of August 2016, and plus at least one more reversal yesterday;
4) having gone through an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. Conduct in 2006 for misconduct.

In 2015, according to calculations of Reuters reporter Alison Frankel, the then-91-year-old Judge Real was reversed 12 times out of 32 appeals, a rate of reversal of 37.5%, more than 1/3.

Since many cases do not get appealed for various reasons, not the least one of them being lack of funds for a filing fee and/or lawyer, nobody knows how many more cases Judge Real botched up that never came before the appellate court.

The question asked by a defense attorney Victor Sherman who was reportedly hounded by Judge Real for 40 years was whether it was in public interest "for Judge Real to preside over cases only to be reversed so often on appeal" and that it is a waste of public money.

Yet, justice, or lack thereof, does not measure in money only, and this is a judge presiding in a court handling death penalty cases, as well as civil rights cases.

To allow a judge on the bench who lacks competence, integrity and elementary civility because he is unreachable by discipline through immunity, because the Judicial Disability Act does not apply to misconduct during court proceedings, and because the U.S. Congress finally decided that all of the above did not rise to misconduct of "constitutional proportions" is despicable.

Now, Judge Real was removed from yet another case, the one he was stalling, to the detriment of plaintiffs, for 8 years.

Unreal.







The epic in-fight regarding bar prep education, complete with an embattled 92-year-old federal judge messing up with the "wrong" class action, and now removed from it

In 2008, a group of law students filed a lawsuit against West Publishing Corporation bar prep course BarBri claiming that BarBri monopolized the market of bar preparation, squashed competition and that, as a result, consumers (law graduates) preparing for the bar examination are deprived of bar-prep services of a higher quality at a competitive price.

You can see the entire complaint here.

It is 58 pages, and I encourage you to read it.

It alleges, in detail, how BarBri monopolized the market of bar preparation using:


  • intimidation;
  • unlawful market sharing agreements;
  • unlawful price-fixing agreements;
  • buying up copyright and then suppressing superior preparation materials, 
  • buying up businesses of alternative bar prep courses,
  • offering alternative bar-prep businesses lucrative "consulting" contracts as an incentive to oust them from the bar-prep market;
  • attempting to destroy credibility of professionals supporting other courses;
  • engaging law school professors to post mandatory law school assignments on the Westlaw pages, so that students would not avoid being bombarded by BarBri advertisements etc.


The complaint described one or more of the above tactics in describing interaction of BarBri with the following competitors in the bar prep market: 


  1. BRC;
  2. Becker;
  3. PMBR;
  4. Marino;
  5. Pieper (New York);
  6. West Bar Review;
  7. Kaplan;
  8. Louisiana;
  9. Supreme Bar Review (Ohio);
  10. DeVry;
  11. Rigos;
  12. Bar Secrets;
  13. LexisNexis
Moreover, the complaint alleged that BarBri imposes anti-competitive conditions on its "faculty and staff"



And, remember, while teaching law school, "some" professor post their assignments on BarBri owner's website (Westlaw), so that law students must read those assignments on Westlaw and cannot avoid being bombarded with BarBri advertisements.



At this time, the following "award-winning" faculty members are advertised on BarBri's website (I will analyze the conflicts of interest of these professors in a separate blog).


The U.S. district judge Manuel T. Real (date of birth January 27, 1924) presided over the federal class action.  

In that action, Judge Real, who was 84 years of age at the beginning of litigation and 92 years old now:

1) dismissed the complaint in 2008 - in a 2-page decision without an opinion, explanation or reasoning;
2) disapproved the settlement in 2011 after the appellate court directed it and denied all attorney fees to Plaintiffs;
3) denied reconsideration of that disapproval and denial of fees

and then approved the settlement, but cut Plaintiffs' attorney fees from $1.9 mln to $585,000 - and the costs of such a class action, including investigation must have been enormous.

Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit made an epic decision not only reversing Judge Real, but directing the district court to reassign the case, after 8 years of litigation, to another judge, pointing out that Judge Real cannot rule fairly in that case.

Judge Real is on the federal bench since 1966 - for 40 years, he actually served as a Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of California from 1982 to 1993, for 11 years.



In 2006, Judge Real was subject to impeachment investigation as to how he handled a bankruptcy case, which was later dropped, Judge Real remained on the bench, and was given, possibly, a job to stall an antitrust class lawsuit of adamant law students against the omnipowerful bar-prep monopolist - a job he carried out superbly for 8 years.

The 9th Circuit apparently had to end this national embarrassment of a "court proceeding" by requiring reassignment of another judge to this case.

The 9th Circuit's decision is epic because it finally - after 8 years of litigation - recognizes the judge's bias.

I must note that no motions to recuse were filed during these 8 years - consider how intimidated attorneys were that reassignment to another judge had to be directed, obviously sua sponte, by the 9th Circuit.

I am saying "sua sponte" (on the 9th Circuit's own motion) because, since no motion to recuse was made in the court below, such issue could not be raised on appeal.

So, this case is about 


  • epic antitrust activities in preparation of law graduates to take the bar - and thus prove to consumers that they are a "safe choice" in the market of legal services;
  • epic bias of the federal judge who tried to dismiss or hurt plaintiffs and their attorneys for daring to bring such a lawsuit, dragging litigation for 8 years;  and
an epic question - how can this setup where education of law students is not only not superior, but where superior prep courses are bought up and suppressed, or their authors intimidated, discredited, bought up or drive out of business - how can this setup, this education obtained from an anticompetitive country-wide cartel, be considered a guarantee BY THE GOVERNMENT to the consumers of quality and integrity of the only providers that consumers can choose for court representation?

Does it make any sense to you?

Does not make any sense to me.

As to a separate blog about professors serving BarBri, and about the impeachment proceedings against Judge Real that somehow came to nothing, allowed him to remain on the bench and engage in further  misconduct, stay tuned.