Attorneys pick up the tab for Oregon State Bar’s favoritism
Leave it to the Oregon State Bar to trick the state legislature into enacting a law which enriches the Bar while inflicting harm upon others.
This latest assault grants the Bar an exclusive extrajudicial legal apparatus through which it can mint money judgments that can be put into collection through Oregon’s Department of Revenue. This essentially gives the Bar its own court whose judgments are not subject to appeal, and creates debts that are unconstitutional for lack of due process.
Everyone should be disturbed at the thought of the Oregon State Bar operating its own court, especially given their feverishly…
Former Portland, Oregon attorney Lori Deveny — who is facing 92 criminal charges of theft, identity theft, forgery, and criminal mistreatment — apparently reached a deal with prosecutors today to avoid a trial scheduled later this month in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Deveny is believed to have stolen at least $3.2 million from her former clients, many of who were head-injured.
Scott Healy, the Clackamas First Assistant District Attorney who is prosecuting Deveny, said, “Defendant Deveny is going to plead guilty on August 4, 2021, and we are going to set it over for a lengthy open sentencing that will…
Feds revoke Oregon State Bar’s immunity passport
A recent series of court cases and decisions has provided the perfect lens through which to view the official misconduct currently flourishing at the Oregon State Bar — misconduct that should concern every single one of their licensees.
First, a “false light” tort lawsuit filed by attorney Andrew Long against the Bar and its employee Amber Hollister, for an article she wrote for the Bulletin in which she misleadingly portrayed Long (and seven others) as the “cause of the rise in [misconduct] claims” that threatened to impact the pocketbooks of all Oregon attorneys.
Oregon State Bar is jointly liable for contempt of court
Salem attorney John Pollino recently sent a letter to J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, calling into question the “authenticity of [a] subpoena” that the bank had been served with, and urging the bank not to produce the records requested by that subpoena. The bank’s records could substantiate claims of theft and fraud made against Pollino’s client, the defendant in a three-quarter million-dollar tort suit.
Pollino sent his bizarre letter despite knowledge that the subpoena had been legally and properly issued by court staff in Judge Courtland Geyer’s office at the Marion County Circuit Court.
Sherman’s March approaches Tigard
Earlier this month, in an Oregon tort case filed against an attorney by a former client, an order was signed requiring the attorney’s attorney to establish his authority to appear and defend the lawsuit. This is an important question because the attorney’s attorney was retained by the state’s mandatory malpractice insurer, the Oregon State Bar’s Professional Liability Fund (PLF). The PLF is not allowed, by statute or policy, to defend claims of intentional tort, which the lawsuit was entirely based upon. The PLF is only allowed to defend malpractice suits.
The PLF’s appearance in an intentional tort suit — which…
Case interference at Oregon’s higher courts
Even though interference in Oregon court cases certainly happens — and happens more often than anyone would like to acknowledge — it is a difficult thing for a victim to show. Even harder to prove is that the interference was prejudicial and impacted the court’s decision.
It is so challenging to address because the interference is usually made by court staff or other officials, such as staff at the Oregon State Bar (i.e. an “instrumentality” of the Oregon Judicial Department).
None of those people should have any interest in the outcome of a case — but when they decide that…
Case-fixing in Multnomah County Court on behalf of former attorney Lori Deveny
Last week I teased a comprehensive article about the problem of case-fixing in Oregon courts. It is now officially a series.
This case-fixing is arranged on behalf of attorneys — even the disgraced ones. It appears to be managed by their licensor, the Oregon State Bar (OSB), because of money: mandatory malpractice insurance money that the OSB administers. And, evidently, even in cases that aren’t about malpractice money, the fixing apparatus is still used to limit the financial liability of the OSB’s select attorney friends.
Former attorney Lori Deveny is one of those elite friends.
When she was finally revealed as a complete fraud in 2018, the OSB went to…
Is the Oregon State Bar using an ethics complaint as a pretext to protect themselves?
Yesterday’s Oregonian article about the recent dismissal of a criminal charge against attorney Derek Ashton (related to the Terry Bean sex abuse case) contained this nugget: The Oregon State Bar intends to root around Ashton’s dismissed criminal case file on the pretext that the material therein would be relevant to the ethics inquiry they opened against him.
This may prove problematic for many reasons, including the fact that Ashton had already moved (on June 1) to have the entire criminal court record set aside and sealed: To do so is his absolute right under Oregon statute.
Despite this, the OSB…
I regret to inform you that case-fixing — on behalf of attorneys — is a problem in Oregon.
It’s such a problem, that I was in the middle of writing a detailed piece about it when a fresh and stunning instance of it arose — one that is affecting my family right now in Marion Circuit Court. I have been restrained in the past, but it has gotten too damaging and too blatant to avoid discussing it any longer.
It is also too typical to ignore: I have many, many examples of case-fixing and other interference to share with you…
Did the Portland Police Bureau steer a minor sex abuse victim to hire former attorney Lori Deveny?
It is certain that the full extent of the forgery and theft allegedly committed by former Portland, Oregon attorney Lori Deveny would be less known had she not been involved in the criminal case brought against prominent real estate broker and activist Terry Bean. That case, brought in 2014 on charges of sex abuse and sodomy, was dismissed because Bean’s minor accuser failed to show up for trial. That minor, known in court filings as “M.S.G.,” claims that Deveny negotiated a financial settlement for him in exchange for his failure to appear.
And the arrangement was going great for almost…
