Monday, April 22, 2013

The Court Docket In My Wife's Employment Lawsuit Provides a Road Map of Corruption In Real Time


Hugo Black U.S. Courthouse
A recent hearing in my wife's employment lawsuit against Birmingham-based Infinity Insurance was postponed six minutes before it was to start. Court records show that the order was signed by a federal judge we were told was not there that day.

These are just some of several oddities that strongly suggest someone is manipulating the judicial process in a case styled Carol Shuler v. Infinity Property & Casualty et al (2:11-cv-03443-TMP). These machinations probably amount to obstruction of justice and possibly other federal crimes. (Pertinent segments of the April 10 docket report can be viewed at the end of this post.)

Mrs. Schnauzer (MS) appeared on April 10 for a scheduling conference that U.S. Magistrate T. Michael Putnam had set 10 days earlier. MS never received notice of the conference via U.S. mail--and as a pro se litigant, that is her only means of getting court documents--but she learned of it by checking the court docket in person at the Hugo Black U.S. Courthouse on April 5. That caused her to show up for the hearing and apparently foiled someone's plan to concoct grounds for dismissing her case.

How ugly is this scenario? A document rescheduling the conference for 10 a.m. today--and MS did receive notice of that in the mail--gives an idea. (The rescheduling order can be viewed at the end of this post.)

My wife and I appeared for the April 10 conference at about 9:52 a.m., roughly eight minutes early. We arrived to find an empty courtroom, and judicial clerk David Waters appeared at about 10 to tell us that Judge Putnam was not there that day.

That's peculiar because the rescheduling order shows it was filed at 9:54 a.m. on April 10--and it was signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge T. Michael Putnam. What does that tell us? It tells me that someone probably was on the lookout for MS that morning, with instructions to file a rescheduling order if she appeared at the courthouse door. It also tells me that Putnam was there that morning, and Waters was told to lie to us on the judge's behalf.

Is this the only sign of underhanded actions in my wife's lawsuit? Not at all. Consider these:

A Premature Conference
The hearing that was reset for today is billed as a scheduling conference under Rule 16(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). That's strange because such a hearing normally does not take place until the parties have conferred to develop a discovery plan, under Rule 26(f) FRCP.  Why is Putnam, in a classic case of "putting the cart before the horse," trying to set a schedule when the parties have not conferred about a discovery plan? In my view, it's probably a sign the judge and the defendants want to skip the discovery process altogether.

Plaintiff's Motions Put On Hold
MS filed three motions on March 25--all opposition or objections to various documents that had been filed by the court or defendants. The court docket shows that all three of her motions were not entered into the record until April 1, one week after they had been filed. A check of the full docket shows that almost all other documents were entered either the day they were filed or the next day. Why did that not happen on MS's motions? Well, the record shows the delay allowed U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon to file an order on March 29--it also was entered on March 29--that dismissed a number of individual defendants from the case. These dismissals were one of the primary points to which MS objected, but it appears that her motions intentionally were kept out of the record until after Kallon had issued his order.

The Disappearing Documents On Certified Mail
Gregory Kees is a central defendant in MS's case. He was her boss at Infinity, the guy who fired her for allegedly being tardy after he had told her to change her start time from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in order to assist with the company's large client base in California. Not long after MS filed her lawsuit, she received word from Infinity that Kees no longer worked there and could not be served at his work location. A lawyer for Infinity stated that she would ensure Kees was notified of the case and assist with service on him--but that never happened. MS had not been able to find a home address or new work location for Kees, so he was dismissed without prejudice due to lack of service. MS, however, discovered Kees' home address and filed documents to have him served via certified mail on March 25. The filing of those service documents should be entered in the docket--such documents are noted for all other defendants--but there is no mention of them for Gregory Kees. Why? Greg Kees, more than anyone else at Infinity, probably knows who was behind my wife's unlawful termination--and that's why someone does not want him as part of the case. (The documents related to service of Gregory Kees via certified mail can be viewed at the end of this post.)

Over the 12-plus years that MS and I have been fighting court corruption, we've seen judges and lawyers repeatedly act as if we are too stupid to read documents and understand how we are being cheated. That trend clearly is continuing in my wife's employment case.










28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like someone was cancelling Mrs. S's hearing as she was walking into the courthouse. Gee, that's not fishy in the least.

Anonymous said...

Judges and lawyers need to leave crime to the professionals. They aren't very good at it.

Adam said...

Let me see if I have this straight: The judge supposedly was not there, but he signed an order six minutes earlier. Must have left the building in an awful hurry.

Anonymous said...

Love to seem con men exposed. Hate it when con men are practicing their "craft" on the taxpayer's dime.

Anonymous said...

ANONYMOUS would have a hacking hayday here in Alabama. The courts, the judges, the clerks, and even the guards/security people are all playing a part in this corruption. It is sickening. No wonder CEOs and rich carpetbaggers come down from the north to do business here and to get their divorces. The court is ALWAYS for sale...24/7 to the highest bidder.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 8:57--

You are correct. And in this case, it's a large insurance company that is receiving cover from a crooked court.

Anonymous said...

LS,

I don't know for certain, but I would assume that CEO's, Judges and Lawyers all hang out in the same social circles: Country club, Church, Hunting club etc... and in doing so become friends or acquaintances. Thus the common citizen is at a disadvantage when suing large corporation since they are not wealthy or important enough to gain any influence.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you have serious problems in the clerk's office there. Three motions sit around for a week before being entered in the record? Information about service via certified mail isn't entered at all? That's not how it's supposed to work.

Anonymous said...

Regular Americans face a Catch-22 with our court system. If you hire a lawyer, you shell out big bucks to someone who probably isn't representing your best interests. If you represent yourself, and it sounds like Mrs. S has a pretty good idea about what she's doing, you get garbage like the court failing to mail key documents to you. Either way, someone is trying to screw you.

legalschnauzer said...

Anon at 9:22--

You are right on target. And keep in mind that judges and lawyers belong to the same bar association. That should not be the case. In some European countries, judges are trained separately from lawyers, and they do not belong to the same professional organizations. That system is much better than ours.

Anonymous said...

Judge Putnam gives a party six minutes notice that a hearing has been postponed? And considering that she arrived a few minutes early, that means she had about two minutes warning. The fine judge sure likes to cut it close, doesn't he?

TLR said...

LS, I very much appreciate the public documents you run with many of your posts. They might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I find them often to be compelling reading. For instance, the docs on this post show the time stamps that drive home the fact that something strange is going on with this case. Maybe I'm just anal, but I like that sort of detail. Helps give your blog a lot of credibility.

legalschnauzer said...

TLR--

Thanks for the kind words. The documents are very important in my view. As a non-lawyer, I've found that some readers have a natural tendency to question whether I know what I'm talking about. But the documents often provide solid evidence to back up the key points of my posts. Also, I hope the docs give readers an idea of what it is like to experience a court case. These are actual, real-world public records, the kind you are likely to see if (when?) you wind up in court over something.

Anonymous said...

@8:04
I would disagree, some Judges and lawyers are very well versed in how to manipulate the the system for their own benefit. Many years of practice...

Anonymous said...

As Roger has pointed out before, and some of us have personally experienced, most Judges don't like Pro Se litigants. Why? They are there for their own best interest and that makes them difficult to manage. Pro Se litigants may file motions and seek discovery which means actual work for the judges, clerks and lawyers. None of the copy and paste canned documents that an attorney has been using for the past 10 years. Nope, these Pro Se litigants actually want justice and (gasp) truth to be part to the process. To the well oiled judicial $ystem that is accustomed low effort high yield railroad jobs, this can be quite disconcerting. Pro Se litigants must be tamped down (discrediting and destroying them financial too if need be) at every opportunity. Lest the courts be burdened with common people demanding accountability and justice from our judges and attorneys. The nerve of some people...

David in S. Alabama said...

The next time MS goes to court she change her appearance - a wig and large sunglasses.

Anonymous said...

Roger another good practice that I picked up on was to ask the clerk for a copy of the stamped document. Of course the clerk never liked me asking her to do this, but it gave me some comfort. This was before the transition to alafile. Of course I did have documents sent to an old address that I have lived at 6 years ago, and we have been to court while residing at our current location. Those zany court clerks can find ways to make things difficult for you, as you well know.

jeffrey spruill said...

Does Mrs. Schnauzer smell a stench emanating from Drayton Nabers?

legalschnauzer said...

Jeffrey:

There's always a stench emanating from Drayton Nabers. Always.

Anonymous said...

LS:

What happened today?

legalschnauzer said...

The parties met for about 35 minutes to work out a discovery plan, and Putnam will issue a scheduling order shortly. Presumably, Mrs. S will receive it in the mail.

Putnam said he was in Omaha, Nebraska on April 10, and yet, the hearing was postponed six minutes before it was to begin? Do I believe he was in Omaha? No, I do not.

Anonymous said...

In the words of Aretha Franklin...Whose Zoomin Who?

Unknown said...

Thank you Legal Schnauzer. Thank you Mrs. Schnauzer. Roger and Carol Shuler you are two of America's greatest patriots in these times.

I just discovered the new Attorney General in the State of Oregon, Ellen Rosenblum, is married to Richard Meeker who is an owner of a weekly, the Willamette Week. This weekly publishes now that the Publisher's brother was the Mayor of Raleigh North Carolina, that it is purchasing a paper NC, “I am thrilled that the new owners of the Independent will be Richard and Mark,” said Schewel, a founder of the Independent Weekly, in a statement. “This is the best possible landing place for the Indy."

Meeker has strong ties to North Carolina. His brother, Charles Meeker, a lawyer, served as Raleigh's mayor from 2001 to 2011.

I am not anti-semitic. The Jews have had far too much influence in the news for far too long.

The Willamette Week was supposed to be THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT rag.

Bull, horse, cow, and name what animal's sh*t it isn't! The WW DOES NOT publish real true news fit for the consumption of higher intellect.

I know a deep dirty about the WW, and the "families" in the State of Oregon.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29065-willamette_week_owners_buy_north_carolina_newspaper.html

The AG in Oregon, Kroger, was literally booted out of office. Where did he go? REED "the seed of knowledge." University for the so called rich kids, mostly .. you guessed it, Jewish. The Schnitzer family that has been more likely than not THE leading Russian Mafia family in the State of Oregon, well no one does anything in "their town," with "money that belongs - all of the stuff - to ONLY them," and they own the US Bancorp tower which houses US Bank / Bancorp, one of the most heinous predators of the "Nehemiah Program" SUBPRIME LOANS TO THE POOR. In Germany "... Mayer Amschel Bauer changed his name from Bauer to Rothschild and became the founding father of International Finance ...." lived in "Jew Town." It was a ghetto. According to the book by Gilad Atzmon, "The Wandering Who," there has to be a ghetto with poor for the jews now to make them feel "at home." Difference is, "goyim" get to be the ghetto poor.

Get your tap root richest in Alabama figured out. Rove appears to, with Mark Fuller, be agents for the deepest rich. News is your clue. They always own the news and clearly are positioning to keep the stranglehold of information in the bag for them.

The courts do exactly what the news tells them to, otherwise the judges shall be in the foul stench that can be the end. The employees are terrified of eating out of garbage cans or worse, who knows what trash their brains have been fed about Carol and you, and of course the world of terror.

to be continued

Unknown said...

con't


Your blog is ending the corruption cover up and you again, be very careful. The US Constitution was and is all about full transparency and of course NEWS INFO to educate We The People at the highest level for our country to operate at the higher level of human being.

These people remind me of the story I recently read, the woman is supposed to be the most dangerous "US SPY" EVER! Amazing story about how she became a spy for US, but went over to Cuba's side. In prison for almost half a century, I believe? Anyway she told her sister of the criminals in with her, she is in Texas at a high security medical facility for women. This in and of itself gives me the worst idea in my mind. Anyway, she calls the place an insane asylum. (So are we here on the outside!) STORY: Pregnant woman was choked to death because the killer wanted her baby.

The sister told the story to say how her sister the spy could tell the difference between true insanity and what she did, which she was and is considered not in her right mind to have done.

She basically looked as a top level spy, at what the US Government was-is doing globally AND THEN agreed with all the people who are suffering to stop the empire. Castro made common sense and the US clandestine operation of no lawful boundaries, exactly as Carol and you have learned, was not what the Spy agreed with and was-is willing to spend more than half her life to live up to her inner true conviction of what is wrong and what is right.

Thank Carol and you again for being the champions of all what is right about the US Constitution's Bill of Rights.'

The crazies would rather choke us to death than honor our Bill of Rights' and here we are 2013.

Anonymous said...

anon @ 4:48, yes when physically able to get a stamped copy from the clerk with the official seal, yes. Certified copies are vital of any and all paperwork not physically filed.

Anonymous said...

RICO system does not allow pro se to be part of the game other than to give life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and whatever can be given, nowadays it can be eyes, all body organs, etc.

Even reported, morgues providing lots of John Does for tissue implants. Plastic surgery anyone?

God only knows what pro se are expected to provide to Shylock's Courts.

Great reporting Roger. Your providing people the visual of paperwork is how we really learn, thanks for all the incredible work, they've taken your fingers to the bones!

Anonymous said...

LS, the powers counted on school dumbing us down like George W. Bush and not smarting us up like M/M LS!

You two read, write and gosh you actually understand what our law actually means. Oh My! Lions, tigers, bears, M/M Schnauzer are true blue educated Americans!

Now you can understand why they're afraid, cannot you see liberty blindly binds the injustice.

Bush's America was about no more due process rule of law.

How dare you decide to differ and demand the lawbreakers obey the contract of due process as is the rule of law US Constitution.

Unknown said...

http://jewishworldreview.com/jewish/history15.php3#.UXZb1Vvf9ac