According to the California Bar Journal, the State Bar has filed to lift the law license of Carlsbad attorney Michael T. Pines, who has advised clients to break into their foreclosed homes and resume living there. The Bar wants to remove Pines from practice even before formal charges have been filed. Admitting this is "a drastic remedy," Chief Trial Counsel James Towery says the move is justified: Pines "has shown complete disrespect for the law, the courts and especially the best interest of his clients." Pines says he will file a lawsuit against the bar, saying it is helping debt collector attorneys who, he believes "engage in illegal foreclosure activities." Pines has been telling his clients that the foreclosures are illegal.
The subject of this piece, Michael T. Pines, is not to be confused with another San Diego attorney named Michael Pines, a personal injury attorney in La Jolla.
According to the California Bar Journal, the State Bar has filed to lift the law license of Carlsbad attorney Michael T. Pines, who has advised clients to break into their foreclosed homes and resume living there. The Bar wants to remove Pines from practice even before formal charges have been filed. Admitting this is "a drastic remedy," Chief Trial Counsel James Towery says the move is justified: Pines "has shown complete disrespect for the law, the courts and especially the best interest of his clients." Pines says he will file a lawsuit against the bar, saying it is helping debt collector attorneys who, he believes "engage in illegal foreclosure activities." Pines has been telling his clients that the foreclosures are illegal.
The subject of this piece, Michael T. Pines, is not to be confused with another San Diego attorney named Michael Pines, a personal injury attorney in La Jolla.
Tell Pines good luck filing that lawsuit against the Bar, the only place to do that is in federal court and they will indemnify the Bar, including flat out lying for them, which leaves the SCOTUS, and I was just at their website yesterday looking up another case against the Bar, and I ran through the cases they have taken against ANY Bar in America, and cannot find a single one in the last 40 years.
Foun 5-10 from CA and the CA Bar did not even file a brief.
This news came out a few weeks back and I am pretty sure the "State Bar Court", whichis nto truly a court at all, will rubber samp any request the Bar asks for. The State Bar Court is not really a court as much as it is an arm of the Bar itself, which is just an arm of the CA Supreme Court. The entire "court" is therefor an interested party and not independant or unbiased at all.
I don't know enough about this guy-except for the fact he is advising clients to knowingly and willfully break the law-and has been arrested a few times and the people who were his clients dumped him.
The REO/foreclosure mess has a ton of room for fraud by the bansk adn that has been documented, so he could be right, who knows. Wildcard.
Yes, foreclosures are a mess, and fraught with illegalities, but that doesn't mean a lawyer can tell his clients to break into a foreclosed home and resume living in it. This is a lawyer counseling clients to break the law. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if lawyers for the big banks knew about all the robo-signing and looked the other way. Best, Don Baudeer
This is actually surprising in that the Bar has been known to move too slowly in dealing with some really egregious attorney abuses. The guy may be right about the tactics of the attorneys handling foreclosures, but it is not a legal doctrine that "two wrongs make a right". He could have had a field day suing and winning cases against foreclosure attorneys and their employers if he were right.
it is not a legal doctrine that "two wrongs make a right".
Excellent point.
How about take away those bank attorneys who committed fraud on the court? Why the double standards?
Wells Fargo's attorneys aided Wells Fargo to defraud homeowners through loan origination fraud and wrongful foreclosure. The bar association chose to cover up for them! www.wellsfargomortgagefraud.com
Please sign the petition and join the fight to:
Absolutely. The bank and Wall Street attorneys who let their institutions get away with murder should be dealt with harshly. They won't be. Best, Don Bauder
How about take away those bank attorneys who committed fraud on the court? Why the double standards?
============== Hold Big Business RESPONSIBLE for their actions??? Please, you have to be kidding.
America is a Banana Republic, we do not hold the wealthy and powerful responsible!
Read Matt Tiabi's Rolling Stone Magazine article on this.......
Agreed, and what's hilarious is that it's always business interests complaining that the nation lacks a commitment to personal responsibility. Best, Don Bauder
Don, there was a segment on "60 Minutes" tonight about the major banks who bought all the Goldman/AIG/Lehman mortgage backed securities, but lost the loan papers, so they PAID a contractor company to FORGE the loan papers. It was fraud by Big Business perpetrated on the working class and poor on a scale I have NEVER, EVER seen before.
I will guarantee you that NO ONE will go to prison over this.
Hundreds of thousands of forged loan documents so the banks could go one with the foreclosure process.
Agreed, and what's hilarious is that it's always business interests complaining that the nation lacks a commitment to personal responsibility.
LOL....talk about calling the kettle black!
1. break up 'too big to fail' banks
Im on baord, if they're too big to fail they're too big to exist.
2. criminal investigation and criminal prosecution of all banksters who defrauded this great nationa and its people.
They ALL belong in jail, wont happen, Do did a good story on this. Matt Tiabbi of Rolling Stone did also.
Whatever his ethics, Michael T. Pines is good at attracting media attention. Best, Don Bauder
if the bar were a real force ( maybe honest is too strong a word in this case)
they would be after the likes of Theodore Pinnock, Kerry L. Steigerwalt, and
Golden State Law Group / Don Bokovoy just to point out a few from the top of the heap.
Theodore Pinnock was investigated hard, and I don't know why he did not receive any discpline.
But they did go after a trio of lawyers doing a similar but not exactly the same con as Pinnock. The Trevor Law Firm out of Beverly Hills. They shut them down and disbarred the three attorneys.
The Pacific Law Group is probably still under investigation.... I feel sorry for anyone that retained them....
The bar tries to keep these investigations quiet -- Pines being an exception. Best, Don Bauder
Those are well-known names, to be sure. Best, Don Bauder
Couldn't agree more Murph.... When I first heard about Pines I knew it was only a matter of tme berore he faced the wrath of the State Bar.
Pines seems to be seeking notoriety. Best, Don Bauder
yeah, get rid of this dirt-bag.
It appears you wouldn't give him a AAA rating. Best, Don Bauder