Letter To Congress

June 18, 2007

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and
United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary

Senate and House Judiciary Members of The United States Congress, we come before you as two citizens of a growing group with a mission. To those of you who are highly trained attorneys, we ask that you shed your traditional views. To those of you who are non-lawyers, we ask for your undivided indulgence. For, above all else, you are our elected representatives, our law makers, who have the power to spark necessary change.

A little recognized course of conduct begging for correction ought to be at the top of our Nation’s agenda. It is a major disease worsening in the United States Judicial System. It is having a very significant effect on the economy of the country, the mental and general health of its citizens and the well being of the future, our children. It is a disease that has gone untreated for far too long. It is called “fraud on the court.” Our Republic has operated for so long with little direct oversight in your ambit of responsibility that “fraud on the court” has become pervasive in a multitude of venues, destroying society, traumatizing our citizens and robbing future generations of their legacies. Today, “fraud on the court” has become business as usual, and it will not yield easily to reform without corrective legislation. For so long, we’ve contented ourselves with the myth that the judiciary is organized to police itself, when nothing could be further from the truth. “Fraud on the court” has become so pervasive that most honest practitioners are unaware of its reach. Yet, you, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, have it within your power to remedy these far reaching and routine wrongs against society.

“Fraud on the court” occurs on a regular basis in every courtroom across America, and is hardly ever challenged. The reason being “fraud on the court” must involve an officer of the court. Unfortunately, the vast majority of members of the legal profession do not have the courage to pursue righting such a terrible wrong inflicted upon unassuming innocent citizens of our country. It is because of our personal experiences[1] that we have become all too familiar with the devastation “fraud on the court” inflicts, especially in the bankruptcy arena.

Examining the history of Congress reveals that it knew the problem existed, especially in the bankruptcy courts, and thus stated its concern in the Matter of Arkansas Co., (cites are available in the written version, 798 F.2d645,649 (3d Cir. 1986)).

“It is significant that Congress chose to place the requirement of court approval for the employment of an attorney, accountant, or other professional directly in the Bankruptcy Code in 1978. 11 U.S.C. 1103(a). The legislative history makes clear that the 1978 Code was designed to eliminate the abuses and detrimental practices that had been found to prevail. Among such practices was the cronyism of the “bankruptcy ring” and attorney control of bankruptcy cases. In fact, the House Report noted that “in practice...the bankruptcy system operates more for the benefit of attorneys than for the benefit of creditors.” (H.R. No. 595, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 92, reprinted in 1978 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 5963, 6053).

So, in their wisdom, your Congressional colleagues knew such cronyism and lack of enforcement existed. The bankruptcy code is drawn with lofty idealism:

“All bankruptcy filings are required to be 'in good faith.' This requirement comes from Congress' intent that bankruptcy may be used to give people a fresh start after some event, or series of events, left them in financial straits. (The U.S. Congress, by the way, wrote and periodically revises the Bankruptcy Code which is Title 11 of the United States Code. In this way, Congress considers the balance of power between creditor and debtor interests, and is able to maintain fairness in the balance by virtue of its power to make and amend these laws). Bankruptcy is not intended to give debtors an unfair advantage over their creditors. And it certainly is not intended to protect people who have acted deliberately to cause harm to others. But bankruptcy is intended to help honest debtors, who would otherwise exist (perhaps chronically depressed) under an unrelenting burden of debt, get back on their feet. Congress' rationale is that it is better to have a mentally healthy and productive population than to punish people for years, if not decades, for their financial mistakes.”

Yet, here we are in 2007 and violations remain unchecked to this day, affecting citizens and their companies. Hard working people and honest debtors are sustaining significant financial and emotional harm in favor of a small group of greedy attorneys who violate the Rules of the Bankruptcy Code getting away with it because the Judiciary does not prevent and punish “fraud on the court.” Members of Congress, it is your job to enact legislation to clearly and concisely define “fraud on the court” so it can be enforced notwithstanding the perpetrator. The privilege of practicing law was never intended as a license to bilk the public.

Stemming from the Court’s inability to deal with “fraud on the court,” a public health hazard runs rampant compelling the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to address this crisis immediately. When one is promised that “we who labor here seek only the truth” and that promise is broken, the pain and loss is internalized traumatic stress. The research is now clear: “fraud on the court” is inflicting extreme stress on a segment of society with unfortunate results of violence against judges, attorneys, fellow workers, family members and complete strangers. It is within your power, and is your duty to protect the citizens of this country from “fraud on the court.”

The Court’s tolerance of children left without their entitled parenting and assets due to “fraud on the court” is a continuing legacy of infamy. You must intervene now, and assure that “fraud on the court” does not rob anyone further of the justice this Nation promises.

The legislation we propose is a bill that will make “fraud on the court” a mandatory law enforced by the judiciary. We want the language to be straightforward, absolutely preventing the legal profession and the judiciary from redefining and spinning its intent in order to avoid accountability and prosecution.

1. The elements of “fraud on the court” are clearly outlined in Demjanjuk . Petrovsky, 10 F.3d 338 (6th Cir. 1994):

a) Must involve an Officer of the Court
b) Directed at the Judicial machinery
c) That is intentionally false, willfully blind to the truth, or in reckless disregard for the truth
(whether intentionally or not)
d) That is a positive averment or is concealment when one is under a duty to disclose
e) That deceives the court.

2. Officers of the Court who perpetrate, aid or abet “fraud on the court” shall be banned from the judiciary.

3. All proceedings, of any nature whatsoever, affected by the proximate cause of “fraud on the court” shall be null and void ab initio.

4. Officers of the court shall be subject to strict liability. They will be responsible for pecuniary, economic, and emotional damages. Emotional damages shall be classified as a post-traumatic stress disorder, legal abuse syndrome, heretofore named “LAS.” Officers of the Court shall also be subject to punitive damages, imprisonment, and fines.

5. In the course of a legal proceeding, when an allegation of “fraud on the court” is raised it shall stay the proceedings.

a) The allegation shall be in the form of a sworn Affidavit

b) An evidentiary hearing shall be held within 120 days of the Affidavit’s filing.

6. Statute of limitation protection will remain unavailable in all cases for “fraud on the court.”

In closing, we respectfully request that you conduct Congressional Hearings and invite us to address the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, so we can help express the grievous nature of this disease. Our Supreme Court best expresses the need to define “fraud on the court.”

HAZEL-ATLAS GLASS CO. v. HARTFORD-EMPIRE CO., 64 S. Ct. 997, 322 U.S. 238 (U.S. 05/15/1944) “Furthermore, tampering with the administration of justice in the manner indisputably shown here involves far more than an injury to a single litigant. It is a wrong against the institutions set up to protect and safeguard the public, institutions in which fraud cannot complacently be tolerated consistently with the good order of society. Surely it cannot be that preservation of the integrity of the judicial process must always wait upon the diligence of litigants. The public welfare demands that the agencies of public justice be not so impotent that they must always be mute and helpless victims of deception and fraud.”

Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,

Karin Huffer
legalabuse@adelphia.net

Meryl M. Lanson
mlanson@bellsouth.net

cc: Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales
Mr. Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, FBI
Mr. Clifford J. White, III, Director, EOUST
Mr. Robert I. Cusick, Director, OGE
Mr. Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, USDOJ


[1] We have attached as Exhibits our personal stories so that you can see first hand the destruction that “fraud on the court” has had on our families, and those who depended on our successes.

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United States Department of Justice
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