November 2013

While the United States views itself as an  exemplar nation in regards to complying with the Rule of Law, America is in reality suffering from widespread and growing corruption, failures of governance and a ‘distorted political process’ that is overly dependent on wealthy funders, says Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

  P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } ‘The successful attack on corruption depends upon a strong sense of rule of law, but it’s equally true that widespread corruption makes a strong rule of law an impossible dream,’ Volcker told a packed audience of lawyers at the IBA’s Annual Conference in Boston.

April 27, 2010

On April 23, 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States denied the petition for “stay of execution” (of coercive confinement for civil contempt of court) by attorney Richard I. Fine in the case of Richard Fine v. Leroy Baca, Sheriff of Los Angeles County (09-1250). In doing so, the highest court of the land has refused to rectify a clear-cut case of judicial corruption in the state of California.

So who’s Richard Fine and how did he run afoul of the law? A distinguished attorney with a doctor of law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and a Ph.D. in international law from the London School of Economics, Mr. Fine has practiced law in government service and private practice for 42 years and achieved considerable distinction in both. He has served in the antitrust division of the Justice Department, founded the Anti-Trust Division in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office and was awarded the prestigious “Lawyer of the Decades” award in 2006. He has also won numerous cases on behalf of California taxpayers in state courts, including a 2003 California Supreme Court lawsuit that stopped salary payments to the governor and the legislators if they were unable to pass the budget.

April 30, 2010

In a disturbing case of politically motivated retaliation, prominent Beverly Hills attorney Dr. Richard Fine has been incarcerated in coercive solitary confinement for close to fourteen months at the Los Angeles County Men's Jail. That confinement will continue under a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. Dr. Fine was ostensibly jailed under civil contempt of court charges for a one-day-late filing of supporting case documentation in the Marina Strand Colony II Homeowners Association lawsuit against the County of Los Angeles and for his subsequent refusal to submit personal asset information to Superior Court Judge David Yaffe, the presiding judge in the case, to satisfy Yaffe's demand for a $47,000 fine. 

Yet the jail time actually stems from Dr. Fine's exposure of widespread judicial and government corruption after Dr. Fine argued in court that Yaffe received illegal payments from Los Angeles County, a party to the case. In his efforts to disqualify Judge Yaffe from ruling on the case, he cited Yaffe's failure to disclose this information on the required Economic Disclosure Form. When Dr. Fine refused to comply with the judge's retaliatory demands, Yaffe charged him with contempt and remanded him to the Los Angeles County Men's Jail.