First, today's (Oct 15) announcement from RuSA:
Please mark you calendar for this Thursday, October 17, 2013.
Conference Number 712-432-0075 Access Code 594637#
6pm Pacific/7pm Mountain/8pm Central/9pm Eastern
Please ensure distribution to your Assemblies
Michael T. Pines [Ex-California Attorney] is a warrior for Homeowners
Michael T. Pines has been a lawyer for over 30 years and has had a real estate license for over 20 years.
He handled litigation against the Resolution Trust Corporation ("RTC") during the last real estate savings and loan crisis and has been able to see firsthand how history has repeated itself. He proactively positioned himself within the distressed real estate and assets environment, providing resolutions to buyers and asset holders. He is a successful trial attorney with many victories in front of judges and juries. Michael has argued hundreds of cases at all levels of the courts including the Supreme Court of California. In Barrington v. A.H. Robbins, Michael changed the law in the state of California regarding statutes of limitation.
He also successfully argued cases that resulted in published decisions at the Courts of Appeal. Michael handled complex real estate and insurance litigation involving the insolvency of Glacier General Assurance Company, Cal-Farm Insurance Company, Allied Insurance Company, and others. He recovered tens of millions of dollars for his clients in those cases and established himself as one of the few experts in "financial guarantee bonds" insuring real estate transactions.
"I 'voluntarily' became 'inactive' as an attorney many years ago exactly because of things like this and had no desire to practice law ever again. I have always put my client's interests ahead of my own, and fought hard strictly within the bounds of the law and it didn't work very well. There are too many judges and attorneys that are not very smart, and/or lazy, or frankly corrupt. I hoped I had said good bye to law forever."
Just a few years ago, Michael himself was a fraud victim of EMC Mortgage Corporation/J.P. Morgan Chase. In taking action, Michael discovered he was not alone, and the loan servicer was fined $28 million in early 2008 by the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"). Michael was written up in the Salt Lake Tribune.
Michael now is a San Diego foreclosure activist that helps homeowners resist foreclosure by banks of their homes. He has advised many homeowners who have been evicted to move back into their homes because the foreclosure and evictions were illegal, in part due to "robo-signing" by bank employees.
For his efforts to help people save their homes, Michael has been arrested multiple times and has been disbarred from the California Bar yet remains unwavering in his resolve. Please don't miss this call and here Michael's story.
Republic for the United States of America
PO Box 68185
Portland, Oregon 97268
Michael T. Pines did not become "inactive" quite as voluntarily, nor as long ago, as he implies. It was clearly stated by the court in
Halajian v. Naiman (S.D. Cal. 6/2/2011) 2011 WL 2174002, 2011 u.s. dist. LEXIS 58737, that he was "involuntarily" disenrolled from the California bar. In fact, this was so unvoluntary that he didn't notify clients in his pending cases, who had to hear the bad news from the opposition lawyer,
Washington v. Richards (S.D. Cal. 8/11/11) 2011 WL 3564432, 2011 u.s.dist. LEXIS 89434.
He may have resisted this move by the California State Bar but it's hard to tell. He filed a lawsuit against the State of California and some of its constituent govt agencies (which are not named in the decision), referring to documents that he supposedly was attaching as exhibits - but he did not attach the exhibits and the court could not figure out what the suit involved. The court ordered Pines to file more papers but Pines did nothing further and the court finally dismissed the case. Its decision described Pines as "the subject of various criminal cases in Southern California, citing his own pleading for that information.
Pines v. State (C.D. Cal. 11/23/11) 2011 u.s.dist. LEXIS 136121 (not in WestLaw).
On Oct 17, 2012, the Supreme Court of California ordered "that Michael T. Pines, State Bar Number 77771, is
disbarred from the practice of law in California and his name is stricken from the roll of attorneys."
Pines on Discipline (Cal. Supm. 10/17/12) 2012 Cal. LEXIS 10389 (not in WestLaw).
It is not entirely clear WHY he was disbarred but a smattering of cases in he was the lawyer (and some of these were cases from which he had dropped out) suggest that he was missing deadlines, failing to turn over various documents to the opposition contrary to court orders, failing to submit various pleadings or responses, and an indication that he had encouraged a client to be less than candid on the witness stand. Some of this may indicate emotional problems more than outright dishonesty.
Can one sue a fake government, or does one need to penetrate its fake sovereign immunity first?* 
