Citizens across the State of Florida, and the entirety of the judicial system, it’s integrity and honor continue to be impacted even to this day. Today the Florida Bar released the Report and Recommendations:
This case aptly illustrates the manner in which one attorney, David Stern, either in his capacity as the sole managing partner of his firm or in his individual capacity, created chaos on the courts of the state of Florida, prejudicing the whole system as a whole.
These actions affected the Administration of Justice. For the court system, Judges, staff, and Clerk, there were extraordinary delays resulting in the waste of resources due to inaccurate representations and/or failures to appear. For the borrowers, whether in default or not, the attempt to obtain modifications or settle was impossible. For the lenders, the aim to obtain the collateral was delayed or lost because of the inaction or non-appearance resulting in dismissals. Thusly, creating a denial of equal justice to all parties.
The clients’ desire to move their matters rapidly is common. This desire cannot be achieved at the expense of competence and ethics.
This type of misconduct persisted and was again discovered in the spring of 2009. Assignments of mortgages were filed throughout the state which contained fraudulent notarizations. The Bar submitted 40 assignments into evidence which on their face were notarized by 11 different notaries and revealed that they were not notarized on the date reflected. Not only were the dates false, but the evidence established through the testimony of Kelly Scott that Cheryl Samons executed approximately 1,000 assignments per day.
His failure to exercise care resulted in massive injury to the system. The incidents were not isolated, but rather a representation of the culture of the firm, as to the low level of competence and ethics. He is the lawyer. It was his firm.
