Sacramento Divorce and Family Law Firm Woodruff, O'Hair & Posner & Salinger Sued for $1 Million in Legal Malpractice Case

Prominent family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger is being sued for more than $1 million in damages for legal malpractice in connection with a family court case. Divorce attorneys Thomas Woodruff, Robert O'Hair, Jeffrey Posner and Paula Salinger are partners at the firm, and all hold the office of temporary judge in Sacramento County Superior Court.

Nationally recognized legal malpractice attorney Edward Freidberg last week filed a first amended complaint in a malpractice lawsuit alleging more than $1 million in damages against well known Sacramento family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair & Posner, Inc., and firm partner D. Thomas Woodruff. The full court filing is embedded at the end of this article.

The alleged malpractice occurred in 2001 and the firm is now known as Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger. Partners Tom Woodruff, Bob O'Hair, Jeff Posner and Paula Salinger have been involved in a number of other controversies, including filing counterfeit court documents, attempting to obtain a final dissolution judgment while an appeal in the same case was pending, filing documents not in compliance with state law, and, according to family court watchdogs, collusion with family court judges.

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Woodruff O'Hair Posner & Salinger Inc Sued for Malpractice and Over $1 Million Damages by Former Client: Edward Freidberg Now Representing Plaintiff

Malpractice Attorney Edward Freidberg Takes Helm of $1 Million Legal Malpractice Case Against Woodruff, O'Hair & Posner

Legal malpractice attorney Edward Freidberg 

Nationally recognized malpractice attorney Edward Freidberg last week became the attorney-of-record representing plaintiff Wei-Jen (Harrison) Luan in her long-running legal malpractice case against prominent family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair and Posner Inc., and firm partner Thomas Woodruff. The original lawsuit was filed in 2004, and the firm is now known as Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner and Salinger Inc. 

Luan alleges that Woodruff's malpractice during her divorce resulted in more than $1 million in losses in connection with the sale of real property held in a family trust. Freidberg is a veteran professional liability attorney and pioneer in the area of legal malpractice litigation, according to the firm's website: 

In 1975 the California Supreme Court affirmed a legal malpractice jury judgment Mr. Freidberg won for his client which broadened the boundaries of liability of attorneys. This landmark decision has been cited in over 140 decisions since. Smith v. Lewis (1975) 13 Cal.3d 349, 78 A.L.R. 3d 321.Time Magazine in 1976 described Freidberg as "pioneering in what promises to be a busy new activity in the field of professional malpractice: Big-money court cases against negligent lawyers." His work in legal malpractice was profiled in a 16-minute segment of the CBS news program "60 Minutes" in 1987, was featured in a lengthy front page article in the Wall Street Journal and was chronicled in the "Million Dollar Lawyers" by Joseph C. Gulden (1978, G.P. Putnam and Sons, New York).

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Sacramento Divorce Attorneys Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger $1 Million Legal Malpractice Case Again Referred for Trial and Settlement Conference Dates

Judge David Brown Denies Status Conference Request - Orders Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger $1 Million Legal Malpractice Case to Trial Setting Process, Again

D. Thomas Woodruff and his firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner

and Salinger are accused of legal malpractice in a lawsuit

alleging over $1 million in damages.

In a tersely worded order, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge David Brown has denied a status conference request by attorneys in the legal malpractice case against prominent Sacramento family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner and Salinger, firm president D. Thomas Woodruff, and real estate attorney Howard Stagg. On June 3, Robert Johnson, an attorney with the law firm representing Woodruff and his firm, made a written request to Judge Brown on behalf of all attorneys in the case for a Status Conference "at your earliest convenience." Click here to view the request letter. 

In a minute ordered issued a week later, Judge Brown summarily denied the request and re-referred the case "to the Trial Setting Process for selection of trial and MSC dates." The denial inferred that the parties had violated a prior order issued by the judge on October 30, 2012 in which he ordered the same referral for trial setting and Mandatory Settlement Conference. Click here to view Judge Brown's order. As we previously reported, court records show that a Civil Settlement Conference was scheduled for April 4, 2013 in Department 59, and a Long Cause Civil Trial Assignment was calendared for hearing on May 14 in Department 47. The case docket appears to indicate that those events did not take place.

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Sacramento Superior Court Controversy: Court Clerks Allow Part-Time Judge Lawyers to File Counterfeit Entry of Judgment Forms

Sacramento Family Court clerks file these counterfeit entry of judgment forms for local divorce lawyers who also work as part-time judges in the same court, according to a government whistleblower.

Color of Law: The Conspiracy to Discourage and Obstruct Pro Per Appeals
A Sacramento Family Court Report Special Investigation: Part 4.

Sacramento Family Court News has obtained court records indicating that family court clerks allow judge pro tem attorneys to file counterfeit "Notice of Entry" paperwork in place of the Notice of Entry of Judgment that court clerks are by law required to file and serve on all parties.

The sham notice conceals a critical appeal rights notification from indigent, unrepresented family court litigants, and at the same time ostensibly constricts the time frame for filing an appeal from 180-days to just 60-days, according to a family court whistleblower. The fake form also omits an important clerk's certificate of mailing, which the California Supreme Court has said is designed to avoid ambiguity in appeal time frames.

Woodruff O'Hair Posner & Salinger Inc Malpractice Case: Settlement Conference and Trial Scheduled in $1 million Lawsuit Against Firm and Partner Tom Woodruff

Judge Pro Tem D. Thomas Woodruff and Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger $1 Million Legal Malpractice Case Set for Trial

Wei-Jen (Harrison) Luan is suing for legal malpractice family law attorney and Judge Pro Tem D. Thomas Woodruff and the firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger. The suit was filed in 2004 and claims more than $1 million in damages.

A settlement conference and trial have been calendared for the long-running legal malpractice lawsuit against family law attorney and Judge Pro Tem Thomas Woodruff, and the law firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner and Salinger, Inc. The settlement conference is scheduled for April 4, 2013, with trial set to begin on May 14 in Department 47 of the downtown Gordon D. Schaber Courthouse. 

Woodruff and the firm are being sued by Wei-Jen (Harrison) Luan, who alleges that Woodruff's malpractice during her divorce resulted in more than $1 million in losses in connection with the botched sale of real property held in a family trust. According to the 2004 lawsuit complaint: 

"Attorney Woodruff's breaches of duty, as alleged above, were a proximate and legal cause of substantial damage, loss and injury to plaintiff. Plaintiff's damages include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following: the purchaser sued Wei-Jen for specific performance and damages, claiming in excess of $1 million in losses. Wei-Jen is threatened with suit from the brokers for commissions in excess of $100,000 that would have been paid had the sale and exchange been consummated."

Click here to read the complaint for legal malpractice filed against Woodruff and Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger. 

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Whistleblower: Judge Laurie Ignoring Serial State Law Violations by Divorce Attorneys Who Work as Part-Time Judges

[UPDATED: This article contains updates for attorneys who complied with the Code of Judicial Ethics after this article was published]

A Sacramento divorce attorney has revealed that colleagues who also work as temporary judges are breaking state judicial ethics laws. 

A Sacramento lawyer charges that prominent family law attorneys are unlawfully using for promotional purposes their status as part-time, temporary judges.
  
The ethically-challenged attorneys represent a who's who of Sacramento area family law lawyers, including Camille Hemmer, Bunmi Awoniyi, Fredrick Cohen, Steven Burlingham, John Sokol, Jeffrey Posner, Mark Ambrose, Joseph Winn, Nancy Perkovich, John O'Malley and the firm Bartholomew & Wasznicky.

The California Code of Judicial Ethics [pdf] prohibits both full-time and part-time judges from using their status as a judge to advance their own financial or personal interests. For example, a judge cannot use her status as a judge to persuade a police officer not to write her a speeding ticket. Canon 2B(2) of the ethics code provides that

"A judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office or use the judicial title in any manner, including oral or written communication, to advance the pecuniary or personal interests of the judge or others." 

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