Attorney Misconduct: Diane Wasznicky Illegal Court Filing Not In Compliance With State Law - Ignored by Court Filing Clerks

Family Court Clerks File Non-Conforming Documents for Judge Pro Tem Attorneys - Reject Pro Per Documents

Monday Document Dump

As the court filing embedded at the bottom of this article reflects, Sacramento Family Court clerks file paperwork for Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section attorneys which, by law, they are required to reject for filing. The document does not conform with the state law requirements for filing documents in California courts. 

The California Rules of Court specify the format of papers filed with every court in the state. The requirements are mandatory, not optional. Under rule 2.118, court clerks must reject any papers that do not comply with court rules. Click here to view the rule. For example, under rule 2.108, line numbers must be placed in the left margin of papers filed with a court. 

Family court watchdogs assert that Diane Wasznicky and other
judge pro tem attorneys receive preferential treatment, and kickbacks
in the form of "rubber-stamped" court orders in exchange for running
the family court settlement conference program. 

The declaration filed by judge pro tem attorney Diane Wasznicky with the request for order embedded below is drafted on blank paper without line numbers. 

The illegal and unethical litigation tactic - which also is used by other judge pro tem lawyers - prevents the opposition from filing written evidentiary objections. 

Line numbers are required because in order to make written objections to false or inadmissible evidence contained in a declaration, the opposing party must, by law, specify the line numbers to show exactly which portions of the declaration contain false, misleading, or incomplete facts. If inaccurate evidence is not objected to it is by law considered accurate. 

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Divorce Attorneys Hal Bartholomew and Diane Wasznicky Sacramento Firm Kills Public Access To The Family Law Counselor - Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section Newsletter

Bartholomew & Wasznicky End Online Public Access To SCBA Family Law Section Newsletter

Family law firm Bartholomew and Wasznicky has stopped providing online public access to the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section newsletter The Family Law Counselor.

Prominent Sacramento family law firm Bartholomew & Wasznicky has cut off the public from online access to The Family Law Counselor, a monthly newsletter published by the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section. The firm website previously provided the only online, downloadable access to the newsletter, which Sacramento Family Court News often uses in reporting on family court issues. 

Family court watchdogs have pointed out that many articles in the Counselor reveal an overly collegial relationship between for-profit family law attorneys and family court judges and employees, who are paid by taxpayers to serve the public interest. 

About 70 percent of family court users cannot afford to hire a lawyer and are unrepresented, but, as the newsletters often reflect, superior court judges regularly provide important family court policy, procedure and staffing updates and other information only to the attorneys who represent the 30 percent. The same information is rarely made available to the 70 percent without lawyers, many of whom face an opposing party represented by a Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section member. 

Family court Judge Matthew J. Gary regularly offers the family law bar "Bench Tips" in The Family Law Counselor on family law, law and motion tactics, and courtroom procedure. Unrepresented parties seeking the same advice and information from the Family Law Facilitator Office - which ostensibly serves the needs of pro per litigants - are told the subjects are beyond the scope of the services the office provides, or, worse, given inaccurate information.   

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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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