Definitions:
Home Cooking: A slang expression indicating the fear held by out-of-state or out-of-town defendants in a lawsuit that they will not receive a fair trial because of jury prejudice or because judges will not accord out-of-town lawyers the same credibility and leniency granted to local lawyers.
Now folks, what about Attorney Daniel Talbert’s telling lies to the Judge Jamie Hodges? What are the rules and what can be done about that? Such impediments to justice have gone on lone enough and must be stopped.
Here are the results of our research:
§ 84-15. Creation of North Carolina State Bar as an agency of the State. There is hereby created as an agency of the State of North Carolina, for the purposes and with the powers hereinafter set forth, the North Carolina State Bar.
§ 84-23. Powers of Council (State Bar). (a) The Council is vested, as an agency of the State, with the authority to regulate the professional conduct of licensed lawyers and State Bar certified paralegals.
NC State Bar–Rules of Professional Conduct
Rule 1.2(d) A lawyer shall not counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent, but a lawyer may discuss the legal consequences of any proposed course of conduct with a client and may counsel or assist a client to make a good faith effort to determine the validity, scope, meaning or application of the law.
State Bar Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 3.3 Candor toward a Tribunal (Court, Judge) says, in applicable part, that:
(a)A lawyer shall not knowingly:
(1) make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact or law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer;
(3) offer evidence that the lawyer knows to be false. If a lawyer, the lawyer’s client, or a witness called by the lawyer, has offered material evidence and the lawyer comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures, including, if necessary, disclosure to the tribunal. A lawyer may refuse to offer evidence, other than the testimony of a defendant in a criminal matter, that the lawyer reasonably believes is false.
(d) A lawyer shall not counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent, but a lawyer may discuss the legal consequences of any proposed course of conduct with a client and may counsel or assist a client to make a good faith effort to determine the validity, scope, meaning or application of the law.
So folks, the North Carolina State Bar has the power to punish lawyers for actions that are against their own rules. Telling lies and making deceptive statements to a Judge are clearly AGAINST the State Bar’s own rules.
But SOMEBODY has to inform the State Bar about what has happened. Somebody has to file a complaint with the State Bar. Since I was there and heard it all perhaps that SOMEBODY should be me.
Therefore, that is exactly what I plan to do. File a State Bar Complaint myself or provide the information, such as this article, to others in order that they might file this complaint. Anybody want to do what is necessary here in Cleveland County and everywhere else in North Carolina? Any reader has my permission to use this article to file a formal complaint to the NC State Bar against the improper actions of Attorney Daniel Talbert. And, use ME as a witness.
I expect this process will be used from now own, when appropriate, to bring justice to the Courtrooms of Cleveland County, North Carolina and elsewhere.