Tag: John Rakowsky

Legal Difficulties Loom for Judge John Rakowsky

A month ago, we reported that Lexington attorney and chief magistrate judge John Rakowsky was a defendant in a lawsuit filed in Las Vegas, Nevada federal court, Case No. 2:12-cv-02161-GMN-CWH.

The lawsuit is for Breach of Contract, Breach of Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, Intentional Misrepresentation and Conversion of Property. The Plaintiff is Center for Legal Reform (CLR), a Nevada Non-profit Corporation as successor in trust to Resolution Settlement Corporation (RSC), a former Nevada corporation, which provided expense funds for the Southern Holdings case.

This case has the potential to fully expose the South Carolina legal system as a good ole boys club that protects its own at the expense of the law, fairness and justice.

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Judge John Rakowsky Sued in Nevada

Attorney and Lexington Chief Magistrate Judge John Rakowsky will have to answer charges in a Nevada lawsuit that he misappropriated funds from his trust account intended for legal expenses in the Southern Holdings case.

The action, Case No. 2:12-cv-02161-GMN-CWH, was brought by Center for Legal Reform (CLR), a Nevada Non-profit Corporation as successor in trust to Resolution Settlement Corporation (RSC), a former Nevada corporation.

The suit brings four causes of action, Breach of Contract, Breach of Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, Intentional Misrepresentation and Conversion of Property.

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S.C. Legal System Stacked Against Laymen

There seems to be a de facto informal system within the S. C legal system whereby officers of the court protect each other regardless of what laws, regulations and the code of conduct require.

Those of you who have served in the military, especially the Army, may be familiar with the term West Point Protection Association.

This was a term derisively used, especially during the Vietnam War, to describe an informal system whereby West Point graduates protected the records of each other regardless of rank or other considerations. One West Pointer protected another regardless of what actually happened in the field.

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Smearing the Courts, Dismantling Justice

A S.C. Hotline, Grand Strand Daily Exclusive

By Paul Gable

It came to my attention recently that Stephanie Weissenstein, attorney for John Rakowsky, sent to the Court copies of two articles from Grand Strand Daily along with a letter dated January 9, 2012. While I appreciate Ms. Weissenstein making the court aware of the articles, I do question the logic stated in her letter.

In the letter, Weissenstein refers to the articles as “this slanderous campaign in effort to intimidate and harass my client and me, while also smearing the Courts.”

First of all, surely Weissenstein understands that the articles would fall under laws of libel, not slander, if she could ignore or negate the first amendment and prove malice aforethought. Second, her claims of intimidation, harassment and smearing fall apart when the facts included in the articles are considered.

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Is Justice Truly Blind?

An accounting for expense funds in the Southern Holdings case provided Sep. 15, 2011, to James Spencer, former CEO of Southern Holdings, Inc., does not conform to S.C. reporting requirements for attorney trust funds.

The accounting, which, reportedly, comes from trust account records of attorney John Rakowsky, was provided to Spencer by attorney Stephanie Weissenstein of the Desa, Ballard, Weissenstein Law Firm. Weissenstein is representing Rakowsky in an interpleader action of the remaining Southern Holdings expense funds held in trust by Rakowsky. Rakowsky represented Spencer and his co-plaintiffs in the Southern Holdings case,

Under deposits, an amount of $67,500 is shown with no identification of who provided the funds or when they were provided. Rule 417 of the S.C. Judicial Department and Rule 1.15 of the South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct require the date, source and description of each amount deposited to be included in the records.

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