Eulogy for a Decent Judge: Hon. Marvin Shoob, 1923 – 2017

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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I just read that retired Federal Judge Marvin Shoob died. He was 94. And he was, in my opinion, a thoroughly decent jurist and a gentleman.

Marvin Shoob, the embodiment of an independent federal judiciary and a jurist who consistently protected the powerless and disadvantaged, died Monday at his home in Atlanta. He was 94.

Shoob retired in February 2016 as a senior U.S. District Court judge after 36 years on the bench.

“It has been an honor and privilege to serve as a United States district judge,” Shoob wrote in a letter, announcing his retirement. “For this opportunity, I am most grateful.”

The AJC recounted some of his more famous decisions, decisions that don’t all necessarily square with my legal outlook:

Among his most noteworthy decisions, Shoob ruled licensed firearms owners could not carry guns into parts of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport; Fulton County had to improve conditions at his overcrowded, dangerous jail; Cobb County had to remove its Ten Commandments display at its courthouse; and Georgia had to place residents with development disabilities into community settings, not making them institutionalized — a ruling upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999.

I disagre(ed) with all of these except for the jailhouse case. That’s okay, as minds can differ, and do. However, it is not the disagreements I remember, but my single case before Judge Shoob, my only case ever in the Northern District.

My guy was sued in the N. Dist. over a copyright issue. Due to his misplaced reliance on the lies of a certain unnamed mega-transnational insurance company, he found himself with a default judgment. He also found himself in a court far from home and far from where the alleged transgression supposedly happened.

Judge Shoob did three things for us: First, he “opened default” as a matter of fairness; he believed the maxim that “justice abhors a default”. It was the decent and legal thing to do. Second, he transferred the case, at our request, to the Southern District – where it really belonged. Home field advantage is real and never hurts. Third, he put a verbal whipping on the opposing counsel, who had been until that point … haughty to say the least.

Once back home, we wrapped the case (a really ridiculous but eye-opening matter) up with a neat little settlement. That was … seven, eight? years ago??? Without Judge Shoob’s interventions, the case might still be in court.

Come to think of it, he’s the same federal judge that slapped down Georgia’s illegal “implied consent” law, not too long ago, as a violation of Due Process. Another sound decision for freedom.

marvin-shoob

Rich Addicks/AJC.

God’s speed, Marvin Shoob.

Money Vultures Panic in Georgia

01 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ 2 Comments

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banks, banksters, Constitution, Courts, debt, due process, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, federal court, Federal Reserve, fiat money, Fourth Amendment, garnishment, General Assembly, Georgia, Jesus, law, Marvin Shoob, money, money-lenders, panic, The People, the poor

Happy October the first! I cover a lot of legal issues here. Many of them are bad – like the New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the police no longer need a warrant to search your vehicle. Fourth Amendment be damned.

However, I am so happy to report good news! For the economically disadvantaged among us (many and growing) and those in danger of joining them (most of the rest) the news doesn’t get much better than this:

Last month a Federal Judge struck down Georgia’s debt collection garnishment law as Unconstitutional! See also: here and here.

The Judge was Marvin Shoob, whom I know from experience to be a class act and one of the fairest jurists around.

Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Senior Judge Marvin Shoob said the statute violated constitutional guarantees of due process by not giving debtors enough notice about the sorts of funds that are exempt from garnishment and how to claim those exemptions. He said the statute also didn’t provide a procedure to adjudicate exemption claims quickly enough.

Although the ruling rests on protecting the rights of individual consumers whose funds may be protected from creditors, it could affect all sorts of garnishments, including those that arise from business disputes and child support orders. Lawyers are debating whether simple changes in forms and procedures can allow garnishments to proceed prior to any legislative fix or further court ruling.

“People are panicking,” said Harriet Isenberg, who co-chairs the creditors’ rights section of the State Bar of Georgia.

Alyson Palmer, Collections-Lawyers-Scramble-After-Garnishment-Law-Is-Struck, Fulton County Daily Report, September 10, 2015.

Good. Let them panic. They deserve it for a change as do their money-changing masters.

The subject case stemmed from a judgment collection action by a major credit card company against a poor man in Gwinnett County. I know these cases well. When I was a law clerk I reviewed hundreds of them – each the same. The banks file suit with no evidence whatsoever that any debt is owed and in 90% of their cases they win a default judgment.

It’s a terrible shame. They don’t have any proof. One or two Request for Admission questions and these cases would be dismissed. The poor don’t know. The banks (and the State) don’t care.

Once the bank has a default judgment they file a wage or bank garnishment in an attempt to recover some of their (proof-less) monies. As Judge Shoob points out the garnishment procedure is as crooked as the rest of the process.

As an aside, even if these banks could prove they had loaned money in the first place, I still wouldn’t feel bad for them losing it. It never really existed, being a product of the Federal Reserve’s illegal funny money ponzi scheme. More on that another time.

For now the banksters and their vulture collection agents will have to comply with the law. Otherwise, “using a statute that has been declared unconstitutional to seek collection of consumer debt arguably would violate the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.” Daily Report, supra. That means the bank would end up owing and facing stiff penalties. Ha!

Banks and other large companies run the State of Georgia. They will have this ruling nullified somewhere and soon. There’s even talk of a special session of the ordinarily do-nothing General Assembly in order to bring the law into compliance with the Constitution. Imagine that.

For now the banksters are feeling the panic their ancient predecessors felt when a certain Street Preacher ran them out of the Temple. The rest of us are feeling a little relief. Thank you Judge Shoob.