Sovereign citizen won't be getting a free Range Rover from Herb Chambers; in fact, he now owes dealership's lawyers more than $41,000
A federal judge in Boston has ordered a Rhode Island sovereign citizen to pay attorneys for a Herb Chambers dealership $41,457 for the time they had to spend cleaning up the legal mess he created for the dealership after it refused to give him the free Range Rover he wanted.
Herb Chambers Jaguar Land Rover of Boston sued Deric Marcell Thompson of Woonsocket in April after he responded to its rejection of a $3.5 quintillion "certificate of deposit" for the SUV he wanted by filing a series of IRS and UCC documents that had the potential to interfere with the dealership's ability to obtain financing for the vehicles it was offering.
In July, US District Court Judge William Young sided with Herb Chambers over Thompson. Thompson, who represented himself, had responded to the dealership's filings with long, rambling motions, several with old US postage stamps attached with his signature over the stamps, in which he cited various legal-sounding doctrines on why Chambers owed him a pricey 2022 SUV plus, because of all the time he had been forced to spend on the case, another 14 of the vehicles, plus "free unlimited full maintenance" plus more than $4 million, to be paid in silver dollars rather than "Federal Reserve notes."
Young held a bench trial, lasting a day, and basically told Thompson to knock it off.
Young agreed with Chambers attorney Edward Cooley to set a value on the time Cooley and an associate spent on the case, both for the lawsuit and for efforts to wipe Thompson's bogus IRS and UCC filings. Cooley responded he and his associate had spent a total of 146 1/4 hours on the case and that because of his long-standing association with Chambers, he had given them a rate of $340 an hour, rather than the $400 to $450 he normally charges. His associate's fee of $210 an hour was also discounted from her usual rate, he wrote.
Thompson, who acknowledged in one filing he was a Sovereign, used other, more subtle clues to show he is not bound by so-called laws, such as spelling his name with odd punctuation, for example, :Deric-Marcell: Thompson: but sometimes a less formal Deric-Marcell: Thompson and sometimes followed by a copyright symbol and a notice that his name is "properly spelled only in upper and lower case letters." Also, he was a "defendant-in-error" and, of course, sui juris. His most recent filing, this week, questioned whether Chambers's attorney actually represented Chambers.
Young rejected that line of questioning and then formally filed an order requiring Thompson to fork over the money.
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Comments
I assume he'll be paying with
I assume he'll be paying with the same $3.5 quintillion certificate of deposit that Herb Chambers wouldn't take.
If you told me this was some kind of absurdist
performance art in the style of Andy Kaufman, I might believe you.
it's so absurd
that he'll have to run for office as a Republican if this sad, sad, sad, sad play is to have a second act.
I'm kind of irritated at
I'm kind of irritated at referring to this loon as a "sovereign citizen" as if that's actually a thing.
It is actually a thing
It is a type of loon.
Herb will never see a penny
At this point Herb would probably be happy to just have this guy go the f*ck away. He certainly knows he's never going to get paid. It's sad that someone can hijack the system and be such a nuisance.
146.5 hours? Really?
So the effort they put into this was the equivalent of an attorney working full time on this and absolutely nothing else, every workday for 4 weeks? Is that credible? "Discounted" hourly rates are always a red flag.
Not four weeks in a row
Spread out over several months.
I understand that
which is why I used the word "equivalent."
try contacting the IRS and get a sense of what's involved
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/national-taxpayer-advocate-issues-midyear-r....
In addition to the Covid backlog, they are so understaffed that they frequently will not even allow callers to wait on hold.
no one respects attorneys
Done correctly, it takes time.
exactly, and time is money
It has nothing to do with respecting anyone, but no one works for free. Do you expect professionals to give away their time because an assignment is too expensive for the client to pay? Try going to your friend's grocery store and munching on an apple or two while shooting the breeze. Attorneys hopefully say no right up front when the cost outweighs the benefit.
Have you dealt with bureaucracy?
The attorneys' time wasn't just for the lawsuit. It was for efforts to wipe Thompson's bogus IRS and UCC filings. Getting those expunged was likely extremely time-consuming.
I can see it
The lunacy in this guy's cases probably required more scrutiny because there's so much shit on the wall you need to be careful of what could be buried under it.
Then there's dealing with both the courts and a couple of different federal agencies where you need to ensure that all filings, forms, communications and so forth are done in a complete & timely manner.
Even not being in the legal field, but having dealt with federal bureaucracy, I can easily see spending that amount of time without padding it.
According to his LinkedIn, he
According to his LinkedIn, he is "Positively charged, bubbly with a great sense of humor, and attention to detail!"
... We can see that all right.
It also says he's a Certified Life Coach!
Can you IMAGINE what one of his coaching sessions must be like!
He would have had more success
If he went for something more realistic, like a 2013 Toyota Camry.
Good.
ANY plaintiff who loses a civil case should be required to pay the defendant's costs.
I feel like we've argued this before
When the big guy is in the wrong, the little guy is likely already at a disadvantage. So what, big bad company can hire every lawyer that's passed the Bar to fight you when you sue them, then you have to pay for all of those lawyers?
Disagree
You sue your client because they didn’t pay you. You loose because the jury found the contract was vague on one specific stipulation of the work although most lawyers thought you had a strong case. Should you owe your client legal fees?
No, the bar is significantly higher than just losing a case
It's not just that you lose, the courts have to subsequently/separately rule that it was a frivolous suit.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIII/TitleII/Chapter231/Se...
Frivolous suit, hmm?
Does bat-shit crazy count as frivolous. This so called "Quintillionaire" claims to have access to more money then the entire world has in hard currency.
https://money.howstuffworks.com/how-much-money-is-in-the-world.htm
Follow the thread
The comment I was replying to said, "You loose [sic] because the jury found the contract was vague on one specific stipulation of the work although most lawyers thought you had a strong case."
I was demonstrating that their scenario was a non-starter because losing in that situation would in no way lead to your having to pay the legal fees of the opposing side. It is a secondary judgement to determine if a case was frivolous that this scenario clearly wouldn't reach.
None of that takes away from Mr Range Rover's "bat-shit crazy" case meeting that qualification.
I'd agree to that rule, IF
I'd agree to that rule, IF our legal system typically came to the correct conclusions with a minimum of costs and delays. Unfortunately the reality is quite the opposite.
Just stop
Unless you are willing to listen to actual lawyers here who have repeatedly and patiently explained WHY this isn't a thing in the US, please stop posting it.