There are Godfather style bullies and petty bulles, but those who seek power, achieve power and then abuse their power, (whether on the grand scale of Abramoff or the petty scale of local lawyers and judges who view corruption and pay-off’s as their “daily entitlement”) are seeing their come-uppance.

In New York City, (the cultural belly-button of the universe), the hunt is on.

Clarence Norman, former head of the Brooklyn Democratice Political Machine has been convicted; Michael H. Feinberg, Surrogate Court Judge in Brooklyn’s “King’s County Surrogate’s Court has been de-frocked; and the attorneys who got their political perks in the way of fiducairy appointments and “enhanced” commissions, are being investigated as this reporter writes.

Interestingly, New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg, (in a Daily News Article published a few days after he “successfully bought the election”), pledged to end judicial corruption in the King’s County Surrogate’s Court and in his city.

But also interestingly, this reporter learned that one of this countries most courageous and admirable champions of justice, an investigative journalist about whom the film “THE THIN BLUE LIE” was made, (a must-see for the rightous); a man who, (I’m told by Daniel Helfgott, writer and producer of the movie, “THE THIN BLUE LIE”), has won 5 pulitzer prizes for his journalistic exposure of political, judicial and police corruption… is currenlty employed by none other than Bloomberg News, (in New York City), heading up it’s Investigative Reporting Division.

So why isn’t Mayor Bloomberg, (who obvioulsy has something to say about how Bloomberg News is run), not allowing (if not begging) Jonathan Neumann, investigative reporter extraodinaire, to investigate and expose the blatant and pervasive judicial and political corruption in the King’s County Surrogate’s Court and in fact in most N.Y.C. Surrogate’s Courts?

The answer amounts to what seems to be “journalitic jurisdiction”.
The excuse: Bloomberg News is a Business “Rag” and doesn’t have “jurisdiction” to investigate Political scams.

But aren’t the corrupt schemes of judges and lawyers very BIG BUSINESS for those lawyers and judges who benefit from the perks of being part of the ongoing corrupt political machine… the residuary “Tammany” influence in New York?

You greying baby boomers, must remember Tammany Hall.

And so I ask you, now that Abramoff is “squeaking”, New York’s Judge Feinberg has been defrocked and his pals, the Rosenthal Associates are being investigated for participating in their lucrative judicial/political scheme enabling them to pay themselves handsomely for bleeding decedent’s estates…

…what is being done to compensate and/or protect and defend the known and ongoing victims of these judicial scams?

NY probate law (which has loopholes which enable and facilitate lawyer misconduct, big enough to drive a truck through) only protects lawyers and judges who seek to abuse their power.

There are little or no viable options for “victim redress” or “restitution” for appreciated or personal damage in the annals of probate case law. Once a decedent’s estate is spent on litigation costs, the show is over.

One case in point is a law that states that “the only party that can sue a lawyer for malpractice is the one who hired him”.

So what happens when the attorney’s negligence or misconduct is only discovered “after” the decedent’s death, when the beneficairies find themseves victims of careless or unethical lawyering… and the corrupt judge appoints (and pays) one his friends to act as a fiducary, and orders his friends fees paid by the decedent’s estate?

The “good ol’ Boys club mentality kicks in and the beneficiaries are either coerced into settling (often against their interests, if they ever want to see a dime, because if their lawyers don’t take all the money, the court will give it to it’s pals as fiducairy fees) or are forced to spend millions in legal fees and/or decades of their lives, attempting to “tilt at windmills” to get some equitable resolution of these politically motivated scams, designed to fleece estates.

After all, doesn’t every law student know that the field of Probate law is the virtual “gravy train” of legal practice? Why should any self respecting bully care more about his or her client, than getting the gravy?

Everyone knows that probate court is just about getting “free money”, so what the hey? The lawyers credo is “Dive in and dig as deep as you can through decedent’s pockets. After all, dead people can’t object!”

Civil Appeals, Commissions on Judicial Misconduct and Bar Association’s Greiveance Committees (that refuse to investigate “ongoing cases”), are victims only options when faced with a corrupt judge who deliberately rules in favor of his equally corrupt friends, and lawyers who would rather throw their clients to the wolves than loss future fees and commissions, from that court, their bread and butter.

But preparation (perfection and filing of Appeals) costs upwards of $10K and take between 2-5 years to be heard in NYC.

And guess what, the Appellate Judges are also lawyers in the same good ol’ boys club as the one’s who originally fleeced the victims. Do you really expect them to rule against their friends?

And both the “Bar Association’s Greiveance Committees”, and “Commissions for Judicial Misconduct” are set up by the very same lawyers and judges and legislators who’ve pay their dues to the “Bar” and who are part and parcel of the same “good ol’ boys club”.

Who’s kidding who?

If legal and judicial corruption is ever to end in the field of probate law, or any law, (I mean really end), there have to be changes in not only the probate law but also in the manner that lawyers and judges are held accountable in all fields of law.

Citizen’s panels of non-lawyers (REAL PEOPLE, who haven’t been taught to divorce themselves from their humanity) have to be set up around the country, in every “Small town U.S.A.” to monitor their lawyers and judges.

On-line ratings by clients of lawyers and victims of corrupt judges should be posted and visited as fequently as E-Bay.

And if and when each and every one of us (Real Folks) takes responsiblity for “making the wheels of justice squeak so loudly that no legilator can avoid hearing it”, maybe judicial and political corruption can come to a screeching halt.

But, unless you’ve been on the receiving end of a lawyers threat to “Bury you in litigation, if you don’t “consent” to relinquishing all your rights and interests, or never see a dime!” it would hard to imagine the agnst created by this ultimatum.

Most folks who are dependent upon decedent’s estates, (the elderly, disableed or minors), would cave.

Those who have a touch of Don Quixote in their souls, might find themselves fighting valiently against all odds, only to be consumed with the fight.

In probate litigation it is axiomatic that the only winners are the lawyers (and in the current corrupt climate, the judges who appointed them).

But no one should be put through unending stress of years of emotionally tortuous litigation, forced to stand by powerlessly watching the hard earned savings of a beloved one, wasted by self-serving lawyers and judges who gleefully play this game on the unsuspecting, in which they hold all the cards.

On January 3, 2006, an ex-NYC cop turned lawyer, was appointed by convicted Brooklyn Democratic Boss, Clarence Norman, to be the “other” Surrogate Court Judge in Brooklyn.

When I say “other” I allude to the known fact that, now there are two.

The Real Surrogate Court Judge, was duly elected by her constitutents. The “other” Surrogate Court Judge, was whizzed through the election process, evading the rigors of a primary election, and virtually “installed” by the now convicted party boss, Clarence Norman. This ploy was engineered to allow Norman’s “political machine” to maintain a foothold in that court with the power to: make rulings on cases litigated by his frinds and political allys… to appoint is friends and political allies to cushy fiducairy positions… and then to decide on how much to award them in fees. And it remains with that foothold, even after Norman was convicted.

How convenient for the Brooklyn Political Machine that the legislative Bill to create a second Surrogate Court Judgeship, was proposed and voted on, the last day and hours of the NYS legilative session.

How convenient that it was voted on before anyone in Brooklyn could stop this scam because it happened so quickly, no one realized what happened until it was too late to stop it.

How convenient that the Bill was pushed through too late for the political appointee, Frank Seddio, to be screened out by voters in a primary election in Brooklyn.

In stead, his name simply and without fanfare, appeared on the ballot, unapposed.

How convenient for judge Feinberg’s friends, (and the friends of his predecessor, Bernie Bloom, who was recused by GOD from his Surrogate’s Court Judgeship, having died before he could be investigated for all his scams) who still remain in those cushy fiduciary positions in the King’s County Surrogate’s Court.

These corrupt lawyers and Judges and Political Party bosses, from Washington D.C. (Bush, Tom Delay, and Abramoff on the National Front) to Brooklyn… these are our “Terrorists within”, large and small, intent on abusing their power.

Do we “REAL FOLKS” give up? Throw in the towel because these lawyers and judges have more bucks, more power and more political influence than the average American? Do we allow our legislators to enable what amounts to nothing less than judicially facilitated theft?

Or do we go after them with avengance and insist that out legislators change our laws all around the country that enable lawyers and judges to unravel the fabric of democracy and break our national spirit?

The choice is yours. If you dig your head in the sand in the hopes that these bullies will go away, guess again.

No amount of denial or cowardice will dissolve this picture into heavenly bliss.

If you have any information or evidence of the political scam in the NYS legislature that allowed this litigative “trick” to override the voting rights of Brooklynites, (or about legal or judicial corruption anywhere in Small Town U.S.A.) now is the time to come forward.

The scent of blood is fresh. Sharpen your teeth, and let’s go after these Terrorists Within, in stead of sending our sons and brothers to fight the Al Queida. We need to change our world, starting at home!