http://www.capveterans.com/americans_working_together/id75.html

What would you do in a situation like this?
     John "Jack" Cunningham    ProudVietnamVeteran@earthlink.net  


On December 21, 2000, I first wrote a letter to the New Jersey Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Ethics complaining about the Maynard & Truland law firm in Morristown, New Jersey and their attorney Robert Correale.   Maynard & Truland was a law firm that I retained to represent me in a Superior court case.  We were four months into the contract, so I did not want to change the law firm; I just wanted Maynard & Truland and their attorney Robert Correale to act professionally.  My complaints in the letter were Maynard & Truland's complete lack of professionalism, which included their gross negligence, their (Correale) overcharging me, their (Correale) false billing, their (Correale) inability to have me removed from a court default that they caused themselves and their (Correale) complete lack of communications.  I no longer wanted to feel like I was fighting Maynard & Truland and their attorney Robert Correale, more than the real opposing parties.

I opened my letter to NJ Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Ethics explaining that I was a veteran from the Vietnam War and that I was disabled with PTSD, due to heavy combat from living and serving (24/7) in a Vietnamese peasant village.  I added that I suffered from chronic pain resulting from a terrorist bomb blast that I received in the village.  I highlighted how Maynard & Truland's lack of professionalism was greatly exacerbating my PTSD and chronic pain.   At the time, I was not looking for anything other than Maynard & Truland to represent me in a professional manner, yet understand I suffered from veterans disabilities.  With the letter, I included a federal Veterans Affairs (VA) diagnose statement as well as VA medical progress reports, which clearly stated the impact Maynard & Truland ethics violations were having on my disabilities.  I also supplied letters that I sent Maynard & Truland's attorneys begging them to act professionally.  I supplied all this personal information in the hope the State of New Jersey would provide me with some reasonable disability accommodations and insure that the law firm acted professionally. 

Six days later, the Secretary of District X Ethics Committee, Bonnie C. Frost wrote a return letter that stated, due to New Jersey Court rules, their office could not do anything to help me.  She added I was free to get advice from another attorney. 

Whether it was warranted or not, the Office of Attorney Ethics - District X's lack of support just added to the anxiety and even opened the door for Maynard & Truland to continue ongoing ethics violations.  Their over-charging, false billing, negligence, lack of communications continued.  At one point a Maynard & Truland attorney arrived unprepared at Superior Court for an arbitration, and I was forced to represent myself as their attorney sat quietly to my left.   I ended up getting charged over $600 for the attorney just sitting there.  (Even this, he charged at the inflated rate.)

A little over two years later, when I refused to pay their open bill, Maynard & Truland attorneys brought me to Superior court for $1,700.  I counter sued on the same docket for Legal Malpractice against the firm.  During a break in the court proceedings, I learned that the Maynard & Truland attorney Robert Correale was the local Vice Chairman of New Jersey's Supreme Court Office of Attorney Ethics.  He was himself responsible for bringing official ethics violations to New Jersey's Supreme Court for himself and his law firm, Maynard & Truland.  This was the same Attorney Ethics Committee that I asked to support me two years before.  (Major Conflict of Interest)

The detailed evidence, I supplied the Superior Court Judge Ronald Graves on the Open Bill/Legal Malpractice case that day was enough for the judge to decide against Vice-Chairman of Attorney Ethics Robert Correale and his law firm.  Their open bill charges were dropped and the judge determined that my charges of legal malpractice warranted (merited) the Superior Court Law Division for damages.

When I brought the Legal Malpractice case to Superior Court Law Division, Judge Ronald Graves court transcript was missing and could not be typed.  It actually disappeared.  My Superior Court Law Division Legal Malpractice case against the Maynard & Truland law firm and Vice-Chairman of the New Jersey Supreme Court Office of Attorney Ethics Robert Correale was then thrown out of Superior Court for lack of merit.  How convenient was this...

Vice-Chairman of Attorney Ethics Robert Correale and his fellow Maynard & Truland attorneys were later cleared by the Office of Attorney Ethics, when they swore to written Certifications to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which were filled with perjurious, misleading and vague statements.

This Superior Court transcript went missing in 2003.  The State of New Jersey is still looking for it.  Although, I have written numerous letters to the federal Department of Justice requesting they assist me in getting my Civil Rights and Due Process from the State of New Jersey, the Department of Justice insists this is a New Jersey issue and they refuse to help.   My years of certified letters to New Jersey governors, attorney generals, NJ federal senators, NJ court systems go unanswered. 

In 2010, the Cover-Up still goes on...   Former Vice-Chairman Robert Correale, his former attorneys at Maynard & Truland and those politicians and state government officials, who protected them for almost ten years, stay above state and federals laws.

Currently, my State Senator Steven Oroho has been investigating this and has been since November 2008.  I'm also trying to get my federal Congressman Scott Garrett involved in getting me my Due Rights and charging the State of New Jersey with denying me my civil rights for almost ten years and the violating the Americans with Disabilities Act for not giving me reasonable disability accommodations in the New Jersey Supreme and Supreme Court systems.

This still remains the biggest topic of my Veterans Affairs (VA) therapy sessions and the exacerbation of my PTSD and chronic pain continues.   But the one thing I know, I won't give up trying to get justice from the federal and state government.

I never want to see this happen again to another PTSD vet or regular citizen.

John "Jack" Cunningham
Proud Vietnam Veteran
http://www.CapVeterans.com