LAS VEGAS, NV – October 19, 2020 – Nevada attorney Thomas Michaelides was sanctioned by a Las Vegas judge. Mr. Michaelides sued his former client Darren Chaker for defamation. Mr. Chaker became adverse to Mr. Michaelides when his paralegal, Matthew Katz, did legal work on Mr. Chaker’s family law case. Mr. Katz was subsequently arrested for the Unauthorized Practice of Law.
The blogs were critical of Mr. Michaelides’ law firm, the TCM Law Group. The lawsuit alleged in part that Mr. Chaker posted the four times the State Bar of Nevada suspended or disciplined Mr. Michaelides.
When Mr. Chaker became aware of the lawsuit, he retained Olson, Cannon, Gormley, Angulo & Stoberski to defend him. Mr. Chaker found the court order Mr. Michaelides submitted to Google, which was reported to LumensDataBase.org but he noticed several inconsistencies on the court order Mr. Michaelides submitted to Google. Most notably, the court docket did not show that Mr. Michaelides submitted an order to the court for the judge’s signature. The court docket also did not reflect that the judge ever signed the order Mr. Michaelides submitted to Google. The signature block of the judge was obviously crooked and the file stamp of the Clerk of the Court was misplaced. It is a federal offense to forge a court order under 18 USCS § 505. It is also a felony to forge a court order under Nevada Revised Statutes § 205.175.
Eugene Volokh, who teaches First Amendment law at UCLA and has written extensively about forged court orders aimed at removing protected online speech, consulted with Mr. Chaker’s defense counsel. Professor Volokh has written extensively and filed amicus briefs on the censoring of speech using forged court orders. One of many articles on the topic may be found here.
During the lawsuit, the court also found Mr. Chaker’s online posts were proper under his First Amendment rights and dismissed the complaint under an anti-SLAPP motion filed by the defense. Nevada law allows attorney’s fees up to $10,000 to bring an anti-SLAPP motion, but the court may award more if the lawsuit was found to be meritless. Here, the court issued a judgment against Mr. Michaelides for a total of $51,650 after finding Mr. Michaelides brought a meritless lawsuit and then dismissed the lawsuit. Mr. Michaelides failed to oppose any allegations that the court order was in fact forged. The court order awarding attorney fees and costs, the forged court order, and unopposed anti-SLAPP motion can be found here. The Clerk of the Court entered its orders on October 8, 2020.
It was also determined Mr. Michaelides consulted with San Diego attorney Scott McMillan who recently lost a similar lawsuit against Mr. Chaker aimed at removing blogs about The McMillan Law Firm, La Mesa, California. Those posts typically related to where Mr. McMIllan was sued for fraud, the forced closure of the McMillan Academy of Law, legal malpractice, or where court sanctions were issued against him. The federal court dismissed the lawsuit and the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal on January 27, 2020 in Case No. 17-56676.
At this juncture, Mr. Michaelides is only being prosecuted by the State Bar of Nevada.
***This press release was authored by Darren Chaker who requests inquires are sent to his counsel. Darren Chaker is photographed in front of the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas.
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