Richard Cornforth

[Jeffrey]

We only have one indirect thread on Cornforth:
viewtopic.php?t=2948#p45935

Cornforth's e-fame stems from his Secrets of the Legal Industry videos which have about 80,000 views:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8MAQEJZbuY

As far as I know, the only Guru that's cited Cornforth as an influence is Karl Lentz.

He has a short CV up on his website:

Richard Cornforth began investigating the American Court system in 1986. By 1997, Richard had become a battle-hardened, seasoned veteran of the Courts including having a favorable published authority in his name, introducing a new theory of indemnity that resulted in many class action lawsuits with huge payouts, and even assisting a friend in obtaining habeas relief from the United States Supreme Court.

In early 2001, Richard began his Secrets of the Legal Industry Series which led to 78 seminars, sixteen mini-schools instructional in law, a dozen books, and four video series, all instructional on how to be a savvy and successful litigator.

http://www.richardcornforth.com/

And of course as with any Guru's website, he's selling DVD packs, the most expensive being the one on Trial procedures which goes for the small sum of $374.

Now searching for Cornforth leads to this court case:
http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/app ... 49/520594/

Which he basically lost but searching for what the original case was about leads to:

https://casetext.com/case/westlake-pres ... -cornforth

So what was this great legal battle about?

Cornforth admitted that his son entered an agreed plea to second degree burglary and was ordered to perform 65 hours of community service.

In response to Cornforth's son burglarizing Westlake Presbyterian Church, the church sued Cornforth:

In 1992, Westlake Presbyterian Church sued Cornforth in small claims court to recover damages pursuant to 23 O.S. § 10[ 23-10] (1991), which permits recovery of up to $2,500.00 from the parents of a minor living with his parents who commits any criminal or delinquent act resulting in injury to person or property. After trial, a judgment in the amount of $2,500.00 was entered in the Church's favor and affirmed by the Court of Appeals in case number 79,910.

Cornforth fought that judgement for the next five years, ending with a loss as explained in the Federal appeals court judgement in 1996.

So when Cornforth claims on his website that "By 1997, Richard had become a battle-hardened, seasoned veteran of the Courts ". He means that he spent 6 years fighting in court to avoid paying a church for damages that his son caused during a burglary and lost.

[grixit]

I hope the church got expenses added.

[Jeffrey]

Indeed they did:

Judge Howard awarded the plaintiff in that case attorney fees, including fees related to an appeal taken by Cornforth in which the plaintiff prevailed.

[notorial dissent]

Oddly true. I've always heard he was the granddaddy or great granddaddy of the courtroom magic crowd, but never really found anything substantial about him, but some of the sovrunidjits just swear by him, like he is a holy mantra, that he is wonderful and never has been beaten, and of course none of them ever actually do any research or anything and are taking someone elses word for it, the sovrun way donchano.

[morrand]

Now searching for Cornforth leads to this court case:
http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/app ... 49/520594/

Which he basically lost but searching for what the original case was about leads to:

https://casetext.com/case/westlake-pres ... -cornforth

To be fair, apparently Mr. Cornforth won in the Oklahoma courts on the question of whether he should have to pay appeal-related attorney's fees when the appellate court itself hadn't awarded them. It's this win that he complained about to the district court (by suing the judge, saying the award of fees that was subsequently overturned was a violation of his civil rights), and the loss there that he appealed, unsuccessfully, to the 10th Circuit.

It gets better, though. While PACER won't show the actual case documents, they do show that, heady from this win in the 10th Circuit, Mr. Cornforth applied for sanctions against the appellee (Judge Howard). The 10th Circuit refused sanctions, no doubt falling back on the lame excuse that Mr. Cornforth hadn't actually won his 10th Circuit case, so sanctions would not apply.

You will not be surprised to find that Mr. Cornforth appealed some part of this to the Supreme Court, which no doubt deliberated the proposition fully and carefully in the 35 days it took to deny certiorari.

That Mr. Cornforth (in effect) appealed a case that he'd won, and then asked for sanctions in a case he'd lost, suggests he simply doesn't know the difference between the two. No wonder he's a guru.

[Jeffrey]

the court found Judge Howard had exceeded his authority in including fees related to the prior appeal... Oklahoma Court of Appeals modified the attorney fee award

The way I read it is the Judge was allowed to include lawyers fees for one appeal but not the prior appeal.

So, having to pay slightly less isn't really a win.

[notorial dissent]

If someone were feeling ambitious and wanted to write up a chronology of Mr Cornforths stupendous wins it would probably be appreciated by those of us playing along here at home and future posterity who have to deal with his fantasized record. Document links would be nice, but I realize that most of those old cases probably aren't on line, but it would be really useful to have.