| -PEERgroup Parental Equality Enforcement Resource |
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| Fuchem & Frostem, Inc. Bill by the Minute, Litigate into Eternity R. Corbell Fuchem & James Frostem Attorneys Above the Law |
| "All the cards were marked in advance. The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance." - Bob Dylan, Hurricane |
| Hide your children and hold on to your wallet, you are about to encounter the law firm of... |
| In September 1995, Garry Kirk made a mistake that would cost him the love of his daughter. That mistake was hiring R. Corbell Fuchem (not his real name since Fuchem's crony-pal, Judge James Richards (this is a real name. Richards was also a key player in destroying the father-son bond in the Kouvakas case), has issued a gag order to keep us from using the true identifying of Fuchem as the attorney guilty of the the actions detailed on this page). That September, Mr. Kirk's ex-wife, in a vengeful maneuver intended to terminate his relationship with his daughter, began to hurl unfounded allegations about him accusing everything from withholding child support payments to stalking and to absurd allegations that he sexually abused their daughter while the three of them shopped together in a Walgreen's store. Click here for the complete timeline of this case. All of these accusations were systematically rejected by every psychological professional appointed by the Lake County family court . In fact, professionals in this case have agreed that Mrs. Kirk deliberately fabricated these charges in a pattern that is becoming increasing known in custody matters as Parental Alienation Syndrome. Simply stated, this is a deliberate and willful attempt to alienate the affections of the "hated" parent (usually the non-custodial) by the "loved" (usually the custodial) parent. Obviously, the key to the successful alienation and-therefore the chief tool-of the alienating parent is time. The more time available to the programmer/alienator the deeper the alienation and brainwashing. When Kirk hired Fuchem in September it was contingent upon his acting swiftly to limit the psychological damage that was being done to his daughter by his ex-wife. Fuchem, aware of Kirk's desperate desire to be reunited with his daughter, promised he would get an "emergency hearing" within 2 to 3 weeks, contingent upon, of course, Fuchem receiving a proper retainer. A substantive "emergency hearing" did not happen for nearly one year. That was only the first in a litany of deceptions propagated by Corbell Fuchem in his deliberate attempt to make a hostile takeover of the finances of his newly duped client, Kirk. In fact, as we will disclose below, an analysis of Fuchem's [mis]handling of this case yields a timeline of disgraceful, unprofessional conduct that we intend to present to state officials to ensure Fuchem will no longer have a license to prey upon others who go to him for help in times of personal crises. Attorneys like Fuchem are opportunists. They help to corrupt the system then feed off of it. They steal the life savings of their victims to buy boats and European vacations. The Case against R. Corbell Fuchem and James Frostem... 1) Fuchem [mis]handled this case for 2 1/2 years and accomplished nothing. In retrospect, it appears he never intended to. At best, his inability to succeed in anything other than generating a 28-page bill for nearly $36,000 can be attributed to incompetence. At worst, one could argue that the delay in this case indirectly resulted by his deliberate attempts to prolong litigation to enhance his fees. From September 1995 throught April of 1998, Mr. Kirk did not have a single minute of visitation with his child. Despite overwhelmingly favorable reports and evaluations by seven (soon to grow to nine) psychological professionals, Fuchem's incompetence prevented him from securing any visitation or even the slightest favorable ruling by either judge-there have been two so far-in this case. If there were unfavorable reports toward Mr. Kirk, one could excuse the delay in this case. However, Mr. Fuchem was armed with powerful evidence that he either as unable to use or he deliberately refused to use in order to prolong this case and inflate his fees. 3) Fuchem coerced Kirk into signing a promissory note for his fees immediately before a hearing... in the court room! Fuchem warned Kirk that if he refused to sign the note, that Fuchem would walk out on him at that very moment, leaving him in the courtroom to defend himself. On May 13, 2000, in a letter to Kirk's new attorney, Fuchem admits to threatening Kirk, but claims that he was not violating any law by doing so!!! He disputes only the when the threat was made!!! His letter states: Apparently, in Fuchem's view, intimidating a client is fair play, as long as it is not done before an "extrodinary' hearing. Indeed, Fuchem was only interested in arranging "status type" of hearings...one after the other for years, to inflate his fees. He was interested only in presenting the appearance of progress to Kirk when in fact he was merely accumulating billable hours. It takes a lot of hours to get to $36,000. 4) Fuchem and his partner, James Frostem (also, not his real name), teamed up to intimidate Kirk, misleading him into believing that criminal charges were immediately pending regarding the false sexual abuse allegations. First, they played a tape recording of Kirk's daughter to him. Since Kirk had not talked with his daughter for over two years, this tape triggered deep emotions within him. Having broken down the client, Frostem went on to say that the prosecutor could bring charges any day, but that he, Frostem, knew many of those who worked in that area of the court system and he could talk with them to prevent this from happening. He further warned Kirk that these charges would result in him receiving 5 years in prison for each charge (a total of 15 years), since by now the initial claim of molestation made by Kirk's ex-wife had been inflated to three accusations. Frostem demanded an immediate payment of $5,000 to secure this protection for Kirk. Records show that Kirk paid Fuchem and Frostem $7,000 the very next business day. However, a recent search of court records proved that no such charges were actually pending. Furthermore, when asked for a copy of a detailed bill from Frostem in 1998, Kirk was advised that Frostem doesn't keep such records. However, since litigation is now pending regarding fees claimed by Fuchem and Frostem, mysteriously Fuchem and Frostem have produced a billing...over two years from when Kirk requested it! However, the billing STILL does not show any detail. It simply reads as follows: Fuchem and Frostem simply thumb their noses at a legitimate request to justify their billing. Apparently they feel they are immune from scrutiny. 5) Fuchem demanded three separate financial disclosures from Kirk. On each occasion, he claimed these were required by either the court or by opposing counsel. Yet, Fuchem never demanded the same information from Kirk's ex-wife. It seems clear now that since there was no real legal requirement for repeated disclosures, this was a merely a ploy by Fuchem to see how much of Kirk's finances remained to be harvested. 6) Fuchem threatened to illegally disclose a confidential document sent by Kirk to Fuchem containing complaints about the judge. 7) Fuchem worked hard not at resolving the Kirk case, only at keeping the case open and keeping Kirk as a client. Fuchem would routinely claim to have just developed a "new plan of attack". Further, Fuchem repeatedly claimed that since so much time had gone by, and since Kirk had minimal funds remaining, it would be impossible for Kirk to hire a new attorney since a minimum of $20,000 retainer would be required by any new attorney. Later, when most of Kirk's funds had been depleted, Fuchem demanded to be put on the title of Kirk's sister's house! Kirk was incensed and refused. Kirk fired Fuchem and hired new counsel for a retainer of 1/10th of Fuchem's claim. 8) Fuchem desired to paper the earth's land mass with worthless motions and impotent letters to pad his fees. On December 23, 1996, (Kirk's first Christmas without any visitation). Fuchem insisted that it was urgent that he (Fuchem) "hand deliver" a document to the judge. Fuchem convinced Kirk that his hand-delivery could get Kirk visitation for Christmas. In retrospect, this is absurd since Fuchem was unable to secure ANY visitation for Kirk form the day he was hired through the day he was fired--over two years later! Fuchem charged $250 for this hand delivery--a billing for 2 1/2 hours to drive less that 20 miles. One final example: In April 1997 ALONE, Fuchem had 58 separate bill-able events (motions, letters, phone calls, etc.) Consider the following: There are only 30 days in April and only 22 of these days are business days. This averages out to 2.63 billable entries per day that April! Clearly, Fuchem was making a career out of Kirk's case. He "started the clock" every time the case crossed his fee-driven mind. Victory for Kirk would have brought his daughter back, but victory for Fuchem meant trading Kirk's interests for endless litigation 9) After Garry Kirk read a book relating to Parental Alienation Syndrome, he prepared an outline and provided it to Fuchem and explained to Fuchem that since he had an outline of the complete book for research purposes he need NOT read the entire book. Yet, months later, a billing turned up showing Fuchem had indeed charged $750 to read this book -- a 344 page book on he claimed her read on a single Saturday! 10) To escalate fees, Fuchem would jump at the opportunity to depose anyone who could fog a mirror. This opportunity was particularly attractive to him when it involved a junket out of state. For example, Fuchem insisted on deposing a previous husband of Kirk's ex-wife. Fuchem advised that although this would be an expensive task, he felt it was well worth the $3,000 (plus expenses) he intended to charge to carry this out. However, Kirk learned that out of state depositions could be done via satellite TV for a fraction of the cost and he requested that Fuchem conduct the deposition in this way. When the profit opportunity evaporated for Fuchem on this matter, so did the "importance" of deposition. This once "important deposition" was immediately re-classified by Fuchem as unnecessary and never conducted. Concluding Opinion The family court system in Lake County, like other court systems, is a closed society. It is a monopoly that no other industry would be permitted to enjoy. Anyone who is forced to retain an attorney generally knows very little about the operation of the court system and they are forced to rely of the integrity of their attorney to protect their best interests. However, to maximize legal fees for the attorney, clients are deliberately kept ignorant. This system has a built-in conflict of interest that is intentional. In Kirk's case it is clear that this conflict of interest is at least partially to fault for the loss of his child. In the case of brainwashing or parental alienation, it is imperative that corrective measures be enacted immediately. While this strategy was in the best interest of Kirk and his daughter, it proved not to be in the best interest of Fuchem & Frostem. Attorneys need "time" to justify inflated billings. There can be no excuse for the complete absence of ANY accomplishments by these attorneys in over 2 1/2 years. One cannot blame the judges solely for the delay because as a past president of the Lake County Bar Association, R. Corbell Fuchem knew or should have known which judges are decisive and fair and which are not. Attorney's know, or should know who the deadbeat judges are. In this case, Mr. Fuchem would logically have the responsibility of asking a judge to recuse himself or herself who is unwilling or unable to make fair and reasonable rulings in a prompt manner. Fuchem however, never complained of the injustice suffered by his client louder than preparing (and profiting from) hundreds of whiny motions and impotent letters. Instead he remained passive and silent and made sure the meter was running. One cannot blame the multiple attorneys used by Kirk's ex-wife as the sole reason for the delay either. Attorney-hopping by the ex-wife should not diminish Mr. Kirk's or his daughter's right to a relationship. What can be certain, however, is that the complete alienation and total estrangement of Kirk's daughter is inexcusable considering the mountain of favorable court testimony, court-ordered evaluations and reports generated in this 4 1/2 year old case. Fuchem's complete failure is not due to the lack of favorable evidence. Judge James Richards Comes in to help Crony-pal Corbell Despite having accomplished nothing for Kirk in over 2 years except filling his pockets with Kirk's money, Fuchem's greed in not yet satisfied. He has launched a lawsuit in an attempt to collect more money from Kirk. Keep in mind that Garry Kirk did not have ONE day of visitation with his while Fuchem was his attorney, Fuchem feels his entitled to more cash. And his pal, Judge James Richards, has come to help. After Fuchem filed his suit, Kirk began to publicize Fuchem's mishandling of the Kirk case so that others may be spared the trauma of losing their child as Fuchem facilities. Where was this case filed? In Richards court, of course. Richards, at the request of Fuchem, promptly suspended Kirk's First Amendment rights to free speech and ordered that Kirk not express his opinion about his pal Corbell in public. The case has not proceeded until recently. In July 2001, Richards announced his retirement and now Fuchem is in a panic. He wants his pal Richards to be in a position to adjudicate this matter since he is a shoe-in to collect the $20,000. If Richards is willing to suspend the Constitution for Fuchem, he certainly is willing to see that his buddy profits even more from the Kirk case. Immediately after Richards' announcement of his retirement, Fuchem set in motion a strategy to set the stage for Richards to issue a summary judgment verdict in this case (summary judgment is a court order ruling that no factual issues remain to be tried and therefore a cause of action or all causes of action in a complaint can be decided upon certain facts without trial. A summary judgment is based upon a motion by one of the parties that contends that all necessary factual issues are settled or so one-sided they need not be tried). To do this, Richards would have to disregard ALL of the ten issues/complaints listed above and simply rule in favor of Fuchem. But given the corruption in the Lake County courts that we have exposed on this website and in consideration of Richards backdoor dealings in the Kouvakas case and the unconstitutional gag-order issue in this case, it seems logical to expect Richards again to disregard common sense--and the law. Richards simply assisted his pal Corbell to further plunder of Kirk's finances by issuing a verdict without a trial to insure a Fuchem victory and to protect his pal Fuchem from the embarrassment of having his mishandling of the Kirk case exposed to the public. Lake County courts operate behind closed doors and it seems certain that this will be another attempt to do so. We will keep you posted. Richards and Fuchem will not be able to keep this case secret. John Kouvakas Case: The Richards and Bonaventura Tag-Team of Destruction And in the Kouvakas case, Judge James Richards, of Hammond, Indiana, originally granted temporary physical custody to the father, John, on August 23, 1994. Later, Richards set a May 1, 1995 hearing date but before the hearing could take place, Richards--for reasons still unknown--transferred the case to Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura in juvenile court, who immediately stripped John of his custodial-parent status and parental rights and placed the child in foster care on April 13, 1995. The change of judge was granted and John's child taken from him without a hearing. (Sound familiar?) |
| "I would note that this threat was not on the eve of an extrodinary hearing, but rather a status type of hearing." -- R. Corbell Fuchem |
| Date Description Amount 3-23-96 Retainer $5,000.00 3-25-96 Fee Paid #12289 -$5,000.00 7-10-97 Witness Costs $22.08 7-10-97 Fee paid #13530 -$22.08 |