LAS VEGAS, NV – October 19, 2020 – A Las Vegas judge sanctioned Nevada attorney Thomas Michaelides after he sued his former client Darren Chaker for defamation. Specifically, Mr. Chaker became adverse to Mr. Michaelides when his paralegal, Matthew Katz, performed legal work on Mr. Chaker’s family law case. As a result, authorities arrested Mr. Katz for the Unauthorized Practice of Law.
The lawsuit alleged in part Mr. Chaker posted the four different times Mr. Michaelides faced suspension or discipline by the State Bar of Nevada. Furthermore, the blogs criticized the TCM Law Group that Mr. Michaelides does business under.
Forged Court Order Discovery
When Mr. Chaker became aware of the lawsuit, he retained Olson, Cannon, Gormley, Angulo & Stoberski to defend him. Additionally, Mr. Chaker found a court order Mr. Michaelides submitted to Google that LumensDataBase.org reported. Investigators noticed several inconsistencies on the court order submitted to Google.
Most notably, the court docket does not show Mr. Michaelides submitted an order to the court for the judge’s signature. Moreover, the court docket does not reflect the court ever signed the order Mr. Michaelides submitted to Google. The signature block of the judge appeared crooked and the Clerk of the Court’s file stamp appeared misplaced. Forging a court order constitutes a federal offense under 18 USCS § 505, and it is also a felony under Nevada Revised Statutes § 205.175. Eugene Volokh teaches First Amendment law at UCLA and has written extensively about forged court orders aimed at removing protected online speech.
Court Ruling and Attorney Fees
The court also found Mr. Chaker’s online posts fell within his First Amendment right, therefore dismissing the complaint under an anti-SLAPP motion filed by the defense. However, 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 lacks merit. Consequently, the court issued a judgement against Mr. Michaelides for a total of $51,650 for bringing a meritless lawsuit and dismissed the case. Mr. Michaelides failed to oppose any allegation the court order was in fact forged.
The court orders awarding attorney fees and costs, the forged court order, and the unopposed anti-SLAPP motion can be found here. The Clerk of the Court entered the orders on October 8, 2020.
UCLA School of Law Professor and attorney Eugene Volokh recently wrote an article concerning Thomas Michaelides, which can be found here.
In addition, it was determined Mr. Michaelides consulted with San Diego attorney Scott McMillan who recently lost a similar lawsuit aimed at removing blogs about The McMillan Law Firm, La Mesa, California. Those posts typically related to instances where Mr. McMillan faced lawsuits for fraud, legal malpractice, or where courts issued sanctions against him. The federal court dismissed the lawsuit and the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal on January 27, 2020 in Case No. 17-56676.
Thomas Michaelides remains under active prosecution by the State Bar of Nevada.
Darren Chaker requests that questions go to the law firm that represented him.
For additional court records, see https://www.scribd.com/document/480799140/Darren-Chaker-Awarded-Attorney-Fees