August 1, 2007 Certiorari Petition

United States Supreme Court Case Number 07-121:
Leslie V. Matlaw v. [United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois] Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole (Petition for Certiorari to Review the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals' May 3 Decision in Seymour v. Hug, ReMax, Cendant Mobility, et al. [Appeal of Matlaw], 485 F.3d 926 (7th Cir. 2007)).

After representing the Plaintiff for several years in federal court (as well as previously, within HUD's administrative investigation) on her claims of Defendants' allegedly race-based Refusal-to-Sell / Refusal-to-Deal / Intimidation, Interference, Coercion and Harassment for assertion of her fair housing rights (all prohibited by the federal Fair Housing Act), the Parties finally agreed to settle all claims. Yet resolution of two terms (Confidentiality, Apportionment of part of the settlement monies to Plaintiff's children) proved increasingly complex. All Parties moved to enforce Settlement; in response, the Magistrate summarily concluded that Plaintiff and her Counsel had been "less than honest" and that we had intentionally misled Defendants, the District Court, and another (Probate) Court overseeing Plaintiff's children's interests in a separate matter. That sua sponte ruling issued without prior notice of the Court's intent to issue findings of actual fraud and to adjudicate disputed terms of the Settlement Agreement (just days prior, the Court had denied a motion for evidentiary hearing on these issues).

Despite our full, immediate compliance to address every action deemed to be suspect, the District Court issued a series of Orders impugning my integrity and conduct. Once the Final Settlement Order issued (which resolved all claims of my Client and Defendants and terminated their interests in any further litigation), I appealed the Orders asserting that I had acted improperly. The Seventh Circuit dismissed the appeal, citing unique-to-the-7th-Circuit caselaw asserting Congress did not intend for 28 USC Section 1291 (the statute conferring appellate jurisdiction) to allow attorneys' claims of stigmatic injury. Other Circuits construing this very issue conclude otherwise. In light of demonstrably-resultant harm (to represented Parties' lawyers, the Parties themselves, and other Courts which are not-infrequently-required to address allegations about an attorney's integrity as a threshold procedural issue), I petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a Writ of Certiorari seeking to resolve this Circuit split.

The case is docketed for the Court's substantive examination of whether it should be accepted for discretionary review in the 2008 Term. My Certiorari Petition, which is believed to raise issues of significant public concern, can be viewed at the LINK shown.