Brea lawyer Harpreet S. Brar, who first made headlines by filing shakedown lawsuits against more than 400 nail salon owners in southern California in 2003, may be disbarred following a recommendation by a State Bar Court judge.
Brar was later jailed for contempt of court for persisting in other harassing legal tactics and then convicted of federal tax evasion. He has a collection of State Bar suspensions and probations over the past two years, but it has taken until February 1, 2008 to reach the disbarment recommendation stage.
The final decision rests with the California Supreme Court, which will take up Judge Richard Honn's recommendation that Brar be disbarred for actions that amount to "serious breaches" of an attorney's fundamental ethical mores, the California Bar Journal reported this month.
Brar "has engaged in a nearly continuous course of serious misconduct" since his admission to the bar in 2000, Honn said. The attorney refused to let Proposition 64 stop him from filing shakedown lawsuits -- even though an Orange County judge called him "basically an extortionist," ordered him to pay $1.8 million in civil penalties, and enjoined him from filing any more cases under the California unfair competition law.
After the CJAC-sponsored Proposition 64 closed the door on unfair competition law shakedowns in 2004, Brar filed used his wife as a plaintiff and filed three new lawsuits within nine months accusing liquor stores of not posting notices of 50-cent debit-card fees charged at ATM machines in their stores and claiming her debit-card fees as a loss of money and property. He also sent the defendants a threatening letter in which he offered to settle the matter for about $750 and encouraged a quick settlement to avoid additional fees and costs.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Polos held Brar in contempt and sentenced him to 15 days in jail.
Brar, 36, was convicted of five felony counts of tax evasion last July and is currently serving one year in county jail. He failed to file 1999 personal income tax and corporate income tax returns, as well as his 2002 personal income tax returns.