Larry Drivon files his Motion to Withdraw as my Attorney of Record. Therein he goes public with a personal and confidential letter that I had written to him. When I confronted him about this, he stated that the letter was “part of the case.”1, 2 Regarding one point addressed in the letter, Drivon’s office allegedly “served” this multimillion-dollar lawsuit on Haig Berberian by standard first class mail. Yet, when I reviewed Drivon’s Berberian v. Berberian & Wells Fargo Bank case-file after he withdrew, there was no Notice & Acknowledgment of Receipt therein signed by Haig Berberian. And none is to be found in the case-file on record in San Francisco County Superior Court. In fact, I have no evidence whatsoever indicating that Haig Berberian had the foggiest notion that I had sued him. And none is to be found on record in San Francisco. Moreover, there is no Answer to an Original Summons and Complaint therein. There is no proof of service signed by a process server or sheriff as having served Haig Berberian personally by hand. Nothing. (It should be noted that I was unaware that any of these documents should exist in Larry Drivon’s files during my review of same at his office right after his withdrawal.I had forgotten about what turned out to be a “pretend mailing” to Haig Berberian for Haig to sign a Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt, correspondence which Larry’s secretary had sent to me early on in the case.3 All of my minimal legal wherewithal in the matter came long after Larry’s exit4)
1 Going public by making my personal & confidential letter to him, written in anger, a part of the permanent court record, came with consequences. Larry Drivon proverbially “picked the wrong guy” for that. He was spoiling for a fight. I called Larry’s hand thereafter and raised him by everything I know and have regarding the entire matter and then some. This website/exposé is an attestation of this fact. And I cannot help but say: “He started it!” Larry and The Brotherhood took me for a ride and I am now describing the scenery. (I am doing this with public documents, by the way. Virtually every one of them is to be found in Stanislaus and San Francisco County public records. The ones which are not in court records are also “part of the case,” using Drivon’s elliptical definition) I would like to note that when it was incumbent upon me to keep the legal matter private during the first five and a half years of the ordeal, I did not tell anyone outside of my immediate family. I was religious about staying mum in this regard. I did not utter a peep about it to my closest of friends, even though, two days shy of the three-year statutory date for filing suit regarding the discovery of fraud (i.e., on August 30, 1983), the case was quietly filed by Larry Drivon in San Francisco County Superior Court, thereby making the case a public one. Be that as it may, a lawsuit filed by big-time lawyers involving a nephew suing his uncle (the third richest man in Modesto at the time, second only to either of the Gallo brothers), having been kept out of the Modesto Bee newspaper, is/was a curious state of affairs. But then again and as I said above and elsewhere, Defendant Haig Berberian was not to know and did not know that he was being sued by me. Too many of the curious aspects of the civil procedure of my case point to this conclusion. In fact, such conclusion is glaring and painfully obvious. (I address this theory in greater detail in the commentary for the 8/30/83-5/30/90 entry titled, “Case File-813484,” accessible from the Timeline page) 2Larry Drivon’s filing and going public with my personal & confidential letter to him was essentially a declaration of war from my point of view. When Larry ultimately withdrew, the war began. (My reply: Say hello to my little friend!) And Berberian Mystery Theatre is/was the ultimate “theater” of that war. 3 It goes without saying (though I’ll say it anyway) that I would have asked for a copy of any document relating to my legal matter, signed by my uncle after the institution of my lawsuit. Obtaining such documents (now that I was forced by Drivon’s withdrawal into being my own lawyer), copies of which I did not have, was the very reason I was going through Larry Drivon’s case files. I am very thorough in most things that I do. And I took that modus operandi to a whole new level when my suit came along. My studied search of Drivon’s files was no exception. I know for a fact that there was no Notice & Acknowledgment of Receipt signed by Haig Berberian in Drivon’s Berberian v. Berberian & Wells Fargo Bank case file(s). This is why I do not have a copy of that “phantom” document. All I have is the unsigned version sent to me in order to trick me into thinking that the signed version would be a day or two or three away, once Haig had received, signed, and returned it to Drivon (Haig thereby acknowledging my lawsuit and his being summoned to court for same). As I said, anything signed by Haig Berberian after my suit was instituted would have caught my attention. In fact, I would have zeroed in on it. There is/was no such document in the San Francisco County Superior Court case-file and there was no such document in Drivon’s files, period, end of sentence. None. 4 Something that also came long after Larry’s exit is/was some understanding on my part as to the impression that Drivon was attempting to make by filing my letter. Obviously, he was trying to portray me as a “difficult” client. But generally speaking, he was saying: “I tried my best to help this poor guy. But I just couldn’t do it. He was too emotionally invested in what should have been left up to me. It’s a sad case.” My answer today (if only I had it then) is: “See Larry’s Letter of Intent to Withdraw, the most important document leading up to the actual court action to withdraw. See how I have proven that Larry (with a wink and a nod to the Judge and vice versa) did not want the Judge to see it prior to the hearing for Drivon’s withdrawal.” I believe that the Judge knew about it just in case I brought it to the hearing that day and sprung it on him. There was a plan in place in case that happened. If not, Drivon wasn’t a competent lawyer. I have proven in this exposé that he was as competent as hell. You don’t become the President of the California Trial Lawyers Association without the credentials meriting the title. The reason for keeping the letter out of the court case-file until after the hearing is glaringly obvious. (A detailed analysis can be found at 06/20/86 of the Timeline titled, “Supplemental Exhibit.” The assay reveals just what kind of shit was being pulled on me by Larry, which, of course, required help from his cronies) The type of tomfoolery that I describe had been going on since day one of the entire matter when it came to me and my involvement. And you wonder why I wrote the subject letter. For a more general latter-day answer to Larry’s withdrawal (in which he used his seasoned expertise over my legal and prevailing personal naïveté), and his intent in using my personal and confidential letter to him in said withdrawal, see Berberian Mystery Theatre. Therein/herein, I’ve become au naturel. In so doing, I have dressed Larry up, the full monty, in his birthday suit as well. And together, we make one ugly display.
Click here to view the Motion to Withdraw