Dr Z

Joseph Zernik, PhD

PO Box 526, La Verne, CA 91750;
Fax: 323.488.9697; Email: jz12345@earthlink.net
Blog: http://inproperinla.blogspot.com/ Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/Free_the_Rampart_FIPs

10-03-21 Richard Fine: Quest for NEFs of the Habeas Corpus Petition
Insights provided from practices of the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:59:45 -0700

To: lawsters@googlegroups.com
From: joseph zernik <jz12345@earthlink.net>
Subject: Richard Fine: The quest for the NEFs of the Habeas Corpus petition at the US District
Court LA's - insights from the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California

Hi Attorney Gottschalk, Hi All:

Thanks to Attorney Gottschalk for generously providing a copy of the February 23, 2010 Request For
Courtesy Notice of NEF's, (Docket #34) in Case of Borrower Ronald Gottschalk (2:10-bk-10876-VK).
[1] The paper, which was provided by Atty Gottschalk was not likely to be directly relevant to the issue
of denial of access to court records in the Richard Fine habeas corpus petition. However, it was of
interest, since it provided additional insights into the practice of NEFs - authentications/ certifications by
the clerk - as part of electronic public access (PACER) and case management/ electronic court filing
(CM/ECF) at the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California in particular, and the US courts in
general. The paper provided by Attorney Gottschalk, and related forms of the US Bankruptcy Court,
found online, supported the previous findings relative to implementation of PACER & CM/ECF -
demonstrating denial of access to authentications/certifications instruments of US court records to
parties and to the public, who were not authorized to access CM/ECF in disregard of First Amendment
rights.

SPECIFIC NOTES:
1) The Form [2] a completed example of which was provided by Attorney Gottschalk in his February
23, 2010 Request For Courtesy Notice of NEF's, as well as the respective "Instructions" [3] were
unusual among the Forms of the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California, in missing a Form
ID #, and also failing to spell out the legal foundation for the implementation of such form by the Court.

2) The Form [2] and the respective "Instructions" [3], failed to appear among the online list of forms
designated by numbers as forms of the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California. [4] Instead
they appeared in a separate online list, designated "Court Forms" with no specific court name to it [5]

3) The Form stated unpublished local rules of court in its lower portion. Such rules, invalid as they were
likely to be, would have precluded the use of such form for gaining access to the NEFs by the public or
by any parties who were not authorized as CM/ECF users: "This form can only be filed
electronically via the Courts CM/ECF system... Requests for a courtesy NEF will not be
accepted at the Intake window."

4) Review of the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California suggested that the court now has
two classes of forms and rules. The first is "Official" forms and rules, which were adopted in
compliance with the law, and the second was Unofficial forms and rules.

In Sum:
Therefore, the practices of the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California, relative to NEFs,
were similar to those documented at the US District Court, Central District of California. Those who
were already permitted access to the NEFs and who were served copies of the NEFs by email by the
Court, were permitted to gain access to additional copies of the NEFs. However, those who were
denied access to the NEFs to start out, were not allowed to remedy such Denial of Access to Court
Records through the practice offered to others in the September 2008, unnumbered form of the United
States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, titled: REQUEST FOR COURTESY

Page 2/2 March 21, 2010

NOTIFICATION OF ELECTRONIC
FILING (NEF), which also failed to provide the legal foundation for such practice.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Attorney Gottschalk's contribution would be complemented by the following records:

a) The authentication/certification of the Request was missing from the record that Atty Gottschalk
generously provided. The February 23, 2010 Request for Courtesy Notice of NEFs was electronically
filed. [1] Therefore, an NEF had to be issued by the Court to Attorney Ramesh Singh by email, in
response. The NEF that was issued to Att Ramesh Singh in response to his request for NEFs, would
make the paper that Atty Gottschalk generously provided an honest, valid, and effectual court record.

b) The effect of the Request would be of interest: In case Atty Gottschalk indeed gained access to any
NEFs through such Request. Only the copies of the NEFs are of interest, and not the respective court
papers.

~~jz

LINKED:

[1] February 23, 2010 Request For Courtesy Notice of NEF's, (Docket #34) in Case of Borrower
Ronald Gottschalk (2:10-bk-10876-VK):
http://inproperinla.com/10-02-23-gottschalk-2-10-bk-10876-vk-us-crt-bk-cent-dist-ca-request-for-copies-
of-nefs.pdf

[2] Blank Form for Request for NEFs, as found online at the US Bankruptcy Court, Central District of
California site:
http://inproperinla.com/10-03-21-us-bk-cent-dist-ca-unofficial-form-unnumbered-
request%20for%20nefs.pdf

[3] Instructions for the Form for Request for NEFs, as found online at the US Bankruptcy Court, Central
District of California site:
http://inproperinla.com/10-03-21-us-bk-cent-dist-ca-instructions-for-unofficial-form-unnumbered-
request%20for%20nefs.pdf

[4] List of forms that were designated and numbered as Local Forms of the US Bankruptcy Court,
Central District of California:
http://inproperinla.com/10-03-21-us-bk-cent-dist-ca-list-of-local-bankruptcy-rules-and-forms.pdf

[5] List of forms that were designated "Court Forms":

http://inproperinla.com/10-03-21-us-bk-cent-dist-ca-list-of-court-forms.pdf

At 08:44 AM 3/20/2010, Attorney Gottschalk wrote:

Request For Courtesy Notice of NEF's- Dr Z can you file a similar form for Richard Fine documents in
US District Court or any other NEF you request