Richert. Versus. WGA
Click On LInks Home Page Below
ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE
“Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Halle Salassie
Nov. 29/ 2017
Honorable John Shepard Wiley jr. Sets L A, Superior Court date for Richert V. WGAw firing of Neville Johnson.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES AND DOCUMENTS SHOW HOW SAG RECORDS WERE SEALED--AND LEFT SEALED BY THE CLASS ATTORNEY IN SPITE OF A JUDGE'S CONCERN THAT THEY BE OPENED FOR ACTORS' REVIEW
TO: NEVILLE JOHNSON, NICK KURTZ, PAUL R. KIESEL
WITH COPY TO HONORABLE JUDGE WEST
LA SUPERIOR COURT
CC JF LAWTON et. al.
FR: WILLIAM RICHERT
CLASS REP FOR ALL AMERICAN WRITERS SELLING ABROAD BOTH LIVING AND DEAD
MARCH 9, 2009
RE: LEAD PLAINTIFF CANNOT ACCEPT ‘GIFTS’ FROM CLASS ACTION ATTORNEY
RE: LEAD PLAINTIFF PROTESTS LACK OF ATTORNEY’S DISCLOSURE UPON DEATH OF CO-PLAINTIFF
RE: LEAD PLAINTIFF REQUESTS CONTINUANCE UNTIL NEW QUALIFIED REPLACEMENT FOR BOTH NON-UNION AND UNION WRITERS IS MADE, TO AVOID MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
WRITERS CANNOT BE DISMISSED COMPLETELY FROM THEIR OWN LAWSUIT
Dear Neville and Nick and Paul,
I vigorously protest the manner in which you described my request to have my name removed from this case in your APPLICATION FOR DISMISSAL OF WILLIAM RICHERT AND AMENDMENT OF CASE TITLE AND CAPTION.
I further object to words like “dismissal” when used in connection with my stated request to be relieved as Lead Plaintiff because of a bad deal.
By stating in paragraph 3 that "Plaintiff William Richert no longer wishes to be class representative and wishes that the case name and caption no longer include his name" without also stating that the Plaintiff withdraws because he was ignored the entire time, or including the statement I made in court that "I would never ever settle this because it is wrong" or my declaration that I want my name off because the case mis-represents my position, you make it look like I am leaving on a whim or giving up my post of 4 years, instead of accurate language saying I was withdrawing because I was forced out de facto, by virtue of being ignored for years and then and by your motion to remove yourself as my attorney of record in a joint statement with Tony Segall of the WGA in ‘CLASS COUNSEL’S MOTION TO BE RELIEVED” – all the while still leaving my name on the case, like I agreed to a word of it -- a double whammy I am attempting to forestall.
I did not request to be paid any money from you or anyone else as a "gift." Such a word in this connection offends me.
It would be unethical for me to accept any kind of “gift” in return for taking my name off this case, and that is what this implies.
I requested money for work I originally undertook not knowing any “award” existed for me or anybody else outside the “reward” of justice.
I began in 2005 believing I was part of a quest for justice, not a money-making deal for lawyers for the WGA and studios they partner with, as I told the Judge last month.
Finally seeing the case was going to make enrich you and allow the WGA total forgiveness – and even increasing union official’s rewards in increased percentages and fees -- after being accused in long depositions of shredding documents and checks intended for WGA members and non members.
4 years ago the WGA admitted having 20 million of writers money, money the held for both members and non members, and now they want 3 years more.
I went to court on January 15 2009 and told Judge West that I did not want to feel like a fool and a jerk by refusing payments due to me because of my months and years of hard work as Lead Plaintiff because I was ignored and I couldn’t rightfully stay on the case. I asked for no more than I would have gotten had I remained in my position, for I did the best I could, though I admitted I had failed in preventing this agreement.
Any amount of money I derive from my participation in RICHERT VS. WGA, small or large, is rightfully mine to begin with, whether it comes out of your fees and charges or as an advance from money the WGA has been holding onto for decades from: THE HAPPY HOOKER, LAW AND DISORDER, WINTER KILLS, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK, and A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY REARDON – for example.
Judge Morrow in Federal court says that the WGA and studios took these funds illegally.
You yourselves told me in 2005 the WGA was guilty of FRAUD and CONVERSION in amounts up to 100 million. Other estimates reach 500million plus.
Two Judges and bunches of lawyers have already stated that the case was complex and hard to comprehend, even to the most knowledgeable. I went through a lot of mental gymnastics and difficult legal studies as Lead Plaintiff on this case, and still I don’t pretend to understand what it all entails, just how it smells.
That’s how schemes like this work, of course. Nobody can figure them out. Looks like Madoff will get a deal with justice just for helping them figure out what he did.
Believe me, no money I get from you or anybody else in his case is a “gift” and any language referring to any amount paid to any “Dismissal and me” from the court should be required to name the valid reasons for payment or for dismissal as in any other lawsuit.
We know what it means when a politician in a public trust accepts a large “gift.” What does it mean when a class action litigant with a similar trust does the same?
The tens of thousands of American writers in Subclass 3 must not remotely be given any impression that their Lead Plaintiff has been bribed or paid off to leave the case or that he accepted any kind of "gift".
For you to choose the word “gift” as a term for payment from the class attorney to Lead Plaintiff in connection with my quitting this lawsuit is a kind of defamation, as I see it.
No Lead Plaintiff should leave a class action lawsuit involving millions of dollars under a cloud. – Or, in my case, with such an insult.
I am asking for a rightful sum from someone who intend to profit lavishly off the exploitive use of my name to enact a shameful settlement I would never agree to and that's pretty much what I said in court.
The proposed order I received last Friday (today is Monday) does not reflect the spirit or substance of the agreement I made with Mr. Johnson or with the court.
Considering the way Johnson and Johnson used my name and made representations for Subclass 3 all these years without my consent and over all my protests, right up until this very March 9, 2009 day, I really ought to be given most of the money Neville Johnson gets for my days and nights of writing, and for being bait-and-switched, with the rest being divided among members of Subclass 3 who are otherwise likely to see very little of what is actually owed them from this settlement – as it is written.
In his application for my “dismissal” Mr. Kurtz wrote that I wouldn’t accept a settlement. I never said I wouldn’t accept a settlement. It is THE SETTLEMENT AS WRITTEN I would not accept, as I declared in writing two years ago, and the terms have hardly changed since then.
Offering only “selected” facts about my wanting to no longer be a class rep. are misleading.
Please supply me with a transcript of what happened in court so that the record can be clear.
Didn’t Judge West say I could remove myself “with prejudice” or something?
THE REPLACEMENT WRITER IS NOT HERE, AND NOBODY SEEMS TO WANT ONE ANYHOW EXCEPT THE LEAD PLAINTIFF AND HIS CLASS
I asked to be removed as Lead Plaintiff with the understanding that another writer would replace me.
Judge West himself said that I needed to be replaced with another writer in the first court appearance.
But that is not happening now. And the settlement is apparently all but approved without any writer whatsoever. In a lawsuit all about writers.
This is not what I understood Just West to say.
It is my view, after all I have learned from this long long ordeal, that it might even be better and fairer for writers of all descriptions that this settlement be totally re-written or the whole case started over with younger widows (and writers) along with real non union writers, not carefully-picked ones.
That 4 years have gone by, with practically no investigations or discoveries, suggest to me that a stone wall/stonewall has been erected around all the matters in concern here.
Neville Johnson and Paul Keisel have claimed they will breach this wall on behalf of writers and artists. In fact they have helped build it.
HOW MANY OTHER WIDOWS WILL DIE WITHOUT SHARING THEIR HUSBANDS JUST REWARD
Pearl Retchin was Plaintiff for Widows, as I understand it.
She was a Plaintiff like me in this lawsuit, but she’s no longer here to protest it.
How many other widows, I wonder, have died in the past 4 years, never getting the benefits of their husband’s estates, prevented by the obfuscations, delays, whistle-blower payouts and plain old lies of the WGA.
Has the WGA kept this lawsuit going to collect more cash from the widows’ checks before settling?
How can you replace a widow with one of her children and not replace the Lead Plaintiff representing thousands?
Seems a little selective to me.
Judge West said he needed a writer to replace me if I were to leave and there is none.
It seems that there must be some kind of a law that would even prevent a person from withdrawing from a lawsuit if it means there is no longer a Plaintiff.
If Pearl Retchin has a named replacement, why is there no replacement for me in the papers submitted to the Judge about my dismissal?
Have all the writers owed money by the WGA suddenly been “disappeared” with the removal of my name?
I recall Neville Johnson asking the opponent WGA lawyer to supply a new writer for the case – a courtroom conversation that appalled me. Emma Leheny said she would supply a guild writer for the case, but apparently still has not.
This resembles Venezuelan politics, not a righteous case against a corrupt union, and make no mistake.
Again and again you – Neville Johnson – have agreed with me that the union is corrupt “to its eyebrows,” as the whistle blower said.
Now you continue the subterfuge in the APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL OF DISMISAL OF WILLIAM RICHERT AND (2) SUBSTITUION OF MADE RETCHIN FEIL FOR PEARL RETCHIN AND (3) AMENDMENT OF CASE TITLE AND CAPTION.
I am disturbed that you concealed the information about the death of one of the 3 lead plaintiffs in this case, since this leaves only a two legged stool, so to speak, to support the vast number of writers injured or stolen from by the WGA.
I am not the sort of person who would abandon past and future writers to those who would sell them out. I am the sort of person who’d scream bloody murder at this prospect, and leave the stage in protest.
But I can’t leave the show without a performer on the stage.
You and Nick Kurt and Paul Keisel are not proper representatives for the thousands of present writers and hundreds of thousands of future writers who’ll be affected forever if this settlement goes through as written.
On March 23 I will ask Judge West to reconsider allowing me to withdraws Class Rep until a genuine writer with credits and foreign levies owed to him/her can replace me and adequately and responsibly represent Subclass 3.
I do not believe that the Judge should leave so many thousands, and future thousands of writers and artists with a settlement that will, in effect, bind future generations of writers to union and studio contracts they never signed and never saw.
Instead of paying out old levies, the unions/studios are levying writers’ foreign earnings anew, and for all time.
You don’t need to be the screenwriter of WINTER KILLS to speculate what unioins will do with the ID’s and tax info of all American writers.
In his declaration Mr. Kurtz says “Justice required Plaintiffs the opportunity to dismiss Mr. Richert, substitute Ms. Feil for Ms. Retchin, and change the case name and caption to reflect these changes.
DID JUSTICE REQUIRE THE DISMISSAL OF WILLIAM RICHERT?
DECLRATION OF NICHOLAS KURTZ:
Ms. Retchin is dead more than six months, I discover from the documents sent 3 days ago.
I believe this information was withheld deliberately, because it would certainly have changed my view of my role in this case, and would have changed some of the things I told Judge West.
The document says her daughters replace Pearl.
But it is the 85 year widow who was the true heir to her husbands fortunes. Though I’m not sure how much of an activist she could have been in protecting her rights, I’m sure she didn’t think she’d die before seeing justice.
In addition just finding out that my fellow lead plaintiff died six months ago, and you decided to substitute her children for her self without informant the other plaintiffs, I only found out in recent court papers that you conducted 5 (five) days of mediation with Joel Grossman, a former studio executive I objected to and who should not have been allowed to continue as sole Mediator under circumstances wherein the Lead Plaintiff disputes his credentials.
Just as doctors can be prosecuted for assisting suicides, I believe you are guilty of allowing me kill off my role as plaintiff in front of the Judge and the courtroom without keeping me informed of all developments in the case, thereby creating possible harm for those I represent.
If I am not replaced with an authentic writer, one who has produced both union and non union screenplays sold abroad during the period the WGA took money, then I do not believe I should be replaced at all.
By mis-characterizing my appearance in court, by suggesting I am taking “gifts” – which are considered tantamount to “bribes” in political scandals -- you have abrogated the substance of my protest and the true meaning of withdrawal, and you have attempted to memorialize for all time for all writers the opposite of my intentions and declarations.
I do not believe “justice” will be served until another writer who fits the case as I do replaces me.
If by removing myself as Lead Plaintiff in protest I have paradoxically allowed this settlement to rush to law unhindered, with no protector or advocate for writers, they my actions are truly without merit and have to be cast aside.
I cannot allow myself to be “dismissed” under such circumstances.
I cannot accept “gifts,” either. Payment for 4 years of faithful class service, yes; money due me from the WGA for decades, yes; gifts, no.
Although Mr. Johnson has concluded otherwise, it is my duty as Class Champion to place the baton in the hands of the next runner.
Awaiting such a moment I remain,
William Richert
LEAD PLAINTIFF, RICHERT VS. WGA
PS:
In reviewing the settlement document before sending this letter I re-read the following statement: THE SETTLING PARTIES STIPULATE TO CERTIFICATION OF THE FOLLOIWNG SETTLEMENT CLASS: ALL WRITERS, INCLUDIJG MEMBERS OF THE WGAW AND NON-MEMBERS, WHOSE WORKS, WETHER OR NOT WRITTEN UNDER ANY WGAW COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT, EARNED FOREIGN LEVY FUNDS THAT WERE PAID TO THE WGAW BY FOREIGN COLLECTION SOCIETIES. THIS CLASS DEFINITION INCLUDES THE LAWFUL HEIRS OF ANY SUCH WRITER WHO IS NO LONGER LIVING.
As a layman, it appears that without any notification, I have actually become the Lead Plaintiff for all living writers whose audiovisual works sell abroad.
If this is so, my job description and classification on RICHERT VS. WGA was changed as of December 5, when JOHNSON & JOHNSON MADE A DEAL WITH THE WGA.
If I became in fact Lead Plaintiff for a combined 3 parties last December, I should have been informed, for this would materially affect my considerations about all aspects of this case. To my knowledge, neither I nor any other Lead Plaintiffs were a.) informed or b.) asked for approval of this change. For this reason also I need to have any dismissal of me or my class reviewed by all concerned, especially the writers at the heart of it.
MORE
William Richert
WILLIAM RICHERT VS WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, INC.
Class Action for Screen Writers Everywhere
From: fcbfilms@hotmail.com
To: wcapplegate@aol.com; antkaufman@gmail.com; alhayes@the-machine.net; hydepark@mindspring.com; nkurtz@jjllplaw.com; angelsamongus12@gmail.com; stefan@stefanavalos.com; tubower@msn.com; reelmovies@aol.com; brandonctolman@mac.com; barrygermansky@yahoo.ca; thecolonel@vbbn.com; belindabauer@me.com; rbonsignore@aol.com; bsterling@rcn.com; nbrown@jjllplaw.com; codereddvd@yahoo.com; erboyle@aol.com; ebarton@wcllp.com; peter.bart@variety.com; ninsky13@hotmail.com; ceallen@compass1.com; jimmyfingers@oceanfree.net; stymeekatt@msn.com; dcs@sernalaw.com; jcoffee@law.columbia.edu; k_r_craft@sky.com; dennishayden@hotmail.com; dave.mcnary@variety.com; designmanager@yahoo.com; morin@pmplaw.com; dje@evanslaw.net; rapunzelinnewyork@gmail.com; dkholm@mac.com; daj@digitaleconomics.com; deadlinehollywood@gmail.com; dimitra.ekmektsis@gmail.com; evanferrante@gmail.com; erin2535@mchsi.com; etude-piletta-zanin@vtx.ch; sfoundas@filmlinc.com; joel@grossmanmediation.com; llbengr@aol.com; mgrenadier@gmail.com; patrick.goldstein@latimes.com; hrm@hrmatlencpa.com; hmatsco@aol.com; prayharper@gmail.com; ialwayswinfilms@gmail.com; johnleo9@aol.com; j.sh@verizon.net; jdunno@gmail.com; njohnson@jjllplaw.com; jwinikow@yahoo.com; kylemorris@rcn.com
Subject: Letter to Judge in Writers' Class Action
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 04:21:52 +0000
DEAR MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN WRITER, DIRECTOR AND ACTOR CLASS ACTIONS OF 2012:
ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF:
I am the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit WILLIAM RICHERT vs. WRITER’S GUILD OF AMERICA et. al. (BC339972) with related cases against the Director’s union and Screen Actor’s union – three largely unknown lawsuits about “foreign levies” which have been adjudicated in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The cases are “settled” according to the parties signed agreements, but the truth is they are not settled, they are on fire, smoking and roiling with sealed-up falsehoods and deceit and false accountings.
The outcome of these lawsuits now being re-examined in the LA SUPERIOR COURT will affect the credits and pocketbooks of virtually every American writer, actor, director, porn star and documentary maker – union or free lancer -- who may have sold movies or videos overseas in the past 30 years OR who may sell their works in other countries in the future, where they will collect what are called “foreign levies.”
These “foreign levies,” are like royalties mandated by the state, tiny taxes on sales of media meant to benefit the artist. They were enacted by European legislatures to help writers and actors and artists who otherwise might receive nothing from the corporations who made or distributed their films/performances. For some, the money amounts are enormous.
In the decades-old scheme, billions of dollars have been collected and divided – in secret – by the WGA, DGA, SAG and 11 members of the MPAA. The method behind the split between unions and studios, money collected for actors and writers both inside and outside of unions, who worked independently or worked for studios, was first concocted by WGA Secretary-Treasurer Carl Gottlieb in the early 90’s.
Since then, millions have “disappeared,” unaccounted-for -- according to sworn testimony by paid-off whistleblowers, and the hidden studio-union agreements remained unknown to almost any union or non union American artist until our seminal class action lawsuit was filed against the WGAw in 2005. It is now 2012, and there is still no accounting.
Using evidence from the WGA lawsuit, the same LA contingency lawyers quickly filed two more lawsuits against the SAG and DGA unions, dating back to 2007.
But all three of the settlements are in breach, clearly in breach, and the lawyers for all sides keep stonewalling year after year, to wear down any opposition, to protect attorney interests along with the interests of the unions’ Board of Directors and studio bosses alike; everybody working together to hold up the walls against the truth, now crumbling down on them.
The fiduciary obligations of the unions’ Board of Directors are to their membership. I am sure that just about 100% of the dues-paying members of these “sister” unions would not want to be responsible for taking money from non-members if they knew about it, and would hold their officers directly responsible for immediate, transparent accountings and interest on their own money, too.
There is a hearing coming up on August 9, at the LA SUPERIOR COURT -- 600 Commonwealth Avenue, LA, Department 311, Judge Wiley, 9:30AM -- but if it’s like the other hearings, the majority media will ignore it. No wonder: the unions represent all actors and writers and broadcasters on cable and TV, and the networks and studios are owned by the very same major corporations who are tainted and caught by these decades-long thefts.
As the money appears to have vanished from the various unions’ domestic bank accounts, it may be the studio for-profit corporations that will finally have to pay up for the non-profit union corporations, as only they have the billions due.
I am a formerly reclusive writer/director/actor wrought up in this because I believed the quest of the lawsuit was genuine and was told thousands were signing on the suit along with me. I found out I was lead plaintiff from the NY Times, and up to now I’ve been the only writer among the named plaintiffs. Maybe in the future many more will join to demand fair representation and justice in court. You can read more at my blog (partly constructed) at williamrichert.blogspot or at my work in progress website williamrichert.com. email: richertwilliam@mac.com
From:
LEAD PLAINTIFF WILLIAM RICHERT,
WILLIAM RICHERT VS
WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, et. al.
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES – CENTRAL CIVIL WEST
CASE NO: BC339972
DECLARATION OF WILLIAM RICHERT - PLAINTIFF’S OPPOSITON TO ATTORNEY’S MOTION FOR ADDITIONAL FEES
Hearing:
Date: August 9, 2012
Time: 9:30 AM
Place: Dept 311
Action filed: Sept. 16, 2005
JULY 27, 2012
TO: ATTORNEYS FOR DEFENDANT AND PLAINTIFF
HONORABLE JOHN SHEPARD WILEY JR.
DEPT 311
LA SUPERIOR COURT
600 Commonwealth Avenue
Los Angeles, California
via email and Hand Delivery
cc: "All American writers" represented in this lawsuit.
cc: Counsel Neville Johnson & Paul Kiesel for Plaintiff and Tony Segall for WGAw
RE: CLASS REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAM RICHERT RESPECTFULLY ASKS COURT TO DENY COUNSEL'S MOTION FOR ADDITIONAL FEES.
REQUESTS LAWYER'S NEWEST FUNDS BE HELD FOR CLASS TO PAY FOR NEW ACCOUNTING/REVIEW AND INDEPENDENT COUNSEL OVERSIGHT IN BREACHED SETTLEMENT.
Dear Judge Wiley,
Your honor, as you know I am the Lead Plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of non-union free American writers against the Writer's Guild of America, Inc., a non-profit corporation.
During the course of this 7-year litigation I have become the certified representative for both union and non-union writers in tiny towns and places all across America.
I also came to represent all 19,500 WGA members who today find themselves bound "forever" to the settlement terms because I was falsely presented to the courts as a member "Emeritus In Arrears," a category invented for me by the union, which I never was.
There is no other writer among the named plaintiffs.
I am duty bound by Congressional mandate to act as "Citizens Attorney General" for each and every one of my class.
Ethically, I must inform the court about matters that have not been presented to the Judge: willful, serious omissions that deserve the court's attention and remedies:
1.) ON JANUARY 10 2012 Defendant WGAw corporation and its Board of Directors misled Judge West in Dept. 311 by saying there was an acceptable audit in settlement, placed on the wga.org website. Our lawyers did not tell the Judge that the auditors themselves say the website document is NOT AN AUDIT, and cannot be used by anybody except the WGA itself, thus deceiving the court and writer class into believing the lawsuit is satisfied. Both the writer’s class counsel and defendant’s counsel put forth this audit knowing it was not an audit and could not be used as an audit.
2.) Significantly, and only just discovered in DGA documents, a new “second set of books” has been disclosed, pinpointing yearly audits of foreign levies for WGA, SAG and DGA along with the MPAA studios dating back to 2006. It appears that throughout all these years of courtroom litigation for an audit, the guilds and attorneys concealed he existence of an annual ongoing $70,558 PKF "Tri Guild Audit", an audit paid for by the studios which might provide startling new evidence of actual amounts involved in the lawsuits, an audit of the money belonging to the writer class that the class deserves to examine since the only audit given after all these yeas is a NOT AUDIT and can't be used as an accounting for the millions "disappeared.”
3.) The annual "review" on the WGAw website is also bogus and consists of only one page, and the small print states, brazenly and unbelievably, that the audit is taken from the same KMPG numbers provided entirely by the same WGA people accused of embezzlement; thus in no way can this one page document be used to verify class accounting demands under the settlement.
4.) In the May 16 hearing Neville Johnson revealed for the first time that the foreign levy amount collected by the WGAw actually 200 million, or almost twice the 104 million the union told the courts and Variety and the class.
5.) In post-settlement documents the WGA has revealed that 9,360 writers received the just acknowledged 200 million, but offers no proof at all that this happened, how the money was divided, not a single cancelled check.
6.) Though they were told repeatedly from the bench by Judge West to provide accounting documents and correspondence to the Lead Plaintiff for the class, Neville Johnson and Paul Kiesel and Don Jasko refused, excluding American writers from their lawsuit almost entirely.
7.) The court should not allow Mr. Johnson again to substitute any non-writer for the position of Lead Plaintiff for “all American writers,” as he and Tony Segall attempted to substitute into the case the daughter of non-writer Pearl Retchin, a class plaintiff who was dead for a year before the court was told.
8.) As Lead Plaintiff in the case I still have not been provided any accounting at all, and have not been paid the minimum $75,000 owed to me (CAFA) against an estimated $233,000 lost as a result of the embezzlements. My attorney Paul Kiesl told me that my checks from the WGA would be used as the basis for an in-depth accounting that would apply to all the class. This accounting could be compared to the DGA and SAG accountings for my films throughout all three unions. I relied on Mr. Kiesl’s expertise, as he gives lectures on class actions to LA Superior Court Judges, is a Co Chair of the California Bar and provides ample expertise on class actions procedures. Mr. Kiesl sat with me for three days, during which time he explained in front of witness how Lead Plaintiffs accountings are templates for the class. Because of his promise of a fair and understandable audit, given in front of witnesses, provided with court-sanctioned expert opinion I signed the settlement agreement for the class.
9.) I have been retaliated against by both the WGAw Executives and Board in false statements to their membership, and by my own lawyers, who filed vexatious tax reports that got me in trouble with the IRS. In his Oct 3 2011 hearing Judge West admonished the WGA to quit any harm to the writer's plaintiff, but my lawyers ignored him and did nothing about it and the WGA harassing behavior continues online.
“THE COURT: YOU KNOW, THERE’S A LOT OF MYSTERY GOING ON HERE. AND WE ALL OUGHT TO BE AWARE THAT I’VE GOT SOME CONCERNS. AND I WANT TO HEAR FROM MR. RICHERT ON THIS ISSUE.” – Judge Carl J. West, May 21, 2008
Your honor, I declare that if the DGA's accounting is "laughable," the WGA brings down the house with its claim that its Board of Directors spent approximately 35 million in "administrative fees” etc., – not to mention attorney and whistle blower fees – an amount exceeding the entire WGAw yearly budget -- to distribute non-union and union foreign levies – not a penny of which belonged to them -- when they were unable to account for any of it until the appearance a “not audit” audit, accompanied by the equally sudden appearance of 200 million after the recent sudden appearance of 104 million -- and all of it a fraction of what actually was collected by unions divided with the studios -- is pure bunk. WGA corruption exposer Eric Hughes’ documents, and Teri Mial’s paid-off employee Whistle blower testimony, show all the accounts to be false.
Therefore, on behalf of the class I represent, I seek a decree that shifts the funds for future attorneys fees to a general fund for the class of writers I represent, so the just-discovered "Tri Guild" accountings can be examined, and new attorneys can be hired to look at the entirety of this settlement action and its aftermath in your courtroom.
Because of these post-settlement revelations, an outside accounting is in the interest of fairness to the millions owed by law to the authors and screenwriters of the 102,00 "titles" the WGA claims to have collected money for, and split with the DGA and studios.
With these revelations since Judge West retired, we discover a large number of artists in plaintiff classes, with the guilds owing money to 102,000 writers and 102,000 directors of those titles and the 500,000 or more actors in the related SAG case; they say they paid it, but as Mr. Hughes puts it, there is “not a shred of evidence.” -- But sworn evidence of plenty of shredding.
“THE COURT: THE UNDERLYING GOAL OF THIS SETTLEMENT AND THE COURT’S DETERMINATION THAT IT WAS A FAIR AND REASONBLE SETTLEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE CLASS OF PEOPLE WHO WERE CERTIFIED FOR SETTLEMENT PURPOSES AND WHO ARE BENEFITTING FROM THIS SETTLEMENT: IS THAT THERE WOULD BE A MORE TRANSPARENT AND OPEN ACCOUNTING OF COLLECTIONS AND DISTRIBUTIONS.” Judge Carl J. West, Dept 311, Jan 10, 2012
As "Citizen Attorney General" for my class of American writers, I plead that your honor will assist this plaintiff by enacting the following motions in the interests of fairness, justice and transparency:
MOTION TO DENY ATTORNEY FEES TO CLASS LAWYERS in the August 9, 2012 hearing until the court is satisfied the writer class plaintiff has funds to hire a lawyer equal to the super-lawyers so the writer-plaintiff can adequately defend the class against further theft, "Both federal and California courts have held that, when the ethical violation in question is a conflict of interest between the attorney and the client, the appropriate fee for the attorney in question is zero." -- letter to Judge Highberger re fraud on LA Superior court.
MOTION TO COMPEL DEFENDANT DGA, ITS CFO AND PRESIDENT AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS TO PROVIDE ALL PKF STUDIO AUDITS IN ITS POSSESSION RELATING TO THE WGAW FOREIGN LEVY LAWSUIT, INCLUDING AUDIT OF WITH MAJOR STUDIOS TO VERIFY AMOUNTS. The class should not be the out and out loser in a class action if the action has merit and is sound. The class is entitled to simple transparency in all audits which relate to money which was collected illegally for thousands of unsuspecting free writers and writers not hired by studios. It is in the most urgent interest of the class to know how much of their money was given to the studios, and to each of the unions, and how much actually received from this settlement.
MOTION FOR WRIT OF MANDATE TO COMPEL WGA TO PROVIDE WRITER CLASS COPIES OF WGAW"TRI STATE" AUDITS SHOWING WHERE THE FOREIGN LEVY MONEY DISAPPEARED. The settlements do not release claims against the WGAw for splitting with studios outside the collective bargaining agreement; the settlements do not settle any future claims from non-union American actors OR union American directors. The Board of Directors are basically withholding evidence.
MOTION TO COMPEL COPIES OF DOCUMENTS, ACCOUNTINGS AND EMAILS BETWEEN CONSULTANT DONALD JASKO AND WGAW et. al. CFO DON GOR BE GIVEN TO THE WRITER CLASS. Donald Jasko asked me specifically for copies of checks I got from the WGA that did not match the DGA; I did not know it was just to keep me quiet, and he had no intention of using them.
MOTION TO COMPEL ACCOUNTING FOR LEAD PLAINTIFF WILLIAM RICHERT AS TEMPLATE FOR THE CLASS, AS PROMISED by counsel Paul Kiesl before signing the settlement, specifically the titles “Law and Disorder,” “The Happy Hooker,” “Success,” “Winter Kills,” and “The Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,” “The Man In The Iron Mask,” years 1974-2012.
MOTION TO COMPEL WGAw to provide copies of its settlement documents to states attorneys-general and Federal authorities as provided by law, since the affected are from all states.
MOTION TO DEMAND NEVILLE JOHNSON AND WGAW CEASE RETALIATION AGAINST NAMED PLAINTIFF, as the WGAw puts false statements about me on its website and to letters to its members, and Neville Johnson purposefully filed misleading tax information to the IRS causing me tax burdens. No class representative should have to fear retribution or bad-mouthing from the defendant or his own lawyers.
I have been threatened to be dumped roadside, and blacklisted, and other things during this confrontational litigation with my former union, who claim I am a member when they need the association and then deny it in emails to their members when they don't.
BACKGROUND AND AUTHORITY
Neville Johnson told the LA Daily Journal that he was the mastermind of the “3 sister” foreign levy lawsuits in 2005, drawing upon his existing clients as Lead Plaintiffs.
I was such a client at the time, with my jury award the highest he ever got, almost 15 million. Mr. Johnson knew I’d publicly stated that the WGAw was corrupt from having my credit for THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT/WEST WING given to another writer without due process or transparency just the way Mr. Johnson described the way the guild concealed millions in undistributed funds for unnamed non-union writers the guild divided with the studios in a long-running kind of mutual extortion.
The real force behind Neville Johnson's lawsuits was Eric Hughes, screenwriter of "Against All Odds" and "White Knights." It was Eric Hughes, WGA presidential candidate running against corrupt credit arbitration in the WGA, who obtained insider documents from whistle blower Teri Mial, paid six-figures herself to keep quiet in this lawsuit. And it was Eric Hughes who introduced Mial to Mr. Johnson, and who showed Mr. Johnson, along with me and other prominent journalists, just what the corruption looked like on paper.
Mr. Johnson was essentially a copyist of Mr. Hughes' written allegations used by his firm Johnson & Rishwain for their original complaints of fraud and other things against all three Hollywood “labor” guilds.
We ask the court to demand that documents held by Mr. Hughes be given to the class. Mr. Hughes owes it to the writers, actors and directors to provide copies of evidence that rightfully belongs to them, and which can eliminate instantly, with publication of names and amounts, all doubt about who did what, and can provide immediate finality to this class litigation.
However, far more significant to this breached settlement, a game changer, is the discovery from new statements by the DGA that the unions and studios have actually been covertly doing audits all this time. This means that all during years of lengthy courtroom hearings for the DGA, WGA and SAG since the lawsuit was filed in 2005, the lawyers kept quiet. Now we see proof positive how all foreign levies were all audited by the studios and themselves since maybe as early as 2003 in what the CFO of the DGA calls "Tri Guild Foreign Levy Audits."
It would be a public sham to continue hearings in court to get something already got.
It is iconic misdirection among 19+ lawyers for the unions who appeared for these guilds in court during the past 7 years and never mentioned they already had what the class was looking for: an audit; evidence of a billion-dollar secret royalty split between the unions and studios approved by nobody among the free Americans in my class, whose money it actually was/is, and who could use it today.
BIG STORY, BIG PLAYERS
This could only happen in Hollywood, where a whisper can sink a ship of a career. Where unions have meetings with both writers and young video dancers with teamsters in tow. Intimidation is rampant, your honor should know.
Once I discovered Mr. Johnson, and next Mr. Keisl, were ready to sell out the rights of American writers for their personal and corporate profits, that they were essentially profiteering on Superior Court litigation without regard for the greater long term rights of the writers who are their clients, I became in direct conflict with my lawyers while standing in place as lead plaintiff, and I am standing still, for I have not surrendered the original goal of the case: a true accounting and payout and end to unethical behavior.
I attach a "disappeared" check signed by Patric Verrone made out to the poet Bukowski, a fellow class member.
Mr. Johnson tells each judge about how weak and unorganized our related cases for writers, directors and actors are; tells each judge he/she is our only hope, but that's because Neville Johnson is not doing his job, as it is not the Judge's job to act as advocate for the lawyer's underdog in a lawsuit.
The lawyers for both sides in this case purport to represent writers and artists, but none of them really do.
The true facts and true movers have been concealed from Dept. 311, from both you and Judge West before you, and Judge Morrow before that in Federal court.
The court transcript of January 10, before he retired, shows Judge West believed both sides when he was told an "audit" had been placed on the WGAw website. His sudden retirement meant he never saw the one page NOT AN AUDIT that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Kiesel and Mr. Segall told him gave settlement finality to the RICHERT VS. WGAw lawsuit.
At Judge West’s last hearing in Dept. 311, January 10, 2012, which I couldn’t attend because I wasn’t told about it, Judge West did say to Messrs. Johnson and Schecter: "I don't want the two of you in front of me any more. It doesn't do any good,” and “I know enough to be dangerous.”
Judge West said if it had his name on it, "it has to be right."
Before telling Judge West the audit was on the WGAw website, Neville Johnson claimed that the settlement was in material breach; only a large payment to Donald Jasko changed that, along with fees yet to be paid to Neville Johnson. But for these payments, the settlement is still in breach.
I don't claim copyright but my name is on this lawsuit and I've known some great writers who deserve my sticking to our rights, even if I am threatened with expulsion from the writer's lawsuit in favor of lawyers. A case brought on behalf of writers should have a writer in it.
SOLIDARITY OF CORRUPTION
It is absurd to have the accused corporation offer its own accounting without strict oversight, or any oversight. Having the WGAw review its own review is like a joke; a "Not Audit" is not acceptable to settle a lawsuit except for suckers, and putting numbers from a "not audit" up on the wga.org website as an "one-time review" with an “annual review” consisting of 3 lines is offensive and insulting to my class.
I still have not gotten any form of accounting for my own foreign levies owed and interest bearing dating back to 1974. Please show us the stubbs.
Besides being useless to the class, the accounting is AICA, not GAAP; another breach.
ACCOUNTING NOT PERFORMED ACCORDING TO GENERAL ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES AS REQUIRED IN SETTLEMENT
The startling figure 200 million entered into the record by Neville Johnson is double what was reported only months ago by the WGA to Variety. Where’d it come from? We need to know, your honor.
Now suddenly, the WGAw says it paid out 21 million dollars to its members/non members in the single year 2011. This single amount is 20% of what the union claims to have paid out over the past 20 years -- and this year the lowest in DVD sales since the past decade or so -- how does this add up?
In fact, the WGA claims it collected 85 million dollars plus 1,323,149 “interest/income” for members and free writers nationwide since 2007, more than in all the years from 1992-2007, when DVD sales were ballooning.
WGAw Board claims it distributed 21 million to members this year. In the past 20 years they charged 35+ million in “fees” to do all this “administration,” but cannot produce a single canceled check in evidence.
How can the WGAw charge its members roughly one-quarter of what it collected for "administrative" fees when it can't show it administered anything, when it has to hire an outside firm for an audit amazingly limited and confined to numbers only they offer, and nothing more?
How can the lawyers from several firms keep billing the same writers in all cases millions in fees without producing a single accounting of merit? In fact, hiding the audit that really does exist.
In the hearing before you on May 16 in Dept 311, where this case has been for years, the WGA counsel is silent when Neville Johnson suddenly pops up with an extra 100 million.
The Lead Plaintiff is obliged to protest. The court should look at the 2007 WGAw accounting, given under oath, which both duplicates and contradicts the KMPG report.
The KMPG-WGAw accounting, approved by its Board of Directors to settle a case for fraud, doesn't compute, add up, or make sense. It's a big lie.
That means the Boards of Directors and Executives at 3 major guilds handling the money of thousands of people are untrustworthy.
THE BREACHED SETTLEMENT WITHOUT COMPLIANCE GIVES WGAw/MPAA STUDIOS ECONOMIC CONTROLS OVER U.S. WRITERS NATIONWIDE UNLESS THE CLASS SAYS FOUL AND THE COURT ALLOWS THE CLASS TO SPEAK.
The WGAW has concealed facts about writers’ credits and income before.
It was the writer's guild union who blacklisted hundreds of great American screenwriters, their own colleagues, putting them out of work for years, a long list of names also due foreign levies, if living; otherwise, their heirs.
This Hollywood union/studio combo are seeking to control piracy on the internet, when they are pirates themselves with American foreign royalties and copyrights.
The guilds and studios have "organized' the collection of foreign royalties for all American artists, and they have done so in secret, illegally.
American writers and artists should know that there is a huge database with their names and financial information on it, as many as 700,000 citizens, a database they cannot access.
The WGA/MPAA should not be in possession of that database – U.S. citizens’ social security numbers and addresses and tax ID’s – which will soon number in the millions as more and more independent filmmakers sell their work abroad over the internet and other places.
Unions so ostentatiously corrupt should not have access to this information so as to seize it as a “mailing list” ripe for exploitation.
WGAw claims the 2007 strike gives the union jurisdiction over the Internet for any thing that moves, saying if it moves it must be written, and they control it.
The WGAw refers to writers who write without a union or new media contract with them as “scabs.”
“THE COURT: I GUESS I HAVE REAL CONCERNS ABOUT HOW ALL THESE NEGOTIATIONS AND MEDIATIONS WERE TAKING PLACE WITH NO LIVING CLASS REPRESENTATIVE FOR ONE OF THE SUPP. CLASSES. THAT'S A PROBLEM.
I HAVE A QUESTION REGARDING THE ABILITY OF CLASS COUNSEL TO CONTINUE TO REPRESENT THE INTERESTS OF THE CLASS AT THIS JUNCTURE GIVEN THE INFORMATION THAT HAS BEEN PLACED BEFORE THE COURT.” Judge Carl J. West, Dept 311, March 23, 2009
Paul Kiesl, who induced me with his knowledge of facts and law (in front of 2 witnesses) to sign this settlement on behalf of my class, did not attend the May 16 hearing, perhaps because he was out raising 660 million in emergency funding for the LA Superior Court system. That amount may have been lost to the LA tax base during the 2.9 billion WGA strike in 2007, which still hurts, led by the same Board who gave the KMPG accounting.
Your honor clerked with Justice Powell who vigorously promoted the idea of corporations having the same rights as individuals -- and it ought to work both ways.
If corporations have the same rights as individuals, as Chief Justice Powell believed, they have the same obligations for honesty and fair dealing, and ought not use their lopsided power, as in LA, where unions and studios possess vastly superior resources and hidden agreements dating back years. If their rights Trump ours, and they as “corporate individuals” are protected over my class and me as an non-corporate individual in your courtroom, my class action is doomed.
Individuals cannot fight major corporations alone, which is why class actions were created. Of course the court knows that, you handle class actions routinely.
I am not be able to afford a lawyer on my writer's income, esp. now that the WGAw has stopped sending me residuals and levy checks altogether as a result of this litigation.
LAWYER CLIENT CONFLICT WHEN CLIENT REPRESENTS A LARGE CLASS
Some legalists have told me to contact the Bar about Neville Johnson and Paul Kiesl, but it's quicker to just email Mr. Kiesl as he is Co-Chair of the California bar.
Eric Hughes did complain to the bar, which found the fact Mr. Kiesel didn’t associate himself into the case was problematical, as Mr. Kiesl already knows.
CALIFORNIA CODE OF JUDICAL ETHICS: (1) A judge shall not allow family, social, political or other relationships to influence the judge’s judicial conduct or judgment, nor shall a judge convey or permit others to convey the impression that any individual is in a special position to influence the judge.
Also I feel obliged to say, as the only writer court-certified to represent my class that your honor’s remarks to me on first sight when I raised my hand to speak in protest after Neville Johnson said my case was "settled" when I say no -- when you advised me this was “not a town hall” “or a therapy meeting” -- as if I were a hothead or a nutcase -- and later when you said in front of me that these lawyers sitting in front of me were such that “every law school student in the country would like to be like you” -- and especially when you told me that my lawyers were "famous," implying I was not, and maybe for some faulty reason I was not -- these statements from your authority, which are absolute, made me think I should complain to the Commission of Judges for fair dealing with all parties in a lawsuit -- as to whether you showed bias towards a Lead Plaintiff in a class action lawsuit in favor of lawyers --but as in the case of my lawyers, I may as well just state my concerns to you here directly, respectfully, and ask you as a member of the California’s Commission on Judicial Ethics Opinions to consider the pain of my humiliation in court.
You honor must be aware that you are highly regarded as a brilliant legal mind in article after article about Judges on the Internet, and so your initial opinion of me is even more damaging and I plead with the court to remember:
(8)…A JUDGE SHALL MANAGE THE COURTROOM IN A MANNER THAT PROVIDES ALL LITIGANTS THE OPPORTINITY TO HAVE THEIR MATTERS FAIRLY ADJUDICATED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW.
COMENTARY: …A judge should encourage and seek to facilitate settlement, but parties should not feel coerced into surrendering their right to have their controversy resolved by the courts.”
This class action is not about coupons or consumers, it is about creators and copyrights and human rights, each and every artist involved is different, and that is one of their similarities as a class. No assembly line here.
As artists, they have a right to know if their work is shown abroad, indeed shown anywhere, and they have the right to be assured their accountings are transparent and honest.
I figure the combo lawyers have made millions off the defendants in these cases so far.
At the hearing for attorney fees on August 9, if your honor could move a little cash -- which comes from writers anyhow -- to the other side of the table -- it would mean we could pay for a true accounting, a great leap towards justice for as 700,000 Americans.
Like Neville Johnson, I concur that history will be made in your courtroom, only not in Mr. Johnson’s way.
We shall do all in our power to make sure this settlement is not an out and out loss for the freedom of artists in America, a Hollywood snuff job for our civil rights and economic rights as free writers and artists in a free nation.
Sincerely,
William Richert
Lead Plaintiff
WILLIAM RICHERT VS
WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA et al
4 EXHIBITS: