by The Friends of George Cushingberry Jr.
In a
unanimous ruling on June 15, the Michigan Attorney Discipline board has administratively
dismissed the charges against Attorney George Cushingberry Jr. for practicing
law without a license. The hearing date was arbitrarily cancelled by the board.
The panel ruled that the charges brought by M.L. Elrick lacked merit, was frivolous
and not worthy of further discipline or discussion. This ruling dismisses the allegations
made by Fox 2 Detroit reporter M.L. Elrick and Michigan Chronicle Editor
Bankole Thompson.
Quoting University of Detroit Law Professor Larry Durbin and
the Michigan Chronicle's Bankole Thompson:
LARRY DUBIN: You can't put yourself in a position where you can meet potential clients, which means have a telephone that lists you as a lawyer where people can call you; be on a website where people can fill out a form and indicate that they want your services as a lawyer; all of that is prohibited completely. Anything on a computer that would hold that suspended lawyer as a lawyer, or as a practicing lawyer or invite potential clients to contact that suspended lawyer would be improper. 'Michigan Chronicle' Editor Bankole Thompson says Cushingberry's apparent disregard for the rules sends the wrong message.
Larry Dubin’s statement of fact was ruled irrelevant and did
not fit the case by the Attorney Grievance Commission because Mr. Cushingberry
had evidence that he never practiced law during the suspension. The panel also found that Attorney
Cushingberry did not own the domain name and was not responsible for its
content. It is a given fact that 98% of legal professionals are not tech savvy
and, rely on assistance from Technology experts who are highly skilled in the
tools of the trade. C-systems Technology Group www.csystemstechgroup.com is solely
responsible for the maintenance, development and content of the site.
The owner of the domain www.cushingberrylaw.com was able to
demonstrate that Attorney Cushingberry is not taking any clients during the
suspension and, his databases cannot produce any evidence of ANY client or
potential client interaction requesting his legal services. As far as the
Michigan Chronicle goes, the last thing we need is an African American newspaper
supporting and reporting news events that are later proven to be intentionally false
and misleading bits of information.
It is also a fact that this is a troubling pattern by media
outlets to usurp the will of the voters by attempting to remove elected African
American officials from office by promoting false and misleading news stories. The
Councilman is demanding that ML Elrick and Bankole Thompson issue an immediate retraction
of this “story”. The councilman suggest that these two would be better off
investigating the contractors who poured the concrete on the Highways and Roads
in Michigan for the past 10 years with shoddy concrete and construction
materials.
Until this happens, the No
Elrick-Thompson zone will remain in full effect until further notice.