Ms Kamb is one of those rare lawyers that in spite of the fear of attack, destruction and retribution still chose to try to do what was right for her clients in spite of the costs.
She has fought an almost 20 yr battle in taking on the wife of one of the WSBA board of Governor’s spouses. She has paid for it dearly, but I am going to let her tell her story in her own words with no edits. If you have an elderly relative, or are involved with any type of Guardianship or Trustee issues I would ask that you pay very close attention to the following letter.
She is currently in jail as far as I know, and I would ask that anyone who has been defended or protected by her over the last 2 decades please speak up for her. She is all alone now.
To the Editor of the Skagit Valley Herald and to the good people of Skagit County:
This is the letter that will never be printed in the Skagit Valley Herald. The Herald has written its story. It was not the story that I would have written of course. It is not even close to the story I would have written, but it is the story you, the citizens of Skagit County read on its pages.
Here is my letter to the Editor of the Skagit Valley Herald:
Not at any time have I been personally contacted before you published any of your stories regarding me and no one from your paper was in the courtroom the only time I have spoken. I gave my story in an allocution statement. It is on the record. Reporting partial accounts or only what is handed to you as the full story gives the public a false impression. Investigating matters appears to be no one’s strong suit. Not the Skagit Valley Herald, not the Mount Vernon Police and not the WSBA. All of which have a duty to investigate before acting. By far a more compelling story would be why your newspaper was given this particular story and why you & I were given no exculpatory information that was clearly available to all of the investigating parties yet went unreported.
I KNOW that I may hold my head high because I know that unlike some I have always dealt squarely and forthrightly in my dealings with other lawyers as well as members of the bench and of the public. In doing so I stepped on toes. I called it like I saw it and when I heard untruths I called a few liars, the was especially prevalent in Skagit County’s Ex-Parte Court. When I saw repeatedly, guardianships being filed by the same people, lawyers who are & were tenant’s of the hospital lawyer, and as a creditor the hospital filing guardianships that gave preferential treatment to the hospital lawyer’s tenants and specifically requesting that his wife be appointed by the Court as the Guardian ad Litem, I spoke out.
When that same Court appointed GAL did an extremely poor job, I spoke to her privately requesting that she specifically contact a health provider about the cancellation of a much needed wheelchair for the alleged incapacitated person. This GAL very flippantly told me not to tell her how to do her job and that her investigation was complete. Even though I had just informed her that the woman’s care center had contacted me and needed this device to care for her properly. At the time the only oversight was the Court. Because of the GAL’s refusal to make this single telephone call a woman was left without support of a much needed medical device until her death.
The GAL’s job is to investigate and make recommendations to the Court. In refusing to investigate this necessary medical device’s cancellation she failed in her duty.
In zealously representing my client as well as being a mandatory reporter, I was required by law to point out this GAL’s errors and the only place to report it to was the Skagit Valley Probate Court. After which I was threatened by the GAL’s husband, the hospital lawyer, a now sitting member of the WSBA Board of Governors, who between clenched teeth told me “You’ll be sorry for this Rosemary” after I did what was required of me by law to do. Report the abuse of an elder in jeopardy. By pointing out the gross failure of duty by the Court appointed GAL in her inept investigation the full abuse of the power and authority of the Washington State Bar Association disciplinary system was focused upon me for nearly ten years.
To this day I stand by my assessment. Now that very same GAL/wife, who did the worse report I read in over twenty years of practice, is in charge of overseeing complaints against GAL’s in three counties. THREE COUNTIES! Her own reports were questionable, yet now she is in charge of overseeing all GALs. How does that happen? Connections? They know who they are. They know what they have done.
I’ve never filed a phony bar complaint.
I’ve never gone behind anyone’s back by claiming to give NOTICE when I hadn’t. I’ve never began a lawsuit against someone and failed to serve them to get a default judgment against them. I’ve never had a default judgment entered when I knew the person was nearby and obviously could be served easily if service was attempted. I’ve always gone straight to the person and I’ve always given others the opportunity to be heard.
I’ve never given false testimony or had illegal Ex-Parte Orders entered.
Twice I’ve had issues with an order. The first time I had a problem with an order it came concurrent with a racially inspired conflict over an incident involving one of the co-director’s pushing and slapping my then ten year old son at play practice. My son was acting in a local theatre company’s version of Peter Pan. When my son who very much enjoyed acting and being chosen for a part told me he did not want to return to practice I discovered what had happened and personally went to the Director to specifically find out what led to the incident witnessed by a number of actors. At the time this person apologized profusely and responded with all the politically correct sentiments but my son and I never felt welcomed again by that particular theatre group and for good reason, from then on we were hazed repeatedly by members of the cast and crew, invited and uninvited to cast parties, and I was 86’ed from backstage even though the job I had signed up to do from the beginning was to be the back stage gofer. Not all of the cast but a good deal of you jumped on that band wagon. You know who you are and you know what you did, and we know it too.
This Director and been appointed fairly recently as a Court Commission and it was his clerk who caused the problem with the order. I clearly heard this man’s clerk tell me he had signed the order I had left earlier when ex-parte was overflowing. I came back in the early afternoon, at which time I was told that the Commissioner had signed the oder . When I asked for the original the clerk told me she had filed it in the Probate box at the Court Clerk’s office. I conformed my copies and sent out the order to a local bank for action to be taken. Late afternoon my office received a call from the Court Clerk indicating we had an order to be picked up. This is when I discovered the order had not been signed and I immediately called and notified all parties. At the time I was told it was an honest mistake. Instead it became courthouse gossip. Gossip over whether I had properly apologized to this Commissioner’s Clerk (who had told me that he had signed an order that had not in fact been signed.) It amazed me because of the obvious distortions of the story to cover the backside of the person at the court. They didn’t think I’d hear what was being said, and what was being said was far from the truth. Instead she chose to lie and repeat that lie to anyone who would listen to her tale. A lie that placed my reputation for honesty in question.
The second incident came when this same Commissioner who had abused my son, and who had either instructed his clerk to say he had signed an order or whose clerk didn’t bother to ask him and then assumed he would sign it and told me he did so she did not have to say she hadn’t presented it to him, who knows; but this same Commissioner in another guardianship matter failed to ask what a “qualified plan” was when I presented to him that this guardianship was only necessary to distribute a single qualified plan. Instead this decision maker pretended to know what one was when I specifically asked if he understood the taxing consequences of withdrawing funds from a qualified planned. Had he simply admitted to not knowing the consequences of taxing qualified plans much of my later ordeal would have been avoided, but if there is one thing that most lawyers will never do – is admit that they are ignorant.
Courthouse gossip, like any untrue statements spread distrust of people and situations.
We all are human so we all make mistakes. Lawyers don’t like to be wrong. Neither do Judges or those with the authority of Judges, like Commissioners.
I have found that honestly pointing out these things to some in authority causes you great harm. This I do not believe should be happening in our courts. Honest, hardworking people should be able to get to the truth without our elected officials egos getting involved. Without their perceptions, rather than the facts, being the reason for their actions or inaction. As officers of the Court we are to rise above the pettiness, but when big egos get bruised they tend to retaliate in ways that they find available. Often that is at another’s expense. Retaliation at my expense has been very far reaching. Thinking that by bringing someone else down they will regain what they perceive they have lost, or at least puff them up again has no place in our Courts and needs to be rooted out by voters. It is my hope that the voters of Skagit County heed the call.
Gossip is one of the tools bruised egos use to get their revenge and gossip is rampant in the Skagit County Court, and likely with many other courts as well. However, when the powers that be allow courthouse gossip to flourish then everyone should be very aware that what they are doing can harm good honest hard working people. Lying to cover up your own mistakes is just wrong, but doing it and then talking about people knowingly to put them in their place is maliciously passive aggressive, to knowingly harm another just isn’t decent. You know who you are. You know what you have said and done.
Notice is a necessity under the law. It is not at anyone’s discretion. Entering default orders to force criminal proceedings where you know there was no criminal act is not only disgraceful but unconscionable by the bench. Giving Notice to the Pioneer Board but not to me was an abuse of the power of your position and it is morally reprehensible that you would use your position to harm me because your ego got bruised when you butted into a guardianship matter that had never come before you. Together you and the Commissioner conspired, assuming wrongdoing. You were proven wrong in your perception. You were given an opportunity to be heard and instead you conspired together to get me and you did. It wasn’t enough to ruin my reputation, no that wasn’t enough for some of you. So I’m gone. I’m in jail. You’ve made me appear to be what you are protecting. There will be others to come after me who will not break under your bullying. Others who are stronger than I am but like me will not compromise their principles or integrity just to avoid the wrath of a two-faced back stabbing witch. There are other’s who won’t play the status quo ball either. They are coming. The good people of Skagit County need to know that there are honest, hardworking lawyers zealously representing them and making decisions, but that there are unconscionable, cold hearted, public employee parasites like you who should not be re-elected ever again due to your unethical use of the law and your blatant disregard for notice before you strike. You cannot pretend to uphold the integrity of the legal system if you are one of the main problems. You know who you are and you know what you have done. Where is that story?
Signing arrest warrants without probable cause after being asked for nearly twenty years to recuse yourself from all matters regarding me is obviously bias. Then ordering search warrants after the plea just proves the police had nothing, there was no probable cause for any criminal complaint, just a regurgitation of WSBA’s partial investigation, (because all exculpatory information was withheld by the very same WSBA that refuses subpoenas while asking for me to waive my confidentiality instead; then when I do so they claim their own confidentiality in my file. Tell me, does the WSBA have confidentiality when it is a self governing body? I know that the bar’s Executive Director Paula Littlewood never once used the word “transparency” when answering one of UW’s first year law student’s question as to what exactly does self governing mean.
Obviously, self governing means never having to be accountable for the WSBA’s own errors, investigations, misrepresentations and Statements of Concern.)
But, getting back to the point raised above, You sir, the Judge who signed my arrest warrant, you are a liar and always have been since I first dealt with you on a 1994 Estate. You know who you are and it does not surprise me that while sitting on the bench you think everyone before you is a liar, because you were a liar before the bench. It is unfortunate that the people of Skagit County who vote have not seen your real side as I have. Let’s hope you never run unopposed again for re-election.
But then, you lied about my brother too, didn’t you. You recanted your statement but only after he had been disbarred.
Then there is another ex-parte liar who used your same allocations against my brother almost word for word against me in that previously mentioned matter where the Commissioner’s clerk told me an order had been signed. First this Sheriff’s daughter admitted that it was an honest mistake, in writing. Yet then she takes my brother’s complaint almost word for word and has her client file a phony bar complaint against me believing no doubt that I would be disbarred too. Did your client tell you that he was investigated by APS, I wonder? You think that because I called you out in ex-parte for lying to the Court that you should harm me? You were the liar. Not me. You and your client who I reported because I am a mandatory reporter of abuse to elders in jeopardy. You who the court appoints as guardian yet you barely do your job, but always proactively collect your fee. You aren’t fooling me. There’s no doubt you can fool the WSBA , you have friends in high places.
I complained because a GAL wasn’t doing her job, but she was never investigated by the WSBA, I was. Why, because she encouraged the complaint and I relied upon the WSBA to do their job investigating the matter. Often I was told by the bar investigator that if anything, ANYTHING BY ANYONE, was found to be an action for disciplinary proceedings it would be thoroughly investigated and the party would be disciplined, yet this derelict wife of a WSBA crony was never investigated. So how is the bar protecting the integrity of the judicial system? I informed them and gave them the information which is in the Skagit Court files, but the WSBA never got the files. Instead, the WSBA let one of the people I specifically told my investigator about be a bar custodian of papers and complaints. Yes, someone specifically pointed out as conspiring to harm another lawyer by making false statements and by withholding information was put in charge of disciplinary files as custodian in the years my case was being heard. Was that because the WSBA ignores some complaints that should be investigated while dismissing others who provide favors or is it because the WSBA also fails to adequately investigate and is therefore derelict in its duty to us all? It certainly isn’t protecting the integrity of the system as it’s mission statement implies.
On another note, the attorney witness for the prosecution testifying to excessive fees certainly is the pot calling the kettle black when one of you knowingly testified my fees were excessive after you charged over sixty thousand dollars in less than six months on a referral I gave to your old firm. When I called to discuss it with you I was told you were no longer with the firm but had opened your own firm which I called and was told you were on vacation in Italy. Bearing false witness is a sin. Being a graduate of a number of Catholic Schools* you know that too. You know you are the true crook and you testified against me out of spite. Shame, shame on you, here’s to Dante’s Inferno not being fiction.
Just because lengthy probates with exorbitant fees is the way Skagit County has always done it doesn’t mean it is the way it should be done. I taught people they could do living trusts and avoid probate. This empowered the people and took their private family matters out of a mandatory court setting. That is what the Trust, once executed, says to do and is the law everywhere but apparently Skagit County.
Here instead of following what is written in the four corners of the trust document being the law, we have one ridiculous Judge who instead of using mediation as it is intended, goes around the trust to hire every beneficiary a mediator who is also a lawyer which defeats the purpose of the trust, stole from multiple charitable beneficiaries and is a violation and an abuse of the system.
Judges who make these type of decisions instead of honoring the four corners of the document are taking away the avoidance of probate designed in the revocable living trust and leaving the parties in the probate court where they never intended to be. People beware. This is happening here in Skagit County and it is only making some lawyers more wealthy and stealing from your estates.
I was the messenger, I tried to warn the powers that be and discovered that some of the powers that be like the way things have always been done. The people they socialize with reap the benefits. Under TEDRA this Judge appoints a mediator to replace every lawyer and takes these trusts through probate. That is wrong. They know it is wrong and they are doing it anyway.
Know that if you have a revocable living trust that upon your death it becomes irrevocable and anyone who wants to go to court IS CONTESTING the basic nature and autonomy of that trust. Don’t fall for anyone telling you that they are just clarifying the document or language and talk you into taking your trust to Court under TEDRA; you are being deceived by your lawyer and by anyone sitting on the bench who signs such an order.
You know who you are. I named you in my allocution. Its only time before you will be seen for what you are and people will see what you have done. You haven’t won, this is to be continued for the sake of all the residents of Skagit County and all the creators of trust documents.
I know what you have done, and are doing. It is time the people of Skagit County know who you are and what you are doing.
Anyone else may think what they like, however, I would ask the people who have met me and dealt with me personally as well as those who worked with me and who used my services if what they have read in the newspapers, what was given to the newspapers by the WSBA and certain other sources about what has transpired involving me with & in the courts; – Does this at all go with your idea of the person that YOU know me to be? The person who once had a stellar reputation, the one who sat across from you, spoke with you, counseled you, went to school with or picked strawberries or dug bulbs or waited tables with?
If it doesn’t then ask yourself, WHY?. There is a story here and it isn’t me.
Respectfully,
Rosemary Kamb
Always a lawyer just formally licensed.
