Tabberone's Hall of Shame - Cyber Cops - CAPS

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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
Edmund Burke

Rhett Barney
Wannabe Cyber Cop
Added December 7, 2010

Last Updated - January 15, 2013

Who is Rhett Barney? According to www.linkedin.com, he claims he is a "Trademark Enforcement Intern at Trademark Management, Inc" and that he lives in the "Spokane, Washington Area".

According to ww.pdfchaser.com, Rhett Barney was the "Vice President of GIPLA and Legal Intern for CAPS".

From www.law.gonzaga.edu we find out that as of October 22, 2010, Barney was a "a third-year law student from Shelley, Idaho". That means he was still in law school as of this original posting. What is GIPLA? It sounds like a contageous disease in one of those disgusting TV commercials for some new drug. "Don't suffer from GIPLA anymore, take GIPLAway and live from from this disease". It actually is The Gonzaga Intellectual Property Law Association, for which Rhett Barney was the Vice-President. The disease sounds friendlier.

He is now licensed to practice law in Washington State and he works at the law firm of Lee & Hayes. We can tell you what Rhett Barney is not. He is not licensed to practice law in the State of Idaho. According to the Gonzaga University School of Law he was not an attorney when he sent letters that gave the impression he was an attorney because he was still in law school. So why was Rhett Barney dispensing legal advice and counsel (even though the matter is not pending in court) using legal knowledge or skill for a company based in Idaho?

We thing the photo-shopped picture on the right would be a better bio picture for him.

The Idaho Supreme Court addressed what constitutes the practice of law in In re Matthews, 58 Idaho 772, 79 P.2d 535 (1938). There, the court stated:

The practice of law as generally understood is the doing or performing services in a court of justice, in any matter depending therein, throughout its various stages, and in conformity with the adopted rules of procedure. But in a larger sense, it includes legal advice and counsel, and the preparation of instruments and contracts by which legal rights are secured, although such matter may or may not be depending in a court.
...
Where the rendering of such services involves the use of legal knowledge or skill, or where legal advice is required and is availed of or rendered in connection with such transactions, this is sufficient to characterize the services as practicing law.
58 Idaho at 776-77 (citations omitted).

But Rhett Barney lives in the "Spokane, Washington Area" where the Gonzaga University School of Law is located. Perhaps our third-year law student, now a licensed attorney, was confused as to what statute applied to his nefarious legal activities? According to the Washington Court Rules, Part I, GR24, the General Definition of the Practice of Law:

(1) Giving advice or counsel to others as to their legal rights or the legal rights or responsibilities of others for fees or other consideration.
(2) Selection, drafting, or completion of legal documents or agreements which affect the legal rights of an entity or person(s).
(3) Representation of another entity or person(s) in a court, or in a formal administrative adjudicative proceeding or other formal dispute resolution process or in an administrative adjudicative proceeding in which legal pleadings are filed or a record is established as the basis for judicial review.
(4) Negotiation of legal rights or responsibilities on behalf of another entity or person(s).

In a letter sent to a non-infringer by Rhett Barney, #1, #2 and #4 of the above definitions are met in the letter. The fact he never identifies himself as an attorney was, as he puts it, irrelevant. The tone, the structure and the content of the letter gave a reasonable person the distinct impression that he is acting in a legal capacity as an attorney.
What was a law student doing sending email letters representing himself as a licensed attorney? Did he not take basic legal ethics, ever? Or has he forgotten what he was taught? Or does he just not care?
And it would appear that the nimrod at CAPS named Rhett Barney has a "friend" named "BEN" who "became very disturbed" when he read what we had to say about nimrod Rhett. Ben's email goes on to defend his good buddy and does a poor job of taking us to task on the issue. Wasn't "BEN" the name of a rat in a movie some years ago? Seems appropriate.

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