The California State Bar has filed a case seeking to revoke the law license of a lawyer who has been arrested numerous times for assisting clients in breaking into their prior homes which have already been foreclosed.

Attorney Michael T. Pines, 59, of Encinitas, California "has been unapologetic about encouraging – and often physically helping – clients hire a locksmith to get into their foreclosed homes despite warnings from the court and police to stop the illegal activity," according to a Bar press release.  Pines advises clients that the foreclosures that removed them from their homes are illegal and that they have the right to reoccupy and resume  living in their former homes.

“To remove a lawyer from active practice on an interim basis before formal charges are filed is a drastic remedy,” said Chief Trial Counsel James Towery. “That remedy is justified by the established misconduct of Michael T. Pines. He has shown complete disrespect for the law, the courts and especially the best interests of his clients. Removing Mr. Pines from active practice is an important step in our mission of public protection.”

Pines “acts with calculated purpose," and poses "substantial threat of harm to the public," Bar Association lawyers claim, necessitating that Pines' license be immediately lifted.  “He is harming both his clients and the public by advising clients to take the law into their own hands, and he uses his law license as a weapon."

Pines has had numerous brushes with the law due to his aggressive advocacy of his foreclosure clients:

--Last  October, Pines was arrested at Newport Beach house that a client had been evicted from in July 2009 after the bank had foreclosed.  In that instance, Pines alerted local police of his intent to help his client break into their former home and subsequently showed up at the house with his client, 72 year old Rene Zepeda.  Zepeda then used a hammer to break a window of the 4400 square foot, $3.8 million dollar home and gain entry.  Zepeda was promptly arrested by police.

According to the Bar, Pines then “kept approximately seven police officers and an assistant city attorney wrapped up in his media circus” at the home and was ultimately arrested himself and charged with trespassing.

-- Also in October, Pines held a news conference to announce that he was going to assist his clients Jim and Danielle Earl reoccupy their foreclosed Simi Valley home.  Pines claimed his clients still had equitable title to the home because of improper loan origination and servicing documents and fraudulently prepared foreclosure documents, despite the fact that a judge had ruled against Pines in June and called his case a "delaying tactic" when he had tried to argue the matters in court.

Pines then accompanied the Earles to their foreclosed Simi Valley home and advised them to break in despite a court ruling forbidding such an action, according to the Bar. The Earls broke in and reoccupied the house with their family, and remained in the house for several days until the new owner, an investor who had bought the 4,000 square foot home for $697,000 at a foreclosure sale, got another writ of possession.

The Earls maintained that they believe that they now do not owe anything on the home due to damages caused them by the bank's frauds, which they say more than cancel out the over $1 million they officially owed on the property at the time of the foreclosure.

--Last month, Pines alerted local media that he was going to be breaking into a La Costa home that had once been owned by one of his clients but had been lost in foreclosure.  The home was occupied.  On the scene, Pines was arrested for making threats against the occupants of  the house. 

Despite being ordered not to return, Pines did just that on more than one occasion over the next several days.  On one occasion, video exists showing Pines aggressively confronting a security guard.  "I'm going to precipitate an armed confrontation … Want me to say it again? I'm going to force an armed confrontation," Pines told the guard.  Pines was arrested for violating a temporary restraining order. He told a court his clients may break into the property again.

Pines maintains that clients have wrongfully been denied jury trials, and has been advising his clients to engage in civil disobedience.  Pines sees himself as fighting the good fight.  “Some of the great people in this county, the world, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, had to get arrested,” he said after one of his arrests. “I just felt that I had to stand up for my clients.”

According to news reports, Pines has his own financial difficulties.  He has lost several of his own homes to foreclosure, his law office is in foreclosure, and he recently filed for bankruptcy.