Judicial Info for SC Citizens

Judicial Info for SC Citizens

     Why should competent and responsible American adult citizens in upstate SC take time to carefully review the educational information presented in this department? 

     What do American citizens need to know about judicial systems in America that they don't already know?    

     Do they need to know why it is dangerous for citizens to travel anywhere outside of their home county? 

     Do they need to know why it can be much more dangerous to travel into another USA state? 

     Do they need to know why "elitist" judicial systems in the United States of American can easily be extremely unfair, unethical, and corrupt in ways that are self-serving for "elitist" members of the legal brotherhood?  (attorneys, lawyers, and judges)

     Do American adult citizens need to learn some very important info about how they can protect themselves from unfair, unethical, and corrupt "elitist" members of the legal profession?

Objective of this Department

     The objective of this very important department is to help educate American adult citizens in upstate South Carolina (that visit this department) about some unfair, unethical, corrupt, and fraudulent attorney (lawyer) and judicial actions that can occur in trial courts and appellate courts in the United States of America. 

     The author of this educational department, and this entire website, is Lonnie E. Willoughby, Jr. (Lon Jr. or Lon) who was born a long time ago - on June 5, 1936 (now age 85). 

Some of Lon's Litigation Experiences

      Visitors will learn herein that Lon Jr. has many thousands of hours of litigation experiences in Florida courts - that occurred over a period of 20+ years of related litigation actions.

     Lon and his wife Janie lived in Mauldin, South Carolina (near Greenville) when Lon was forced into civil litigation in Florida in March of year 1989.  

     Lon was a co-trustee of two family member Florida Trust Agreements that had been established in January 1983 by his parents who lived in Putnam County Florida (near Palatka).  Palatka is about 65 miles southwest of Jacksonville, Florida.

     The plaintiff in the lawsuit was Lon's mother, Leona Willoughby (age 74).  She was a beneficiary of one of the trust estates, and she brought the lawsuit because she claimed that she needed more income from the Marital Trust Agreement Estate than co-trustee Lon Jr. had allowed her to receive monthly.

     Lon knew that her complaint was not valid because she had  normally been receiving all of the income generated within the Marital Trust, which was plenty of income for her normal lifestyle when added to her usual Social Security monthly income.  In addition, Lon knew that Leona had more than $200,000 cash assets in her personal bank accounts (in a Palatka bank).

     The plaintiff in the lawsuit lived in Putnam County, about six miles south of downtown Palatka and the lawsuit was filed in the circuit court located in Palatka.  The two Trust Estates cash asset values (several hundreds of thousands of dollars) were in bank accounts in Palatka - located in the north eastern part of Florida.  

     The Putnam County Courthouse is located in Palatka, Florida (the county seat). The very large St. Johns River passes through the Palatka area on its way to Jacksonville and into the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville.

     The lawsuit was about a very foolish family member trust estates  management dispute that was caused by unfair and irresponsible co-trustee actions by Lon's younger brother, Larry Willoughby, the other co-trustee of two family member trust estates [the Marital Trust Estate (for beneficiary Leona Willoughby) and Family Trust Estate (for beneficiaries brother Larry Willoughby and Lonnie Willoughby)].  

     You will learn herein that Lon Jr. had done many very important things to help his aging parents, and those extraordinary family actions actually helped Larry and his family (wife and three children still attending public schools).  However, Larry was very resentful of Lon Jr's very helpful family actions, and he foolishly created co-trustee management problems for Lon Jr. at every opportunity. 

     You will also learn herein that Larry was an incompetent co-trustee who knew practically nothing about co-trustee duties and responsibilities, and he had no responsible appreciation for the very complex and difficult work that Lon Jr. had accomplished for the family over several years (from the spring of 1982 into the year when a serious dispute arose between the two brother co-trustees during year 1988).    

     Co-trustee Larry had caused several foolish difficulties for brother co-trustee Lon Jr., and Lon had taken the only practical and sensible action that is available to an abused co-trustee to try to stop those kinds of foolish abusive co-trustee actions by Larry - Lon Jr. started charging reasonable co-trustee fees for his very important co-trustee actions.

     Lon and Larry were at ages 51 and 50 respectively when the co-trustee dispute began in year 1988.  There is about 20 months difference in the ages of the two brothers (they were the only children of their parents).   

     You will learn herein that Lon Jr. had provided very important estate planning and estate management services for his parents that had an estimated value of more than $275,000 in potential federal estate tax savings and potential Florida probate attorney fee savings. 

     Co-trustee Larry then acted in a very stubborn, hard-headed manner in 1988 by refusing to agree to pay older brother Lon Jr. anything at all for the very reasonable co-trustee fees that he started charging for his services.  

     Co-trustee Lon Jr. then took the only practical and sensible action that was available to him - he stopped the disbursement of monthly income checks from the two trust estates to the three beneficiaries until his small very reasonable co-trustee fees were agreed upon for consideration and payment by co-trustee Larry (by a prorated reduction of amount of each monthly income disbursement check to the three trust estates beneficiaries).   

      Co-trustee Larry then acted in a very stubborn, hard-headed manner  again (still in year 1988) by still refusing to agree to pay older brother Lon Jr. anything at all for the very reasonable co-trustee fees that he had started charging for his trust estate management services.  

     Leona and Larry cooperated with each other to use that monthly income distribution dispute as the basis to start civil litigation against co-trustee Lon Jr. as Equity Court litigation in the Circuit Court for Putnam County in late February 1989.  

     They were both willing to spend thousands of dollars in litigation expenses rather than simply agree to responsibly pay co-trustee Lon Jr. a few hundred dollars for his charged co-trustee fee expenses.

     Co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. was noticed about that law suit by first class mail on or about March 3, 1989. 

     Larry and his family (wife and three children) lived in one of the beach areas near Wilmington, North Carolina.  Larry was a real estate broker who sold beach area homes and properties. 

     At that time in March 1989, Leona Willoughby was a widow who still lived in her modest custom built 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with a garage that was waterfront property on the very large St. John's River (about a mile wide). 

     The living room of the home had a large glass sliding door wall that provided a beautiful panoramic view of the river.  The home had a covered porch that looked across the very good swimming pool and out to the beautiful river view and the private boat dock.  The home also had expensive solar energy panels on the roof. 

     Leona and her husband had the home custom built to their personal specifications, and Leona had lived there for several years with her husband, Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.) until he died of a heart attack at age 71 on November 22, 1986.  He was very fond of fishing, and he had a very good outboard powered fishing boat at the private boat dock.

     That home was about six miles south of Palatka in a residential area named San Mateo.  U.S. Highway 17 passes through the San Mateo area (on its way to Deland, Florida - about 50 miles south of San Mateo). 

     The small San Mateo Post Office was right beside the U.S. Highway.  There was one restaurant and a minute market that sold basic groceries and other items.

     The brother's father, Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.), had previously had serious heart problems for many years.  He had a pacemaker installed in his chest for several years to help regulate his heart beats, and he took medication for his heart problems. 

     He had suffered a very serious heart attack that put him in a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida in the spring of 1982, and he had a terrible stroke while still in the hospital.

     At age 66, Lonnie (Sr.) was totally paralyzed on the left side of his body, from his left shoulder area to his left foot.  He had no muscle control of his left arm and hand and no muscle control of any part of the left side of his body down to the tip of his toes.

Quick Overview Of Family Actions

     As soon as possible after his father's heart attack and stroke in year 1982, Lon Jr. and his wife Janie moved Lon's parents into their home in Mauldin, South Carolina so Lon and Janie could take good care of Lon's parents.

     Lon Jr. was a healthcare enthusiast and he had learned a lot of information about taking good care of one's health (exercise, mineral and vitamin supplements, purified drinking water, improved diet concepts, etc.).

     Lon was also able to get his father some very important rehabilitation therapy and treatment at the Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Center in Greenville (treatment for stroke victims).

     That rehabilitation therapy continued for several weeks - outpatient rehabilitation treatments, and then inpatient rehabilitation treatments, and then back to outpatient treatments. Those treatment therapies  were very helpful for Mr. Willoughby.   

     Lon learned that his parents had partial ownership in a 44 unit apartment complex located in Deland, Florida - the Penn Oaks Apartments.  The apartments were in four large two story buildings.  A local bank had a mortgage note on the property in excess of $600,000.

     The apartment complex was being managed by a retired couple who lived in the first downstairs apartment and it's living room also served as the office for the apartment complex. 

     In the spring of 1983, Lon Jr. traveled to Deland, Florida (about 500 miles distance) to see how the apartment complex was being managed, and to try to evaluate to some extent what condition the apartment complex was in currently. 

     He learned that the apartment complex was about ten years old and had a lot of maintenance problems that had accumulated over the years in some of the apartments.  (serious air conditioning problems, appliance problems, plumbing fixture problems, carpeting problems, etc.) 

     Lon's parents had been making regular visits to the apartment complex occasionally (before Lonnie Sr's recent heart attack and stroke) to help the elderly couple get some maintenance work done as needed, but that help had ceased for a number of months due to Lonnie Sr's heart attack and stroke condition. 

     Lon Jr's trip to visit the apartment complex had concluded that the elderly couple managing the apartment complex were not able to manage the apartment complex adequately. 

    Lon Jr. realized that his parent's investment in the apartment complex was a major investment that was essentially the sum of their lifetime work and investment achievements.  He also realized that their future income monthly was dependent upon the profit income coming in monthly from the apartment rentals.  Lon's father's very serious health problems now caused that situation to be precarious at best. 

     In order to help protect his parent's major investment in that apartment complex, Lon Jr. concluded that he and Janie needed to plan to move to Deland, Florida and take over the management of the apartment complex. 

     That move would cause serious problems for Lon and Janie.  She was a teacher at the local Mauldin High School which was just six blocks from the home subdivision that their home was in (100+ homes). 

     Janie was teaching the class subjects that she preferred to teach, and she worked for a female high school principal that she respected a lot.  She obviously did not want to terminate a very good teaching position that had taken her several years of responsible work to develop. 

     Further complicating that decision was the fact that Lon Jr. had started a new business venture in Greenville city just a few months before his father had his heart attack and stroke in the spring of 1982. 

     Lon Jr. had invested the accumulated savings that he and Janie has managed to accumulate during the past 12 years of marriage (20,000+ dollars).  Lon realized that they would lose all of that investment if they terminated that business venture at such an early stage because there was no way he could sell and recover their investment in that new business venture. 

     Another important consideration was the fact that Lon's two adult sons (from a prior marriage that ended in 1970) were both in nearby colleges.  Michael, the older son was attending Furman University in the Greenville area, and Robert was attending Clemson University, in Clemson, SC (about 45 miles away from Mauldin, SC). 

     As you can see, making a decision for Lon and Janie to move to Deland, Florida and begin managing the Penn Oaks Apartment Complex had some serious complications for the two of them. 

     Due to Lon's father's very serious health condition, the decision was made for both of them to terminate their careers and move to Deland, Florida to begin managing the 44 unit apartment complex.

    Lon and Janie put their home up for lease with a local real estate company, packed up their household furniture in a large rented moving van and moved to Deland, Florida on July 15, 1983.

    As explained later in this report, that relocation action was very beneficial to Lon's parents, and it was also very beneficial for Lon's brother Larry and his family (wife and three children - still in public schooling). 

     Lon and Janie worked very hard for about 18 months and they got the apartment complex in much better condition.  Lon spent about $60,000 of Lon's parents cash assets to make a lot of needed improvements in the apartment complex.

     The original intention was to keep the apartment complex in the Willoughby family as a good investment, but brother Larry created some very serious problems for Lon and Janie due to his jealous emotional responses to their helpful work for the parents.  Larry seemed to resent their efforts to help the family so Lon decided to try to sell the apartment complex. 

     He put the apartment complex up for sale with a local real estate company, and they were successful in finding a buyer( an investment group in Orlando, Florida). 

     That pending sale enabled Janie to move back to Mauldin, South Carolina in December 1984 because she was able to get rehired at the Mauldin High School to resume teaching when students returned to school after their Christmas school break. 

     Janie resumed teaching at the Mauldin High School in January 1985.  Lon Jr. moved to San Mateo, Florida in January 1985 so he could be near his parents and continue helping them with their  daily efforts to cope with Mr. Willoughby's paralyzed condition. 

     Lon moved back to Mauldin, South Carolina in March 1986.

     Mr. Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.) had another heart attack on November 22, 1986 that was fatal (age 71).

Back to the Florida Litigation

     During the months that followed the start of litigation in March 1989, Lon Jr. learned that Leona and Larry cooperated with each other to cause the lawsuit with co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. as the only defendant.  

     Their mutual objective with the lawsuit was to try to force Lon Jr. to resign from his co-trustee responsibilities - to avoid difficult and expensive litigation in Florida.  That action would have enabled co-trustee Larry Willoughby to become the sole trustee of the two Willoughby trust estates (net worth of about $900,000).

     Leona and Larry apparently wanted co-trustee Lon Jr. out of the way in the trust estates management so they could have total control over the two trust estate assets - to do whatever Leona Willoughby wanted to do with the trust estate assets. 

     You will learn herein that Lonnie Jr. and his wife Janie had done many things that were of great benefit to his parents and were also very beneficial to brother Larry and his family.    

      In their greed to try to get total control of the Willoughby trust estates assets, Leona and Larry conveniently forgot about Lon and Janie's very helpful family actions, over a period of years, that had helped all family members a tremendous amount.

     There was a Family Trust and a Marital Trust. Leona Willoughby was the sole beneficiary of the Marital Trust Estate. Larry and Lonnie Jr. were the beneficiaries of the Family Trust. 

     Lon Jr. realized that his mother (Leona) was a very stubborn and hard headed person who expected to have her way with any family type idea that came into her mind.  She and Lon Jr. had  conflicts several times about the domineering and overbearing way that she cared for her paralyzed husband (Lon's father).

     Leona was very helpful to her husband in many situations, but she also treated him like her paralyzed slave in many situations -  which caused him a lot of serious emotional stress. 

     Lon Jr. had tried to help his father cope with those serious domineering and overbearing emotional situations numerous times - from June 1982 through February 1986. 

      Lon Jr., was a knowledgeable and responsible co-trustee of the two Willoughby trust estates, and he had not given in to  Leona's unreasonable demands about management of the two trust estates. 

     He had politely and respectfully disagreed with her several times about estate management issues.  She wanted to be in control of the two trust estates, but she had no responsible understanding of the trustee duties that were involved. 

     She then tried to force Lon Jr. to agree to turn all trustee management duties over to a Florida bank's trust management department.  She did not understand that the Penn Oaks Apartment sale "second mortgage note" that had been assigned to Mr. Willoughby's trust agreement estate was subject to fail if the Florida investment group was not successful with their  operation and management of the Penn Oaks Apartment Complex.

     Co-trustee Lon Jr. realized that there was a good possibility that the investment group would not be successful with that business venture, and Lon Jr. realized that the Willoughby's might have to resume ownership and operation and management of that apartment complex at some point in the future.

     Lon Jr. was now about 49 years of age (early 1986).  He had been very successful with the operation and management of the Penn Oaks Apartments, and with many improvements to the apartment complex, and with the sale of the apartment complex at a very good price, and with the second mortgage note arrangements. 

     Lon Jr. had initially helped both parents develop their inter vivos trust estate agreements in January 1983, and had personally gotten the trust estate funded properly with complex real estate mortgage note property transfers in December 1985.

   However, Leona still treated Lon Jr. like he was her teenage son who must obey her every command. 

   Younger brother Larry had not done any of those very important actions that were very helpful to the Willoughby family, but Larry would always agree with and cooperate with any of Leona's opinionated demands and objectives (about anything, including trust estate management issues). 

 Lawsuit Was Flawed 

     The mutual objective of Larry and Leona for the lawsuit was severely flawed from the beginning because Lon Willoughby Jr. was the person who had initially helped his parents establish the two Willoughby Trust Agreements. 

     Lon was not going to resign from his co-trustee duties because he was a competent and knowledgeable co-trustee, and he understood that brother Larry was an incompetent co-trustee who knew nothing about responsible trust administration. 

     Lon also knew that Leona and Larry and five Willoughby grandchildren needed Lon's competent and responsible management of the two Willoughby Trust Agreement estates.

    Lonnie Jr. also realized that his deceased father would not have wanted him to resign as a co-trustee of the Trust Agreements.

     In January 1986, while Lon was still living in San Mateo, his father wanted Lon Jr. to take him to ride (as they occasionally did).  Those ride situations enabled Lonnie Sr. to enjoy being out of the house for a while (instead of being in his bed, his lazy boy chair, or his wheelchair).  He looked forward to those rides, and he really enjoyed the scenery of their rides around river areas. 

     Those automobile rides also enabled Lonnie Sr. to privately express his serious frustrations about the way that Leona treated him in a domineering and overbearing way - which caused him a lot of serious emotional stress. 

     During their ride that day in January 1986, Lon's father specifically warned him that a "takeover of the trust estates situation" might occur at some point in the future. 

     Lon's father explained that Leona might try to get Larry to cooperate with her in some way to get Lon removed from the trust estate management.  Lonnie Sr. explained that he did not want Lon to allow them to accomplish that objective, whenever that situation occurred.  He was confident that it would occur at some point in the future. 

     Lon knew that he and his wife Janie had done many things that were very helpful to both parents and those actions were also very helpful to brother Larry and his family.

    Consequently, Lon did not believe that there was any real danger of a "trust estates takeover situation" occurring with his mother and Larry - cooperating with each other for that purpose.

     Never-the-less, Lon Jr. realized that his father must have had some reason for seriously warning him about that potential situation.  Lon did not forget about that prophetic conversation. 

Leona's Lawsuit  

     Lon Jr. understood that his mother's lawsuit was a really bad idea, but he also realized that she was a very stubborn person that he could not reason with in a responsible manner.  She usually treated him like he was still her teenage son who was obligated to cooperate with her opinions.

     That is why Lon Jr. tried to get brother Larry to talk with Leona about terminating the lawsuit.  She was more likely to listen to Larry than Lon Jr. - Larry always cooperated with her demands.

     Lon Jr. was the family member who had taken very complex estate planning actions in 1982 - 1983 to get the two trust estates established.  He took additional trustee actions in 1985 to get the Two Trust Agreements amended properly and Lon Jr. then funded properly the trust Agreements to legally minimize federal estate taxes on the jointly-owned marital estate value for his parent's.    

     The federal estate tax law that was relevant at that time could have cost the Willoughby family about $225,000 over the life of both parents, but Lon's estate planning actions for his parents had reduced that potential federal estate tax to zero dollars. 

     Lon Jr. had also taken responsible trustee actions to enable the trust estates to minimize Florida probate expenses and complexities for the parent's total estate value. 

     Those probate expenses could have eventually been about 8% of the parent's total marital estate value of about $1,200,000 (8% of $1,200,000 = $96,000).    

         Due to Lon Jr's very good estate planning actions, the total probate process expenses for Mr. Willoughby's probate-able estate value in 1987 was about $800 (a real estate appraisal fee for the value of a vacant residential lot, and one attorney fee).     

     Consequently, Lon's estate planning actions with his parents  in January 1983 to December 12, 1985 had been very successful, and those actions were obviously very important financial actions for the Lonnie E. Willoughby (Sr.) family. 

     Lon Jr. had been a competent and responsible trustee of the two Willoughby Trust Agreement Estates (the Family Trust and the Marital Trust). 

     Lon realized that his mother (Leona Willoughby) and his brother (Larry) did not understand or appreciate the very  beneficial estate planning actions that he had taken for the family, at substantial cost and difficulty (in time and efforts over several years) for Lon Jr. 

     Lon also realized that Leona and Larry did not realize that one  major part of the two Trust Agreement assets, a large "second mortgage note" from the sale of the apartment complex, was actually quite risky at that time. 

     Lon realized that the mortgage note might default in the future, and that action would greatly reduce the monthly income produced by that large mortgage note in the two trust estates.

     Lon's careful co-trustee actions had tried to responsibly conserve the monthly income being produced in the trust estates by that large "second mortgage note." 

     Unfortunately, that "second mortgage note" did default later, and the Willoughby's had to resume ownership of the apartment complex in DeLand, Florida (that had been sold in January 1985). 

Leona's Income Situation

     Co-trustee Lon Jr. understood that Leona did not really need more monthly income from the Marital Trust.  Lon knew that his mother's normal monthly income from Social Security and the Marital Trust was more than sufficient for her routine monthly living expenses.  He also realized that she had access to more than 200,000 dollars in her personal bank accounts located in Palatka, Florida. 

     Lon also knew that her very good riverfront home was completely paid for, and her like new 98 Oldsmobile automobile was also paid for.  She did not have any expensive medical problems or other unusual expenses.  She just had normal living expenses for one person (food and normal utilities, home insurance and auto insurance expenses, etc.). 

     Lon Jr. also realized that brother Larry was not knowledgeable about his co-trustee duties and responsibilities.  Larry had not demonstrated any significant co-trustee actions for the two trust estates since the two Trust Agreements began in January 1983. 

     As shown above, Lon Jr. had been the active co-trustee, and he had taken care of practically all trustee actions responsibly.

     The only co-trustee actions that Larry had taken was to sign the two Trust Agreements at there inception in 1983 that designated him as a co-trustee, and Larry co-authorized the monthly trust income payments that Lon had established for Leona, Larry, and himself as primary beneficiaries of the two trust estates.

     When Lon received mailed notice about the lawsuit against him in March 1989, he communicated with Larry by telephone and tried to persuade him to talk with Leona and quickly terminate the lawsuit. 

     Lon explained that the lawsuit could cost the family $50,000 or more.  That is when Lon learned that Larry wanted the lawsuit to continue against brother Lon as a co-trustee.  

     Leona and Larry and Lon Jr. had no knowledge about litigation complexities and procedures.  They did not have any responsible understanding at that time of the terrible litigation disaster that would begin to occur to the Willoughby family members and the Willoughby family trust estate value due to that foolish lawsuit. 

     They had no practical understanding of the extremely unfair and unethical and outrageously corrupt attorney litigation actions that would be taken against co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. in the upcoming litigation process.

     Lon Jr. was not knowledgeable at that time about litigation  practices and procedures, and he did not realize that his mother's trust beneficiary Complaint Litigation would set some greedy litigation attorneys loose that would maliciously and ruthlessly try to destroy him in an outrageously unfair, unethical, and corrupt manner.  Lon Willoughby Jr. had no idea that the litigation process would continue for many years. 

     This website department reports some of the unfair, unethical, deceitful and devious criminal-minded litigation schemes and tactics that occurred in the Circuit Court litigation in Putnam County during year1989 and for many years after that year.

     A one-day Equity Court trial (non-jury trial) occurred on September 8, 1989, and it turned out to be an extremely unfair, unethical, corrupt and fraudulent litigation process where Leona's attorney (plaintiff's attorney) verbally introduced five surprise "ambush" complaint issues into the trial - about complex trust estate planning and/or trust estate management issues.

     The plaintiff's Complaint Pleadings (prepared and filed by the plaintiff's attorney - attorney #1) had been noticed to co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. in South Carolina by USPS mail in March 1989.  The plaintiff's Complaint pleadings identified two specific complaints against co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr.

Attorney Services

     Co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. (Lon Jr. or Lon) had a membership in a national legal services program so he contacted that service to see if they had a recommended attorney in the Putnam County area.  Yes, they had a recommended attorney in Palatka, Florida. 

     Lon promptly contacted that attorney by telephone, and Lon informed him that he was a member of the legal services plan and he needed an attorney to represent him in civil litigation in Putnam County.  Lon explained very briefly about the trust estate litigation case where Lon was the non-resident defendant co-trustee.

     The attorney (attorney #2) said he would look at the litigation case (at the local courthouse) and get back with Lon soon. 

     He contacted Lon by phone within a few days and said that he had gone to a "bar luncheon" (a luncheon meeting for legal profession members located in Putnam County) where he had been able to talk with the plaintiff's attorney (attorney #1). 

     Attorney #2 had decided that he did not want to get involved in the trust estate litigation, but he cautiously warned Lon that the plaintiff's attorney had encouraged him to defend Lon Jr. in the case - but on the verbally agreed basis that he would help the plaintiff's attorney cause co-trustee Lon Jr. to lose the case.

     Lon was very grateful that the attorney had enough integrity to warn him about that potential situation. 

     That possibility came as a shock to Lon Jr.  He had not considered that "competing attorneys" would "cooperate" with each other to deliberately cause a litigant to lose a case.

     WOW!!!  Lon realized that an agreement of that type (between opposing attorneys) would be extremely unfair and unethical.

     After thinking about that treacherous situation, Lon decided to try to find an attorney in Jacksonville, Florida (65 miles from Palatka).  He realized that would cause the litigation process to be more expensive because a Jacksonville attorney might need to make several trips to Palatka, Florida to participate in the litigation process.  His travel times would be billable hours. 

     When Lon contacted a law firm in Jacksonville and explained briefly what his litigation situation was in nearby Putnam County, the attorney (attorney #3) quickly interrupted and explained that he could not represent a litigant in Putnam County. 

     When Lon asked why, he explained that he had tried that in the past with litigation cases in other judicial areas (outside of the local Duval County area) and those cases never worked out well for his clients.

     The attorney explained that the judges in other judicial  jurisdictions always treated him as if he was an undesirable invader into the judge's local judicial domain, and those situations never worked out well for the attorney or for his clients.     

     Lon thanked the attorney for his helpful information about those judicial domain situations. Lon was beginning to understand that a judicial domain was a closed operation, only available for local trial attorneys who lived within that judicial domain.    

     Lon had a friend that lived near Daytona Beach, Florida (sixty miles from Palatka, Florida).  He called the friend by telephone and explained that he was looking for an attorney to represent him in litigation in nearby Palatka, Florida (about 60 miles away).   

Lon asked the friend if he knew any attorneys in the Daytona Beach area.  Yes, he had an attorney friend, and he recommended that Lon contact that attorney.  Lon's friend in the Daytona area looked up the attorney's law firm name and office phone number and gave that information to Lon.

    Lon decided that he would try one more time to retain an attorney that was not a part of the local Palatka attorney club.  He called the phone number in Daytona Beach and was able to talk with the recommended attorney briefly. (attorney #3) 

     Lon began explaining his civil litigation situation in Putnam County briefly, but the attorney interrupted him and said he could not represent Lon in Putnam County.

     Lon then asked him why?  He said he had tried to represent a client in Putnam County once before, and it turned out badly for his client. 

     He explained briefly that the local judge was not fair and impartial with him as a defense attorney, and the case ended badly for his client. 

     He also explained that he had learned over the years to only litigate in the local Daytona Beach County judicial area. 

     At that point, Lon realized that he was going to have to retain an attorney that worked in the Putnam County "judicial domain." 

     He then called another law firm in Palatka, Florida and talked with an attorney, and explained briefly what his civil litigation situation was in Palatka, Florida.

     The attorney (attorney # 4) explained that he could probably represent defendant co-trustee Lon Willoughby in the case, but he would need a $10,000 payment upfront to begin that attorney representation.  Lon declined that offer as being too expensive for his litigation situation.

    Lon then called another law firm in Palatka, Florida and talked with an attorney (attorney #5).   Lon explained his civil litigation situation very briefly.  That attorney was not familiar with trust estate litigation but recommended another local attorney for consideration.  Lon then called that law firm and talked briefly with the recommended attorney.  (attorney #6)

     Yes, he had some experience with trust estate litigation, and he could probably represent co-trustee Lon Willoughby in that case, but he would need to review the litigation case in the courthouse record.

     When attorney # 6 called Lon later in the week, he explained that he could probably represent co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby in the case, but Lon would need to come to Palatka so they could talk about the family member dispute that caused the lawsuit.

     Lon later traveled the 450 miles to Palatka, Florida and met with the attorney in his office (attorney # 6). His office was across the street from the courthouse. 

     Lon learned that his mother's attorney (attorney #1) had at one time worked with this attorney in the same law firm in Palatka. 

     They knew each other well, and attorney #6 was confident that he could represent defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby well in the local litigation case opposing that attorney (attorney #1). 

     The attorney wanted a $1,000 retainer fee to begin the litigation process.  Lon Jr. signed a legal contract to retain that prominent attorney to represent him as the defendant co-trustee in that civil litigation case. 

     Co-trustee Lon wrote a $1,000 check in the Family Trust's bank account (a local bank in Palatka).  Lon then left Palatka, Florida to drive the 450 miles back to his home in Mauldin, South Carolina. 

     A couple of month's later, the two opposing attorneys (attorney # 1 and attorney # 6) scheduled a deposition for the plaintiff (Leona Willoughby) and defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. to attend at the local Putnam County Courthouse location.

     Co-trustee Lon Willoughby traveled back to Palatka, Florida and participated in that deposition (with a court reporter present to transcribe everything that was said during the deposition). 

     The deposition enabled Lon Jr. to meet his mother's attorney (attorney #1) - who seemed to be a reasonable person.

      Lon's attorney started the deposition by asking the plaintiff a series of questions, and she answered all of the questions.  One of those questions asked if she felt that co-trustee Lon Jr. had taken any actions as a co-trustee that were dishonest or unethical?  She answered NO.

      The plaintiff's attorney then asked co-trustee Lon Willoughby a series of questions, and he answered all of those questions in a knowledgeable and responsible manner. 

     After the trial that was conducted on September 8, 1989, Lon learned that neither attorney had requested that a transcript be made of that deposition testimony.  Consequently, a transcript of that deposition testimony was not entered into the records of the litigation case.

     Presumable, Lon's attorney came to trial prepared to defend co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. against the two complaint issues that were noticed (identified clearly) in the plaintiff's Complaint Pleading. 

     During the trial, the plaintiff's attorney began introducing surprise "ambush" complaint issues that had not been noticed in the plaintiff's Complaint Pleading.  He gradually introduce five surprise "ambush" complaint issues as the trial progressed.

     Consequently, co-trustee Lon Jr. had not been noticed (notified) properly about the additional surprise complaint issues that the plaintiff's attorney introduced into the trial litigation as the trial was taking place.  Those additional complaint issues should have been introduced (noticed) during the discovery process that occurred weeks before the trial date. 

     NOTES:  Lon Willoughby now understands that the discovery process is a routine standard process (in Florida litigation) that is supposed to enable both sides of the litigation (plaintiff and defendant) to discover all of the complaint issues for litigation and also get an overview of the evidence that the plaintiff intends to present against the defendant during the upcoming trial. 

     The deposition testimony for the plaintiff and defendant co-trustee Lon Jr., taken several months before the trial, was a very important part of that discovery process.

     The routine Florida discovery process is supposed to enable the opponents (plaintiff and defendant) to responsibly consider and decide whether or not they can agree to settle the complaint issues before trial and avoid the additional complexities and much greater expenses of a trial process. 

     Lon understands these discovery issues now, but he did not understand any of this before the trial that was conducted on September 8, 1989. 

     His "defense attorney" did not explain anything to Lon about discovery, and he did not explain anything to Lon about what he should anticipate in the upcoming trial.   

     If co-trustee Lon Jr. had been noticed (notified) properly about those additional five complaint issues during the discovery process, he would have realized that he would need to arrange for testimony during trial by a trust estate planning expert attorney.

     He probably could have located such an expert attorney in nearby Jacksonville, Florida (65 to 70 miles distance) to participate in the trial as an expert witness for defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr.  However, Lon Jr. was not noticed about those additional complaint issues until the trial was in progress on September 8, 1989.

      Prior to trial, Lon knew that he had been a competent and responsible co-trustee, and he was confident that he had not done anything wrong as a co-trustee, as alleged in the plaintiff's Complaint.

     Co-trustee Lon Jr. was also confident that his personal testimony at trial could defend him responsibly about the two complaints that were noticed in the plaintiff's Complaint Pleading. 

     Over the years prior to trial, Lon had learned that trials are not supposed to allow any "smoking gun issues" (surprise "ambush" complaint issues).

      Co-trustee Lon Jr's "defense attorney" was obviously a very intelligent person, and he had explained that he had more than 20 years experience as a Florida trial attorney. 

     He was apparently a prominent attorney in the Palatka area (probably the most prominent attorney in Putnam County), and Lon was confident that his "defense attorney" could ensure that he would get a fair and responsible trial process.

     During the trial, the defense attorney objected four times to the plaintiff's attorney's verbal actions of bringing surprise complaint issues into the trial. 

     The defense attorney's first objection about a surprise complaint issue was "that is not why we are here today." 

     The trial court judge verbally denied all four of his objections about the introduction of surprise complaint issue into the trial.  The circuit court judge required co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. to give testimony about each surprise complaint issue when it was introduced during the trial. 

     All of the surprise complaint issues were about trust estate planning issues that had occurred prior to December 12, 1985 (about four years before the trial on September 8, 1989). 

     Lon had not gone back and recovered from storage and reviewed his old records of those complex trust development events before the trial because he had not been noticed that there would be five additional complaint issues about those old trust administration records presented during the trial.

     Defendant co-trustee Lon Willoughby, Jr. did not know at that time that the Florida Supreme Court had issued a case law decision years before that strictly prohibited surprise complaint issues being presented during litigation, unless both sides (plaintiff and defendant) clearly agreed to litigate about those specific additional complaint issues during a trial. 

     Many months after the trial, Lon discovered that critically important landmark judicial decision while he was doing important legal research about his appeal case to the Supreme Court of the United States.  The case decision established a mandatory requirement standard for all trial courts in Florida.

     During the trial conducted on September 8, 1989, the trial court judge surely knew about that relevant mandatory case law decision, and the plaintiff's attorney surely knew about that mandatory case law decision, and Lon's "defense attorney" surely knew about that mandatory case law decision. 

     However, with four objections to the introduction of surprise complaint issues into the trial, the "defense attorney" did not remind the trial judge about that landmark mandatory case law decision. 

     It is very important for visitors to this department to understand that a mandatory case law decision by the Florida Supreme Court was "conveniently ignored or overlooked" by the circuit court judge and by both "opposing" attorneys. 

     That critically important situation illustrates how extremely unfair, unethical, and corrupt trial court litigation can be with educated, trained, and experienced members of the "elitist" legal profession.  (attorneys, lawyers, and judges)

     Lon realized during the trial that the plaintiff's deposition testimony should have been used to impeach some of the plaintiff's dishonest testimony during the trial. 

     When Lon asked his defense attorney after the trial why he didn't try to impeach her dishonest testimony with her deposition testimony, the attorney said "the judge knows she was lying."

     After the trial, Lon learned that a transcript had not been made for that deposition testimony (by request of either attorney - attorney #1 or attorney #6).

     Because the transcript was not made and filed in the case records for the litigation, Lon's "defense attorney" was not able to use that "missing transcript" to impeach some of plaintiff Leona Willoughby's dishonest testimony during the trial. (Testimony that contradicted some of her deposition testimony.)

     Therefore, Lon's "defense attorney" could not defend co-trustee Lon Willoughby responsibly during the trial about some of the plaintiff's dishonest testimony during the trial.

     That transcript situation was another illustration of how the two attorneys had "cooperated" with each other to "ambush"  defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. during trial in an extremely unfair and unethical and fraudulent manner.

     Lon Jr. also learned many months later that the four objections that his defense attorney presented during the trial were "weak objections" that would not protect defendant co-trustee Lon Jr. well in his appeal of the FINAL JUDGMENT for the case.

      Lon Jr. also learned months after the trial that none of the defense attorney's four objections during the trial had explained how defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby was being harmed or injured by the introduction of surprise "ambush" complaint issues. 

     Co-trustee Lon Jr. had been denied basic "due process of law standards" because he had not been noticed properly during discovery about those five additional complaint issues. 

     That unfair and unethical surprise complaint situation had denied defendant co-trustee Lon Willoughby a fair and responsible opportunity to prepare defensive argument for each of those five surprise complaint issues.

     The very intelligent, prominent "defense attorney" had more than twenty (20) years of Florida litigation experience, but he  pretended during trial that he did not know how to object properly to surprise "ambush" complaint issues during a trial.    

     The FINAL JUDGMENT document rendered for the trial weeks later showed that the trial judge ruled in co-trustee Lonnie  Willoughby, Jr's favor on the two Complaint issues noticed properly in the plaintiff's Complaint Pleadings.  However, the circuit court judge ruled against co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. on three of the five surprise "ambush" complaint issues. 

     The Final Judgment Order removed both co-trustees from both Trust Agreement Estates, and the Order appointed a local CPA (certified public accountant) as the successor trustee for both Trust Agreement Estates. 

     That was the same CPA that had prepared the annual Federal Form 1040 tax reports for Lon Jr's parents for several years. 

     The CPA had also prepared the final federal estate settlement tax report for deceased Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.) in 1987.  That federal tax report showed that there was no federal estate tax due on the taxable estate value for the deceased Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.). 

    That same CPA came to trial as a witness for the plaintiff (Leona Willoughby), and that situation was not disclosed to co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. during the discovery process (as it should have been). 

    During the trial, the CPA testified about some of the trust estate surprise complaint issues when he answered questions about those surprise complaint issues - questions that were asked by the plaintiff's attorney. 

     That situation clearly proved that the CPA participated in a pre-planned scheme to "ambush" defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. during trial with surprise complaint issues about the Willoughby trust agreement estates.

     It is very important to understand that the CPA was not considered an "expert witness" about those complex trust estate planning and administration issues, and he made no pretense of being very knowledgeable about those specific trust estate planning and management issues.

    His testimony about those trust estate issues always contained the easy disclaimer "I think so."  He was not confident about his answers to questions about complex estate planning issues or complex estate management issues. 

     The CPA admitted during his testimony that his understanding about those trust estate planning and management issues came from his previous verbal telephone communications with co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. (while the CPA was preparing the final Federal Tax Report for deceased Mr. Willoughby's estate tax status during year 1987).

     The CPA's testimony during trial was challenged by co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby Jr's testimony about estate planning and management issues because Willoughby recognized that some of the CPA's answers or statements during his testimony were flat out wrong.  The CPA, as a witness for the plaintiff, had been questioned by the plaintiff's attorney about those issues. 

     Co-trustee Lon Jr's "defense attorney" did not question the CPA hardly at all.  The "defense attorney" apparently had no significant knowledge about the complex trust estate planning and administration issues that had been injected into the trial. 

     It is important to explain at this point that trial attorneys and CPA's are not generally knowledgeable about complex trust estate planning or management issues.  That is highly specialized knowledge that they have not been educated about, and have no experience with.  Generally, that knowledge is only known by attorney's who specialize in trust estate planning work.

     Co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. had educated himself about those complex trust estate planning issues during year 1985 because he had been unable to find a Florida attorney that he trusted to help him with additional trust estate planning actions for his parent's jointly-owned real estate mortgage note values. 

     Consequently, Lon knew, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the CPA's testimony about the surprise trust estate planning and management complaint issues was misleading and inaccurate  testimony. 

     Co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. explained during his trial testimony that the CPA's testimony was wrong about certain trust estate issues. 

     The CPA also gave perjured testimony about plaintiff Leona's income, falsely indicating that she needed more income from the Marital Trust Estate (where she was the sole beneficiary).  

     Co-trustee Lon Jr. knew that Leona had previously been getting all of the monthly income produced in the Marital Trust Estate - before Larry's unfair and irresponsible co-trustee actions caused a dispute (that was used as the basis for the lawsuit).

     After the one-day trial, Lon quickly obtained copies of the last two years of federal tax reports for his mother (from her).  Those Form 1040 tax reports had been prepared by the CPA who gave testimony about those two tax years during the trial. 

     Those two tax reports showed that Leona had thousands of dollars more income per year than the CPA had testified about, and the two tax reports also showed that she had been giving about $5,000 per year to charitable organizations. 

     It was therefore clear to co-trustee Lon Jr. that the CPA's testimony during the trial about Leona's income issues was perjured testimony.  He had clearly attempted to influence the trial court judge to be strongly opposed to defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr.

     The CPA's testimony during trial about surprise "ambush" trust estate issues should not have been allowed because he was not qualified as an "expert witness" about trust estate planning and  management issues. 

     The judge improperly allowed the CPA to give testimony about those issues during trial.  However, his improper "non-expert" testimony should not have influenced the outcome of the trial. 

     The subsequent FINAL JUDGMENT indicated that the trial judge apparently allowed the CPA's non-expert testimony about three of the five surprise ambush complaints to influence the judge - because the trial judge ruled against co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. on three of those five surprise complaint issues.  

     The CPA and defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. were the only witnesses to present testimony about those surprise trust estate complaint issues.

An Extremely Corrupt Trial

     Lon Willoughby has shown herein that the initial litigation process was conducted in an extremely unfair, unethical, corrupt and fraudulent manner.  That was the type of unfair, unethical litigation situation that attorney #2 had very briefly warned Lon Jr. about by telephone many months before the trial.  

     Attorney #2 had enough attorney integrity to warn Lon Jr. about that potential situation, but he did not have enough attorney integrity to represent co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby responsibly and prevent that unethical situation from occurring.

     Lon Willoughby understands now that the judicial domain situation in Putnam County was so unfair and so unethical and so disgustingly corrupt that attorney #2 probably realized that he could not afford to be honest and responsible as a "defense attorney" for co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. because the attorney realized that he would have to continue working as an attorney in that corrupt judicial domain after the trial was over. 

    Attorney #2 probably realized that he would have to continue litigating in the local courts with corrupt local judges, and if he opposed their corrupt judicial actions in a serious way, his attorney career in that judicial domain (and in the entire USA) would be severely injured and likely be effectively destroyed. 

     Lon Willoughby now realizes that the judicial systems in the entire USA are probably controlled and corrupted to that extent.

Lon's Appeal Actions

     Lon Willoughby, Jr. timely appealed the extremely unfair and unethical FINAL JUDGMENT rendered for the case.  He had to quickly learn how to file a Notice of Appeal, pay the local appeal filing fee, and then file his Notice of Appeal in the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach, Florida (about 60 miles away) and simultaneously pay that court's appeal filing fee. 

     Those litigation actions had to be taken in a timely manner and Lon Jr. had to quickly learn how to take those actions pro se (acting as his own attorney). 

     After he completed those litigation actions successfully, he had a reasonable amount of time in which to locate and retain a different attorney to represent him in his appeal case.  He retained an attorney to represent him in his appeal case that was located in Daytona Beach, Florida - where the appellate court is located.

     Normally, an appellant would want his "defense attorney" to represent him in an appeal case because that attorney is already  familiar with a lot of very important information about the trial court litigation. 

     However, Lon did not ask his "defense attorney" to represent him in his appeal case because Lon had learned that the attorney had knowingly and willfully represented co-trustee Lon Jr. in an incompetent and irresponsible manner during the trial. 

    That "defense attorney" had also failed to represent defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. responsibly in very important post-trial litigation actions - actions that Lon Jr. had requested that he accomplish. 

     Consequently, Lon Willoughby, Jr. did ask his "defense attorney" to represent appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. in the appeal case that he planned to file within the 30 days time limit. 

     That situation placed appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. in a very bad position because he had to retain a new attorney to represent him in the appeal case.  The new attorney had no knowledge at all about the entire litigation process in the trial court.  He would only have a copy of the 267 page trial transcript. 

     Lon's appeal attorney would have to take up litigation billable attorney hours to get a responsible understanding of the main argument issues that should be presented in appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr's initial appeal legal brief. 

     Lon's "defense attorney" would have already had that kind of trial knowledge, but he could not represent Lon Willoughby in the appeal because Lon Jr. now realized that the attorney had knowingly and willfully betrayed him badly during the trial. 

     The defense attorney had also refused to represent defendant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. responsibly in very important post-trial actions. (Litigation actions after the trial.)  Lon had to quickly learn how to take those very important post-trial litigation actions in his pro-se status (without attorney assistance).

     Those were attorney betrayal situations that attorney #2 had cautiously warned defendant Lon about after the bar luncheon where he had talked with the plaintiff's attorney (attorney #1). 

     Attorney #1 was also a prominent attorney in the Putnam County judicial domain, and he apparently convinced attorney #2 that the case against non-resident co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. had already been decided with the local judge (to defeat the co-trustee - months before the trial was conducted).  This is a very important indication of how unfair, fraudulent, and corrupt trial court litigation actions can be.

Appeal Litigation

     Appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. knew nothing about appeal litigation practices and procedures, and his appeal attorney did not ask him what he thought the appeal argument issues should be in his initial appeal brief. 

     Lon tried to discuss with the appeal attorney some of his disappointments in the way the trial court litigation had been conducted, and he explained how he had been ambushed at trial with five surprise complaint issues about trust estate planning and management issues.

    The initial appeal brief that the attorney filed for Lon's appeal showed that the arrogant know-it-all attorney had paid no responsible attention to Lon Willoughby, Jr's expressed opinions about the unfair and unethical trial court actions.

     When Lon reviewed the appeal brief that had been filed by his appeal attorney, Lon did not see how he could possibly win that appeal with the argument issues presented for him. 

     The prominent attorney in Palatka, Florida that had represented plaintiff Leona Willoughby in the Putnam County trial court also represented her in Lon Jr's appeal case. 

     Subsequent appeal events showed that Lon's appeal attorney knowingly and willfully sabotaged Lon Jr's initial appeal brief argument issues.  He had refused to responsibly expose in appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr's initial appeal brief that defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. had been unfairly and unethically ambushed badly during trial with five verbally introduced surprise complaint issues. 

     Lon Jr's review of the initial brief prepared and filed in the appeal case by his appeal attorney showed that the attorney had deceitfully and deceptively betrayal appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr.  The appeal attorney had failed to present competent and responsible argument issues about the way that defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. had been unfairly and unethically "ambushed" during trial with five surprise complaint issues about complex trust estate planning and management issues. 

     The attorney also failed to report that the CPA that testified about those surprise complaint issues during trial was not an "expert witness" and his testimony about those complex trust estate issues should not have been allowed into the trial by the trial court judge.

     At that time, Lon had not learned about the Florida Supreme Court case law decision that prohibited surprise complaint issues being introduced during a trial procedure.  However, Lon's appeal attorney surely knew about that mandatory landmark case. 

     Any competent, responsible trial attorney (or appeal attorney) in Florida would have surely been informed about that very important landmark mandatory case law decision.

     If a transcript had been made for the "Leona - Lon deposition testimony" and properly filed in the case litigation records, as should have been done, the transcript document would have been included in the Record on Appeal for Lon Jr's appeal case. 

     An honest and responsible appeal attorney (for Lon Jr.) would have been able to use that deposition transcript to show how the plaintiff (Leona) had given dishonest testimony during the trial. 

     However, without that transcript, Leona could make dishonest statements about the issues reported in that deposition, and there would not be any way for Lon's defense attorney to quickly impeach her trial testimony about those issues during the trial. 

     Obviously, Lon's appeal attorney was not able to use the "missing" deposition transcript during Lon Jr's appeal case.

     Those litigation events showed that the two opposing attorneys (plaintiff's attorney and defendant co-trustee Lon Jr's defense attorney) had knowingly and willfully "cooperated" with each other to deliberately fail to get a transcript record developed for that very important "discovery" deposition testimony.

     That "missing transcript" could have also helped appellant Lon Willoughby win that appeal case if it had been used properly by Lon's appeal attorney.  But you see, the two competing attorneys in the trial court case had "cooperated" with each other to also make it very difficult for Lon Willoughby to win an appeal case.

     Appellant Lon Willoughby then insisted that the appeal attorney withdraw from the appeal case because of his incompetent appeal attorney actions.  Appellant Lon Willoughby then attempted to amend his appeal brief argument issues to show that he had been ambushed badly with five surprise complaint issues during trial.

     Lon also wanted to show that the CPA witness was not an "expert witness" about trust estate planning issues and his testimony during trial should not have been allowed.  Lon's defense attorney had objected to his testimony on that basis, but the trial court judge allowed the CPA's testimony anyway. 

     Appellant Willoughby also wanted to show that the CPA had given perjured testimony during trial about the plaintiff's income for two tax years, as proven by the Federal Form 1040 tax records that Lon had obtained from his mother (the plaintiff in the case).

No Amendments To Initial Appeal Brief

     The appellate court refused to allow appellant Lon Jr. to amend his appeal argument issues in any manner - because the opposing party had already filed their responsive appeal brief. 

     Consequently, Lon's appeal attorney's deceitful and deceptive "cooperative actions" with the opposing appeal attorney caused appellant Lon Willoughby, Jr. to lose that very important appeal. 

     One very important illustration of the deceitful and deceptive sabotage of Lon's appeal argument issues was the fact that Lon's appeal attorney did not cite and use the Florida Supreme Court's landmark case law decision that strictly prohibited surprise complaint issues being introduced for the first time after the trial was in progress. 

     The appeal attorney surely knew about that landmark  mandatory case law decision, but he did not cite and use that  relevant case law decision in Lon's appeal to expose the unfair and unethical litigation scheme and tactic that had been used to ruthlessly "ambush" co-trustee Lon Willoughby during the trial with five surprise complaint issues.  

     Lon's appeal attorney had refused to make an argument issue about the unfair and unethical surprise "ambush" complaint issues - as appellant Lon Willoughby had strongly recommended. 

     That one case, cited and used properly, would have enabled appellant Lon Willoughby to win that appeal case.  He would have then gotten a revised FINAL JUDGMENT for the case that would have shown that he had won the trial court litigation case. 

     It is also very important to understand that the three appellate court judges, that reviewed the appeal arguments from both sides of the appeal, also had a duty to recall and use that mandatory Florida Supreme Court case law decision.  They surely knew about that landmark mandatory case law decision. 

     Competent and honest appellate court judges would have enabled appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. to win that appeal, even with the deceptive deficient and incompetent argument issues presented by appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr's appeal attorney.

     You see, the true purpose of a litigation process is to provide fair and ethical justice as the outcome of the litigation process.  Participants on both sides of the trial litigation and the trial court judge have ethical responsibilities to do whatever is needed to provide a fair and ethical justice outcome for the trial litigation. 

     Those same ethical justice standards apply in appellate court litigation for attorneys and for appellate court judges. 

     But you see, what is supposed to happen in a litigation process (fairness, impartiality, and dispensation of responsible justice) and what actually happens in the litigation process can be very different, as happened in Lon Jr's appeal cans and as happened in the trial court litigation below. 

      In Lon Willoughby's appeal case, the three appellate judges had the official trial transcript in the official Record on Appeal documents.  (267 pages in two volumes that cost Lon Willoughby about $1,350 dollars for that transcript record.)  The primary purpose of that transcript record was to have it available if an appeal case was filed after the trial court litigation.

     The three appellate court judges certainly knew about the Florida Supreme Court's landmark case law decision that strictly prohibited surprise complaint issues being presented during a trial proceeding.     

     Did the three appellate court judges make a responsible effort to review the trial transcript and see how the trial had been conducted?  Obviously not!!! 

     If the three judges had made a responsible effort to review just the first 40 pages of the trial transcript, they would have learned about the unfair, unethical, and extremely corrupt litigation  scheme and tactic used by the plaintiff's attorney to ruthlessly "ambush" defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. with surprise complaint issues.

    If the three appellate court judges had reviewed the first part of the transcript for the trial, they would have learned that five surprise "ambush" complaints were introduce during the trial, and the defense attorney objected four times to those surprise complaints being introduced into the trial proceeding. 

     It is important to understand that trial transcripts are prepared in a format that is similar to double spaced lines.  Therefore, 30 pages of transcript is similar to reading about 15 pages of single-spaced lines.

     You can now see why it was critically important for Lon Jr's appeal attorney to make a very clear argument issue about those unfair and unethical and corrupt trial court surprise complaints "ambush" actions - as the major argument issue in appellant Lon Willoughby's initial appeal brief arguments.  

     That critically important argument issue would have clearly brought that extremely unfair and unethical trial court scheme and tactic to the attention of the three appellate court judges. 

     The three judge panel would have then been prompted to carefully review the trial transcript's record of the plaintiff's attorney's unfair and unethical scheme and tactic of "ambushing" defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. during trial with surprise complaint issues. 

     The Florida Supreme Court's case law decision that strictly prohibited the scheme and tactic of presenting surprise complaint issues during a trial would have enabled the three judges to rule in appellant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr's favor for his appeal case.

     They would have then ordered the trial court judge to reconsider the Final Judgment, delete the judge's ruling against defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby on three surprise complaint issues (with testimony by a non-expert CPA witness) and that judicial action would have enabled defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby to win the trial court case.

     But you see, Lon's appeal attorney betrayed him deceitfully by deceptively by "cooperating" with the opposing appeal attorney (for Leona Willoughby).  The appeal attorney failed to make a major appeal argument issue in appellant Lon Willoughby's initial appeal brief about the outrageously unfair and unethical "ambush" during trial with five surprise "ambush" complaints. 

     The entire appeal process was a fraudulent sham proceeding, from beginning to the end, and it cost Lon Willoughby a lot of money, and a lot of time, and a lot of effort, and a lot of stress. 

     Lon was so disappointed in the appeal attorney's deficient attorney actions that Lon refused to pay the attorney anything for his extremely deceitful and deceptive corrupt and fraudulent attorney services. 

     The appeal attorney made no effort to collect thousands of dollars for his appeal actions from Lon Willoughby.  He knew that he had betrayed his client and had willfully caused him to lose an appeal that the attorney should have won easily.

     That disgusting appeal situation is another illustration of how "opposing attorneys" will cooperate with each other to prevent a litigation process from exposing unfair, unethical, deceitful, and fraudulent litigation actions by members of the legal profession.

Attorney Duty and Responsibility

     It is important to understand that trial attorneys and appeal attorneys are usually trying to make the legal profession look good and responsible, even when it is obviously unfair, unethical, and corrupt.  It an attorney needs to betray a client badly in order to accomplish that objective, that will very likely will be done. 

     It is also very important to understand that judges (trial courts and appellate courts) will likely find ways to punish attorneys who responsibly expose how litigation actions were very unfair and unethical and corrupt.   Exposing those actions is very dangerous territory for trial attorneys or appeal attorneys.

     You will learn herein later how Lon's appeal attorney's deceitful and deceptive appeal actions helped other Florida attorneys wreck Lon Willoughby's career and life for 19 years.

Betrayed Again

     Lon had been betrayed again by members of the Florida legal profession, and he was determined to not let that happen to him again.  In any future litigation, he would represent himself in his pro se capacity (a litigant who chooses to represent his own legal arguments - without assistance of an attorney). 

     Lon realized that he was not an educated and trained and experienced attorney, but he also realized that he now knew how to represent himself much better than either attorney that he had retained had represented him (trial court case and appeal case).

 Lon is Sued Again

     Lon's trial court "defense attorney" had sued him, and also sued the appointed CPA trustee, trying to collect the additional $3,280 dollars that he had billed co-trustee Lon Willoughby for after the extremely unfair, unethical, and outrageously corrupt trial that had been conducted on September 8, 1989.  

     That situation shows how "elitist" attorneys will deliberately betray a litigant during litigation and then have the audacity to bill the betrayed litigant as if he/she had been represented in a competent and responsible way. 

     You see, "elitist" attorneys have been educated to believe that they have a right to be paid, even when they betray a client in a ruthless and outrageously corrupt manner during litigation.

     Lon had paid the attorney $1,000 by trust check when he first retained the attorney, but Lon then refused to pay the attorney's additional billing fee ($3,280) for his unfair, unethical, and fraudulent trial litigation attorney actions.

     Lon Willoughby, still living in Greenville County, South Carolina, responded to that new Florida lawsuit in his pro se capacity (without assistance of an attorney). 

     Lon subsequently filed a Counterclaim Complaint for 600,000 dollars in alleged damages for the attorney's deceitful unfair, unethical, corrupt and fraudulent litigation actions in that prior trial court case.  You will learn herein later why the attorney's deceitful and fraudulent litigation actions justified that amount of damages to Lon Willoughby, Jr.

      Lon's Counterclaim Complaint sued the attorney for deceit, fraud, and legal malpractice.

     The unfair, unethical, and fraudulent FINAL JUDGMENT had been drafted for the trial court judge's signature by Leona Willoughby's trial attorney.  The same attorney that had unfairly, unethically, and ruthlessly ambushed co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. during trial with five surprise complaint issues. 

     The plaintiff's attorney had including a statement in the FINAL JUDGMENT document that said Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. represented a person where a little knowledge was a dangerous thing.  (That statement falsely implied that Lon Jr's estate planning actions had been incompetent and ineffective). 

     However, that attorney had acknowledged during trial that the deceased Mr. Willoughby's estate had avoided probate administration, and the attorney probably knew that Mr. Willoughby's federal estate value had also avoided federal estate taxes completely. 

     That situation is a further illustration of the malicious and ruthless litigation actions of trial attorneys who will do anything possible to win a litigation case, including ruthlessly destroying innocent and competent litigant's reputation and their relationships with all family members, and close relatives.

     That false statement and other unfair and unethical false statements in the FINAL JUDGMENT destroyed Lon Willoughby, Jr's reputation with all family members, on both sides of his family (his father's relatives and his mother's relatives - Lon's aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews, etc.) 

     That false reputation damaging information eventually got passed on to some of the people that Lon Jr. had gone to high school with.

     The overall damage to his reputation was enormous, and it will last the rest of his life.  There is no practical way that Lon can restore his good reputation with all of those people.

Lon Willoughby is a Fighter for Truth and Justice

     However, Lon Jr. has a strong sense of fairness, honesty, and ethics, and he is also a strong dedicated fighter for truth and justice.  As reported herein, the litigation in 1989 started a litigation process that continued into year 2010 with numerous related litigation actions (trial courts and appellate courts).     

     Throughout those 20 years, Lon lived in Greenville County, South Carolina.  The ongoing litigation processes wrecked his career and his life for 20 years.  The extended Florida litigation also severely damaged Lon's wife's life and their family life.

     As shown herein, Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. is determined to educate many American adult citizens about the extreme level of unfairness, deception, fraud, and disgusting corruption that appears to be common practice in litigation in the USA.

     This report shows that the Florida attorneys who got involved in that extensive extended litigation process were like a "wrecking crew" who took a very good Inter Vivos Trust Estate Plan and manipulated it and misrepresented it in extremely unfair and unethical devious ways during the litigation process for their own self-serving advantages of "greatly increasing their attorney fee actions, year after year, during the next 20 years." 

     Lon Willoughby will show herein how some of those unfair and unethical devious litigation schemes and tactics were cooperated with by a series of unfair and unethical and corrupt trial court judges throughout the 20+ years of litigation that Lon Jr. was subjected to as a defendant in self-serving corrupt Florida courts (multiple trial court litigation's and appellate court cases).  

Exceptionally Important Report

     This exceptionally important report will help American adult citizens in South Carolina understand why it is very easy for judicial systems in Florida, in South Carolina, and other judicial systems in America, to operate in very unfair, unethical, arrogant, pompous, autocratic, "elitist" self-serving despotic totalitarian and tyrannical corrupt ways. 

     Lon learned that such litigation can be a terrible family disaster for any naive and trusting litigants who get caught up in their criminal-minded self-serving litigation schemes and tactics.

      Based upon Lonnie Willoughby, Jr's extensive litigation experiences over a period of 20 years, unfair, unethical, and corrupt self-serving litigation actions and judicial actions are apparently common practices in American courts. 

     Visitors will learn herein that Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. (Lon) has  had a lot of experiences with those kinds of litigation actions, mostly in the distant southern state of Florida, but Lon will also report herein some disgustingly unfair, unethical litigation experiences that he had in trial courts and appellant courts in South Carolina.

     Lon's litigation experiences in the state of Florida involved more than 17,000 hours of litigation work over a period of 20 years of ongoing related unfair, unethical, malicious, and ruthless harassment litigation actions by attorneys (lawyers) and trial court judges. 

     NOTE: That amount of hours of related litigation activity (work) is equivalent to more than seven years of full-time work at the rate of 40 hours per week.  

     That was a tremendous amount of unfair and unethical judicial interference with Lon's work in operating and managing an independent corporately owned natural health and wellness products store in Greenville County, South Carolina.

     Those extended malicious and ruthless harassment litigation actions were caused by unfair, unethical, and corrupt "officers of the Florida courts" as they repeatedly extended the litigation process, year after year, from March 1, 1989 into year 2010. 

     Their malicious and ruthless litigation actions harassed, persecuted, and severely punished non-resident litigant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. in multiple ways, and they collectively caused him as much damage as they could scheme up to cause in collusive unfair, unethical, criminal-minded litigation actions that continued into year 2010 (for 20+ years of interference with his life and career). 

     The Florida attorney litigants deliberately increased and extended their attorney actions, again and again, as they repeatedly increased their "alleged attorney fees" in the ongoing litigation processes.  They repeated used litigant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. as their "punching bag" for unfair and unethical schemes and tactics practice.

     They apparently planned to force non-resident litigant Lon Willoughby to pay for their extremely unfair and unethical criminal-minded litigation schemes and tactics when the litigation processes ended. 

Why did they do that to Lonnie Willoughby, Jr?

     The official Florida litigation records involving Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. (Lon) show clearly that those "officers of the Florida courts" (attorneys, lawyers, trial court judges, and appellate court judges) retaliated against Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. because he had responsibly helped his ageing parents, living in the Palatka area of Florida, develop an Inter Vivos Trust Agreement estate plan. 

     That estate plan was very effective at responsibly and legally minimizing federal estate taxes and also minimizing state probate expenses and complications for his father's estate settlement when he died (11/22/1986). Lon has already reported some information about the FINAL JUDGMENT rendered for the initial litigation case in 1989. 

     The unfair and corrupt trial court judge (a Florida circuit court judge) allowed the plaintiff's attorney to include several unfair, deceitful, and fraudulent lies in the FINAL JUDGMENT about defendant co-trustee Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. - false information that destroyed Lon Jr's reputation with all relatives for the rest of his life.

     The Florida attorneys apparently felt that Lonnie Willoughby, Jr., (Lon Jr.) living in South Carolina, had invaded their "legal territory" in Putnam County, Florida. 

     Litigation actions showed that the unfair, unethical criminal-minded attorneys concocted malicious and ruthless litigation schemes and tactics that damaged litigant Lonnie Willoughby, Jr. as much as possible. 

     They misunderstood (in an "extremely self-serving criminal-minded way") that the Willoughby family's estate planning actions were not their "legal territory."  Those important actions were clearly in the Lonnie Willoughby (Sr's) family legal territory.

Development of the Willoughby Estate Plan

     In late 1982, Mr. and Mrs. Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.) initially retained an estate planning attorney in Daytona Beach, Florida (about 60 miles from where they lived near Palatka, Florida) to develop Inter Vivos Trust Agreement documents for both Mr. and Mrs. Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.) - "Living Trust" documents. 

     That estate planning attorney had been referred to them by their bank's trust officer, after their first-born son Lonnie Jr. (age 46) had recommended that they talk with their bank's trust officer about locating an estate planning attorney who might help them take some important estate planning actions. 

     Lonnie Jr. lived about 450 miles away in Greenville County, South Carolina. 

     The Daytona Beach attorney (recommended by the bank trust officer) completed the development of the inter vivos trust estate planning documents and had them ready for Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby to sign in January 1983. 

     Lonnie Jr. (Lon) then traveled the 450 miles by personal automobile to his parent's home near Palatka, Florida (where his parents had lived for a number of years) so he could go with his parents to the attorney's office in Daytona Beach, Florida to review and sign the two sets of estate planning trust agreement documents.

     Lon and his parents then traveled about 60 miles to Daytona Beach, Florida, and they met with the estate planning attorney at his office location in January 1983 - as scheduled by the estate planning attorney. 

     The documents were signed by his parents and notarized at the attorney's office that day - with Lon Jr. and his younger brother Larry (his only sibling) as the two designated co-trustees of both Willoughby trust agreements (one for Mr. Lonnie Willoughby and a mirror-image trust agreement for his wife, Leona Willoughby). 

     Over the next few days, Lonnie Jr. carefully reviewed the two Trust Agreement documents.  Fortunately, he was knowledgeable enough about estate planning to recognize that the estate planning documents that the attorney had developed had started the Willoughby's estate planning project, but he realized that the trust agreements did not complete the needed estate planning project.

     When Lon carefully evaluated the two mirror image trust agreements, he gradually realized that the Inter Vivos Trust Agreement Documents would not enable his parent's jointly-owned marital estate value to minimize federal estate taxes on their sizable estate value (later determined in 1987 to be about 1,200,000 dollars - after Lon's father died on November 22, 1986).  

     Lon also realized that the two trust agreement documents would not enable his parent's jointly-owned estate value to minimize potential probate attorney fees or reduce probate processing times (presuming that his parent's would die at separate times in the future). 

     In effect, son Lon Jr. concluded that the two trust agreements were not effective estate planning documents in their present form because the trust agreements had no asset values assigned to them. 

     The estate planning documents had determined who the trustees would be, but the two co-trustees had no estate values to manage because no assets had been transferred into the two trust agreement estates.

     it was sorta like a bank checking account that has no funds in the bank account.  The checking account in that zero balance condition is a worthless account except that it will allow deposits to be made.

     None of the Willoughby's jointly-owned estate values had been transferred into either Trust Agreement. 

     The  estate planning attorney had not informed Lon's parents about the very important need to transfer as much asset value as possible into the two Trust Agreements to take advantage of their estate planning potential (minimizing potential probate expenses and possibly reducing federal estate taxes - both occurrences after the death of a trust grantor). 

     He realized of course that Lon's parents would not know how to take those needed actions, and he did not offer to help them accomplish those additional estate planning actions for additional reasonable legal fees.

     Fortunately, Lon Jr. already realized that any asset values that were transferred into the trust agreements would automatically avoid being considered as probate-able assets during a future probate process.  

     The estate planning attorney had not even asked the Willoughby's any questions about the estimated total dollar value of their jointly-owned marital assets.   

     Lon determined that some technical amendments would be needed for the two Trust Agreement documents to greatly improve their estate planning features.  However, he was not knowledgeable enough about those issues to understand what legal form those trust amendments documents would need to be in to enable him, as the active co-trustee, to accomplish real estate asset transfers into the Trust Agreements for minimization of federal estate taxes on his parent's substantial size jointly-owned marital estate value. 

     At that point in time, Lon did not know what his parent's total jointly-owned asset values would amount to, but he realized that the amount was sufficient to benefit from some responsible estate planning actions. 

     In prior years, Lon had been a life insurance salesman, and he had taken an interest in learning about important estate planning issues.

     Lon Jr. also realized that the two Trust Agreement documents also needed asset transfer actions that would enable the minimization of Florida probate processing expenses, and complications, and probate processing time when each parent subsequently died. 

     Upon coming to those very important realizations, Lon Jr. lost confidence in the estate planning attorney's competence, honesty, and integrity as an estate planning attorney because he had not discussed the need for any of those critically important estate planning actions. 

     The attorney had completely overlooked (or he had deliberately avoided and evaded) almost all of the major estate planning objectives of having the Inter Vivo Trust Agreements.  Consequently, Lon Jr. did not trust the attorney to develop appropriate amendments for the two "completed" Inter Vivos Trust Agreement estate planning documents.

    Over a period of several months, Lonnie Jr. located and met with other estate planning type attorneys in that part of north Florida (within 80 miles of Palatka). 

     However, Lon was not impressed favorably with any of them as being competent to amend the existing trust agreement documents, and one of them wanted to start all over and develop new Inter Vivos Trust Agreements. 

     None of the five attorneys that Lon Jr. talked with wanted to get involved in amending the existing Inter Vivos Trust Agreement documents (perhaps as a professional courtesy to the estate planning attorney - to not amend the documents that he had developed).

     The other attorneys did not appear to know how to amend the existing Trust Agreements to provide the improved estate planning features that Lon wanted to accomplish with Amended Trust Agreements (minimize federal estate taxes legally, and also minimize probate processing fees and also minimize probate process complications and probate processing time). 

     None of the five attorneys that Lon consulted with indicated that they were willing to get involved in providing the amendment features that Lon Jr. believed the estate planning Trust Agreements should provide (for the specific objectives that are explained above).

     Throughout those months of frustrating delays about amending the two Trust Agreements (during the summer and fall months of year 1983), Lon Jr. realized that his father was in very bad health, and he was subject to die at any time. 

     Consequently, Lon Jr. realized that it was critically important that the two Trust Agreement documents be amended quickly - before his father had another heart attack or had another stroke. 

     Those health conditions might kill his father, or they might mentally impair him and prevent him from making important decisions about how he wanted his personal estate values to be planned for use by family members (by his wife and by his two grown sons, and maybe by his grandchildren). 

     Lon's father had already had a very bad heart attack and a terrible stroke in the spring of 1982.  The stroke had totally paralyzed him on the entire left side of his body.  He was either in his bed or in his wheelchair. Fortunately, his mental capacities seemed to be normal - he was still very intelligent and still quick witted.

    Over a period of several months, Lon Jr. had been  unable to find another estate planning attorney to complete the estate planning project properly.  Lon realized that his father could die at any time (likely from another heart attack). 

     In July 1983, Lon Jr. and his wife Janie had given up their personal careers in Greenville County, SC so they could move to DeLand, Florida and take over the operation and management of the Penn Oaks Apartment Complex - a 44 unit apartment complex that was partially owned by Lon's parents. 

     It had a bank mortgage of more than 600,000 dollars, and the other portion of ownership by Lon's parents represented their productive lifetime of difficult work and other investment proceeds. 

     Lon realized that the apartment complex operation would be the primary source of retirement income for his parents.  He did not want them to lose their lifetime investment in the apartment complex due to continued poor operation and management of the apartments. 

     The elderly couple that had been living at the apartment complex and managing the apartment complex were doing the best that they could, but Lon's previous visit and analysis had determined that he and Janie needed to move to the apartment complex and begin managing the many duties that were involved.

     Lon and Janie began working hard with long hours because the apartment complex was about ten years old and some of the apartments had run down badly during that time.  Lon surveyed the residents and determined what deficiencies existed.  There were a lot of them.

     He was working an average of 80 to 90 hours per week, operating and managing and repairing the  apartment complex.  Janie was working an average of 60 to 70 hours per week, and they lived in the small two bedroom apartment that was also serving as the office area.  The living room was the apartment complex office.

     Lon Jr. spent about $60,000 of his parent's cash assets on repairs and improvements to the apartments and the grounds and the shrubs. 

     Lon improved the conditions greatly of the 14 worst apartments (repaired appliances, had the air conditioning compressors (Freon) repaired as needed, had the apartments painted, and then had new carpet installed. 

     Lon also personally repaired many faucets and many toilets, and he also replaced many food disposal units (throughout the total apartment complex). 

     The complex had four apartment buildings, and they were two story buildings.  Lon went up into the attics for all upstairs apartments, and repaired the duct work where it had come apart in the high summer heat (over ten years of operation). 

     Many upstairs apartments were blowing some cold air conditioned air into the attic space, rather than blowing all cold air into the apartments.  Lon also had additional fiberglass insulation installed in the attic space for upstairs apartments.  All of that work was accomplished in the hot summer months of 1983. 

     The number of repairs and improvements made to the apartment complex by Lon and Janie Willoughby in the remaining 22 months of 1983 and all of year 1984 was tremendous. 

     Lon and Janie worked very hard for about 18 months, and they got the 44 unit apartment complex in much better condition so the complex could be sold.

Sale of Apartments Complex

     A local real estate company found a buyer in December 1984, and the apartment complex sale was completed in January 1985.  Lon's parents were finally relieved of the emotional stress of being responsible for 44 apartments with a $600,000+ mortgage.

     With the anticipation of the apartment complex sale in January 1985, Janie moved back to Mauldin, SC in December 1984 because she was able to get rehired at the Mauldin High School to begin teaching again when students returned from their Christmas break in January.

     During all of that extensive work in improving the apartment complex in 1983 and 1984, Lon had no time available to look for another estate planning attorney to help him get the two Trust Agreements amended to provide the needed estate planning objectives that are explained above. 

     After the apartment sale was completed, Lon moved to San Mateo so he could be near his parents to help them with their very serious health conditions. 

     He then purchased some estate planning legal books and proceeded to study those books until he gradually learned how to develop the needed legal form documents that could amend the two Trust Agreement documents.

     Lon developed and then typed the Trust Agreement amendment documents for both Trust Agreements on a portable typewriter at his parent's home in San Mateo. 

     He had talked with each parent separately and then both parents together to determine how they wanted the two Trust Agreements amended for planned use of their jointly owned marital estate values in the future. 

     Lon got the documents signed by his parents and properly notarized at their local bank.  Lon then filed the two separate Amended Trust Agreement documents in the Putnam County Courthouse records on 12/12/1985. 

     That was almost two years after the two Trust Agreements had been signed in January 1983.  Prior to that time (12/12/1985), Lon had transferred some cash assets into Mr. Willoughby's Trust Agreement estate, but no real estate property assets had been transferred into his inter vivos Trust Agreement estate.

     Lon Jr., as the active co-trustee of the two trust estates, also developed asset transfer documents to properly and responsibly transfer 600,000+ dollars value of jointly-owned real estate into his father's trust estate - because Lon Jr. anticipated that his father would likely die before Lon's mother would die. 

     Fortunately, in previous years, Lon Jr. had also learned a lot about improving physical health and mental health, and he was very helpful to his father and mother with their physical and mental health conditions.  Lon's father's invalid condition (paralysis) had put a lot of emotional stress on his wife - he required a lot of assistance, day and night, seven days a week. 

Healthcare Improvements

     Lon Jr. helped both parents improve their diet and health conditions, and he was able to help them cope more effectively with their family health condition (the tragic paralysis condition of his father). 

     That help started after Lon's father's heart attack and stroke in the spring of 1982 - when Lon moved his parents into his home in Mauldin, South Carolina for about six months.  Lon's health improvement actions  continued until March 1986 - when he moved back to his home in Mauldin, South Carolina.

    Over time, Lon's father had not wanted to continue taking the few mineral and vitamin nutrition supplements that Lon had recommended.  In the spring of 1986, Lon's father asked him what would likely happen if he stopped taking those nutrition supplements?  Lon Jr. explained that he would likely die within six to nine months.

Lonnie Willoughby (Sr.) Dies

    Lon's father then refused to take any more nutrition supplements.  About nine months later, he had another heart attack that was fatal (November 22, 1986).  Lon was living in Mauldin, South Carolina at that time.

     The Amended Trust Agreement Estate Plan (TAEP) legally and properly reduced federal estate taxes to zero on a substantial size jointly-owned marital estate (about 1,200,000 dollars). 

     The relevant federal estate tax laws at that time could have eventually caused the Willoughby family to be responsible for paying about $225,000 in federal estate tax.  However, co-trustee Lon Jr. had transferred sufficient estate asset values into the Amended Trust Agreement for Mr. Lonnie Willoughby to fully utilize the 600,000 dollars of unified credit that was allowed by current federal estate tax law for each parent. 

     The asset values that Lon had properly transferred into his father's Trust Agreement Estate enabled a reduction in federal estate taxes to zero dollars on the entire marital estate value of 1,200,000 dollars.    

     The TAEP also reduced Florida's probate processing expenses for Mr. Willoughby's estate value to a minimum (about $800). 

     Without the TAEP, typical Florida probate cost of 8% of estate value would have amounted to about $48,000 for a $600,000 estate value. 

     That estate value would have likely occurred for Mr. Lonnie Willoughby (Sr's) personal estate value because his probate-able estate value would have been one half of the marital jointly-owned estate value of about $1,200,000. 

     However, due to the 700,000+ dollars value of jointly-owned assets that co-trustee Lon Jr. had transferred into his father's Amended Trust Agreement, his personal probate-able estate value had been reduced to about 3,000 dollars. 

     Consequently, the TAEP had minimized the probate-able asset value, and thereby greatly reduced probate processing time and complexities to a minimum. 

     The local probate court processing time for that 3,000 dollars estate value was only 24 hours - instead of being many weeks or months (that would have been typical for Mr. Willoughby's estate value if it had been about 600,000 dollars - the situation that would have occurred without the TAEP).

Severe Punishment for Lon Jr.

     Now consider the outrageously unfair, unethical, and disgustingly corrupt Florida litigation proceedings that were used to maliciously and ruthlessly harass, and persecute, and severely punish Lonnie Jr. for more than 20 years -  because he had responsibly helped his ageing parents develop a complex Amended Trust Agreement Estate Plan (TAEP) that worked to a remarkable level of competency after Lon's father died (November 22, 1986). 

    NOTE:  Lonnie Jr. is not an attorney, and he has not attended any law school anywhere, but he knows how to read the English language.  He was able to read and learn from several legal books how he could develop the appropriate forms to accomplish the estate planning asset transfer actions that were needed to accomplish the estate planning actions that are reported above. 

     Eventually, over many years, attorneys (lawyers), trial court judges, and appellate court judges also punished Lon Jr. severely, maliciously, and ruthlessly, because he  responsibly exposed (in his appeal legal briefs - in multiple appeal cases) some of the unfair, unethical, and outrageously corrupt litigation schemes and tactics that had been used against him in Florida trial court and appellate court litigation actions.

      Those unfair and unethical litigation actions cost Lon Willoughby Jr. more than $150,000 in direct costs over that period of 20 years of continuing litigation. 

     He had the costs for many transcripts as official records of motion hearings and trial hearings.  His first transcript had cost about $1,350, and many other transcripts had cost hundreds of dollars each.  He had numerous appeal case filing fees and numerous clerk of court processing fees for assembling many complex Records on Appeal (for Lon's ten appeal cases).  Lon also had about 9,000 miles of automobile travel back and forth to Palatka, Florida and also Daytona Beach, Florida (appeal actions) for various litigation actions.

    In addition to all of the listed litigation costs, Lon's  opposing litigation attorneys eventually improperly confiscated $126,000+ out of the Family Trust Agreement estate funds that his parents had set aside for Lon Jr.   

     The opposing attorneys improperly confiscated those trust estate assets to allegedly pay them for their inflated attorney fee claims (that they had deliberately caused in self-serving litigation actions over 20 years of extremely unfair and unethical litigation actions). 

     It is very important to understand that their improper confiscation of trust fund assets was approved by the Putnam County "county court judge." That confiscation action depleted Lon's Family Trust estate funds to near zero dollars.  

      That confiscation of trust funds was clearly illegal for two reasons (even though three Florida attorneys and the county court judge were involved in that confiscation of trust assets). 

     1.  The county court judge had subject matter jurisdiction for awards up to $25,000, and the $126,000+ award greatly exceeded the county court judge's subject matter jurisdiction upper limit.

     2.  The county court judge had no subject matter jurisdiction of those trust agreement funds because all trust agreement litigation must be conducted in the circuit court.  A county court judge has no subject matter jurisdiction to award trust agreement assets to anyone, including Lon Willoughby's opposing attorneys. 

     Lon was prohibited from appealing pro se that improper and unfair and unethical award of trust funds because the local Circuit Court Judge involved in that potential appeal case quickly filed an order with the local Clerk of Court that ordered the Clerk of Court to refuse to accept any documents that Lonnie Willoughby  attempted to file with the Clerk of Court.

     Consequently, Lon could not file a Notice of Appeal pro se with the Clerk of Court, and he would not be able to proceed pro se with an appeal case to the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach, Florida.  The Clerk of Court would not have prepared the complex Record on Appeal for pro se appellant Lonnie Willoughby. 

     It is important to report that litigant Lon Willoughby had never had any litigation actions with that circuit court judge.  The judge had no personal knowledge about Lon Willoughby, but the local Putnam County judicial system had apparently black-balled litigant Lon Willoughby so badly that the circuit court judge improperly closed down the local judicial system for Lon Willoughby and would not allow Lon to even file a constitutionally protected Notice of Appeal. 

     That situation shows the outrageously unfair and unethical criminal-minded manner in which the judicial systems operated in that county.  The judge was trying to force litigant Lon Willoughby to retain a local attorney at the cost of many thousands of dollars for litigation actions that could easily betray Lon Willoughby again, as all trial court litigation actions had done in the past.  

     Lon realized that he was caught up in a criminal-minded judicial enterprise that was extremely corrupt.  He refused to try to get a local attorney to represent him in any further litigation in Putnam County (at very high costs). 

     Willoughby realized that if he did that, it would have enabled the opposing unfair and unethical attorneys that he had been litigating against since year 2003 (about 17 years) to participate in additional litigation actions and thereby increase their attorney fees against non-resident litigant Lonnie Willoughby.

 He also realized that his previous litigation actions had proven convincingly, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there was no way the Florida litigation system was going to allow him to win in this disgustingly corrupt litigation process.  Consequently, he did not take any further litigation actions and the litigation process came to an abrupt halt. 

     Those unfair and unethical criminal-minded litigation actions, over a 20+ years period of time, had also cost Lon Jr. more than $300,000 in lost income while he was very busily involved in ongoing Florida litigation actions. 

     Lonnie Jr. had filed ten appellate court cases, and he responsibly reported and exposed unfair, unethical, fraudulent, and corrupt attorney actions and/or unfair and corrupt trial court judicial actions in his pro se appeal briefs. 

    The corrupt, self-serving Florida judicial system had not punished anyone for any of the unfair and unethical litigation actions that Lon had exposed responsibly. 

     The self-serving judicial system had not even reprimanded anyone for committing unfair, unethical, criminal-minded litigation schemes and tactics that prevented justice from prevailing, year after year for many years. 

     Lon's fair and responsible litigation actions had proven several times that it was an outrageously corrupt judicial system, and he was not going to take any litigation action that would cause the litigation process to continue any further. 

     It was clearly time to just walk away from a disgustingly corrupt judicial system that had caused him to suffer terrible financial losses and tremendous emotional stress over a 20 year period of time.

Highway Accident on I-95

      Lon and Janie Willoughby had a very serious automobile accident during a heavy rain storm on I-95 as they were traveling to Palatka, Florida for Lon to participate in a motion hearing the next day.  Janie was driving while Lon was reviewing and studying legal type information related to that motion hearing.

     That accident almost killed both of them, and it did injure both of them, but they were later released from the local hospital that day at their request. 

     Lon and Janie were able to continue their travel to Palatka, Florida in an old car that was available as a "rental car" at the gas station and garage that had towed their destroyed station wagon to that gas station and garage location in a small town in Georgia. 

     That small town was within a few miles from where the accident collision occurred on I-95, and the town did not have a commercial rental car facility available. 

     The three vehicle accident totally destroyed the Willoughby's like new Mercury station wagon because it was hit from the rear by a fuel tanker truck that could not completely stop before colliding with the Willoughby station wagon which was stopped in the right lane of I-95.

     That tanker truck vehicle collision forced the Willoughby station wagon into and under the rear of the moving van.  The steel "bumper bar" of the moving van truck came up the bottom of the windshield of the station wagon. 

     If that steel "bumper bar" had come three feet closer to Lon and Janie, they would have been decapitated by the truck's "bumper" steel bar.

     The moving van had completely stopped in the right lane of I-95 because the passenger car in front of the moving van had completely stopped in the right lane of the highway (apparently due to very heavy rain). 

     That car should have gotten off the highway and onto the large right side shoulder of the highway (which could have been done easily and responsibly), but the driver of the passenger car carelessly and foolishly stopped completely on the highway in front of the moving van vehicle that was right behind that passenger car. 

     After physical examinations and X-rays, Lon and Janie were released from the hospital (as requested).  Lon rented an old car from the service station owner so they could continue their travel to Putnam County Florida.  They had about 240 miles of travel to get to that destination for the motion hearing the next morning. 

     They spent a short night in a motel in Georgia because they got up early in the morning to continue their travel to Florida. 

     They arrived at the Putnam County Court House in Palatka, Florida just a few minutes before the motion hearing was scheduled to begin.  

     Janie had black and blue splotches on her face where she had collided with the steering wheel, and one eye was completely closed from swelling, and the other eye was swelled badly but not closed.  She also had injuries to one hand where bones were damaged and fingers were apparently broken. 

     Lon's injuries were less severe because his seat belt had protected him better than Janie's seat belt had protected her because she collided with the steering wheel.  They did not have air bag protection in their vehicle.

Travel Restrictions

     From this overview of some of those litigation actions, American visitors can understand why Lonnie Willoughby now refuses to travel into any other state in America. 

     He will not even voluntarily travel into his nearby birth state of North Carolina - where most of his living relatives are still residing.  Lon has not seen any of them for many years due to his self-imposed travel restrictions (due to the judicial corruption reasons explained herein). 

     Lon Jr. has been subjected to a tremendous amount of outrageously unfair, unethical, and criminal-mindedly corrupt litigation and judicial situations by "officers of the court" in the Florida courts during 20+ years. 

     Lon has also been subjected to some really bad unfair, unethical, and criminal-minded judicial actions in South Carolina courts.  He found that South Carolina courts, trial courts and appellate courts, were even more unfair, more unethical, and more corrupt in a self-serving way than the very unfair and unethical courts in Florida.  He will explain some of those situations below.

Healthcare Education Services

      Being in the healthcare and wellness education business for 15+ years enabled Lon Willoughby to acquire a lot of the advanced natural healthcare and wellness concepts knowledge that Lon now presents to our "A4J club members" (qualified American adult citizens who live in selected ZIP Code areas of upstate South Carolina).   Lon Willoughby helps them learn how to take much better care of their precious natural health.

     PHONE CALLS:  We routinely prefer that inquiries to us be made by Email or by Fax because these communications do not interrupt our very busy daily work schedule.  However, if these type communications will not work reasonably well for you, please telephone our office with your well prepared inquires. 

      If we are unable to answer the telephone at times during our business hours, it indicates that we are busy with other client services.  However, our commercial quality voice mail system will take your call, during business hours. 

      When it is convenient for you, please leave us a voice mail message about your inquiry.  We will call you back as soon as possible (at the day and time and phone number that you specify as the best way for us to try to contact you by telephone).

    Thank you for your interest in the very valuable educational services offered by Americans4Justice-SC for patriotic-minded American adult citizens living in the upstate area of South Carolina (have a permanent home address Zip Code of 296 _ _).  

     Americans4Justice is providing leadership, incentives, motivation, and guidance to patriotic-minded American adult citizens with an education services plan to help patriotic-minded American adult citizens in our local area of South Carolina protect, defend, preserve, strengthen, and improve upon the American Dream for themselves, for their loved ones, and for future generations of American citizens.

     May you live long and prosper well in good health, as a brave and courageous American patriot,

Lon Willoughby, founder and director of Americans4Justice-SC