ORLANDO – A retired Florida lawyer claims he is being targeted by the Florida Bar for his speech.
Plaintiff Steven G. Mason filed his lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division.
In his eight-page complaint, Mason, a licensed and retired lawyer, accuses the defendant Bar of violating the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
“This case addresses the free speech rights of a lawyer, here a retired lawyer (licensed/but not practicing) who attended a hearing in the gallery of the bankruptcy court as a civilian spectator and who is now being targeted by the Florida Bar for his speech,” his filing states.
“It is the plaintiff’s position that no lawyer, much less a retired lawyer, sitting in the gallery of a bankruptcy proceeding, who believes and speaks out that fraudulent conduct has been brought to the attention of the court and not promptly dealt with, is not sanctionable and is protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.”
Mason, who has stopped practicing and has zero clients, has been a decades-long proponent of the free speech rights of lawyers, he claims.
He also notes in his complaint that he has been involved in two prior lawsuits with the Florida Bar.
His wife, Amanda Mason, became a whistleblower assisting the federal government in criminally investigating the bankruptcy petitioner in the case styled In Re: Alexander Barthatkov, Case Number 6:26-bk-002806.
According to his complaint, Amanda spent nearly 100 hours investigating Barhatkov. She provided more than 450 documents to the local bankruptcy trustee.
“The information provided by Amanda Mason alleged that Mr. Barhatkov’s bankruptcy petition was fraudulent and false,” Mason’s filing states. “In addition, she provided hundreds of documents which she believes show ongoing fraud by Mr. Barhatkov.”
In response, the local trustee filed two pleadings/notices with the bankruptcy judge, Grace E. Robson.
Mason claims that his wife “makes it clear” that Barhatkov’s Chapter 13 petition omits material facts and is perjurious.
The local trustee filed a pleading or notice to Robson in which she plainly states and advises the judge that she has referred the debtor, Barhatkov, for criminal investigation to the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Sept. 16, Mason appeared as a spectator citizen in Robson’s bankruptcy courtroom. He did not speak, so there is no record of his involvement in any case. He does not represent any party in that proceeding, he notes.
After, Mason claims he filed a grievance against Robson with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, contacted both of Florida’s U.S. Senators, requested a congressional inquiry, and likewise contacted the media.
“The thrust of all of this is that Judge Robson has a plethora of information that clearly demonstrates that Mr. Barhatkov’s petition is fraudulent and perjurious,” his complaint states. “Nonetheless, the court has failed to take negative action against Mr. Barhatkov.”
Mason, assuming that Robson was entitled to notice, provided her a courtesy copy of the grievance complaint.
In response, Robson entered an order admonishing Mason and ordered that the grievance brought against her should be publicly disclosed.
Mason contends the judge’s position is “incomplete if not false.”
“Mason attempted to explain to Judge Robson that his grievance was not predicated upon malintent or an obtuse attack upon the court,” his complaint states. “Rather, Mr. Mason intended to right a wrong; to stop the abuse of fraudulent, perjurious, misuse and waste of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars.”
Then, on Sept. 29, Mason alleges he received “odd correspondence” from the Florida Bar. It does not, he claims, allege any violation of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar that Mason allegedly violated.
“The Florida Bar’s correspondence to Mr. Mason is utterly vague,” his filing states. “It violates the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments because it does not advise him of the specific ethical rule that he is alleged to have violated.”
He argues under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth amendments that the Florida Bar has no authority or jurisdiction to investigate, much less punish, a retired lawyer “who was merely a citizen watching a federal proceeding and who then followed up with contacts to his Florida political representatives, the Eleventh Circuit, and the media.”
Mason seeks a judgment declaring the Bar’s actions unconstitutional; an award of compensatory damages and other damages; and attorney fees.
Mason, of Altamonte Springs, Florida, is representing himself in the lawsuit.
