Woman Says Long Legal Fight
Has Driven Her to Distraction

By Jane Musgrave
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Fifteen years ago, life was good for Meryl and Norman Lanson. They owned a small and respected chain of men's clothing stores. They had a young son. They had a nice house. They had good friends. They had money.

Then the phone rang.

Within days of receiving an after-hours call from their banker, they learned a trusted employee and friend - the godfather to their only child - had embezzled $3 million.

Five years later, Baron's, their menswear chain Meryl Lanson                                  that was a household name in South Florida
                                                  was dead.

But while the 52-year-old family business died, the battle was only beginning.

Now filling dozens of boxes stacked in the dining room and garage of their suburban Boca Raton home, the legal fight has destroyed the Lansons' life.

Meryl Lanson's therapist, Karin Huffer (left), Meryl Lanson is devoted to proving that the
 says Lanson has legal abuse syndrome, a  legal system - attorneys, judges and other
condition that causes people involved in    professionals - conspired against them.
lengthy litigation to suffer the effects of
post-traumatic stress disorder.                     She has fought the battle in state and
federal courts. She has sued her former attorneys for malpractice. She has filed complaints with the Florida Bar and the Judicial Qualifications Commission. She has written letters to former Gov. Jeb Bush and Gov. Charlie Crist and copied the missives to the entire Florida Legislature. She has created Web sites, decrying the legal system and what it has done to her family.

And, 15 years into the battle, she shows no sign of stopping.

Just last week, she filed yet another federal lawsuit, accusing Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Beth Cohen of violating her rights to represent herself in a still-unresolved lawsuit that was first filed in 1999.

"Get on with your life? How do you get on with your life?" she asks, mocking the advice many have given her. "This is a horror. They destroyed our business. They destroyed our reputation. They took our money and used it to destroy us. They're going to put me back to where I'm entitled to be."

Legal abuse syndrome

Those who think she's suffering from psychological problems are partially right. It's just one of the many scars of the prolonged litigation. And, she says, she has a medical diagnosis to prove it.

It's called legal abuse syndrome.

Coined by a Las Vegas therapist, it is virtually unknown in medical or legal circles. But it has been embraced by people across the country who, like Lanson, say messy lawsuits turned them into emotional, physical and, in most cases, financial wrecks.

Therapist Karin Huffer says she began her research after watching her husband's suffering in an ugly contract dispute. She discovered those involved in lengthy litigation often suffer the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder - a malady most commonly associated with combat vets.

Flashbacks, inability to concentrate, depression, exhaustion and eating disorders are common symptoms of PTSD - once written off as combat fatigue - and exhibited by those embroiled in court battles, Huffer says.

While working to help Lanson for years, she has recently entered the legal arena with her. Using the Americans With Disabilities Act, Huffer has asked that Lanson receive accommodations so representing herself in court is less traumatic.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Hyman this year approved most of the requests, which included taking frequent breaks, giving Lanson extra time to file court briefs and having an advocate beside her in the courtroom. He rejected her request for videotaping, explaining it's not allowed in federal courts.

At a tense hearing last week, Miami-Dade's Cohen was equally obliging.

Cohen, having handled drug court for many years, said she is accustomed to dealing with people who have psychological problems, including PTSD, and making accommodations for them.

"There's nothing here that's offensive to me," she said of the requests. But it might be difficult to ensure that "all misinformation (be) immediately corrected on the record."

"I'm the judge of what the evidence is," Cohen said. "I can't say because she perceives something a certain way it must be so."

Still, Cohen said she would try to make the experience as stress-free as possible. She instructed lawyers opposing Lanson in the legal malpractice case to refrain from any facial expressions that Huffer said inflame Lanson.

"Anything that exacerbates the situation, that signals lack of respect - no eye-rolling, no exasperation," Cohen told the attorneys. "Stone-face."

Lanson left the hearing before most of Cohen's comments were made.

Still upset over remarks Cohen made at a previous hearing, in which the judge said litigation was Lanson's "raison d'être in life," Lanson insisted she needed a new judge.

She also presented Cohen with the lawsuit she filed against her in federal court in West Palm Beach.

"I don't trust this judge. This judge is biased," Lanson said, choking back tears. She then fled the hearing.

Cohen said she has no intention of stepping down.

Like Lanson, the attorneys she is accusing of malpractice have had the allegations hanging over their heads for years, Cohen said.

"We have to get this moving," she said.

Lawsuit after lawsuit

Lanson's introduction to the legal system didn't go well.

Initially, she said, the man who embezzled millions from Baron's was offered a plea deal that would get him probation. When she made an impassioned plea in court, the judge rejected the deal.

David Peterson ultimately pleaded guilty and served about 31/2 years in prison. The Lansons also got about $400,000 in property Peterson bought with the money.

A lawsuit she and her husband filed against their accounting firm for failing to catch Peterson's thievery also ended badly, Lanson said. The accounting firm's insurer agreed to settle the suit by paying $2.4 million - far less than Lanson said they were promised. The attorneys got $600,000 and court costs came to $146,327. After creditors were paid, Lanson and her husband received less than $100,000, she said.

The conclusion of the bankruptcy was equally unsatisfying. Filed as a Chapter 11 reorganization, the Lansons expected to be able to save their retail chain, which had grown to 17 stores from Miami to Orlando, including in the Boynton Beach Mall and Palm Beach Mall. When the bankruptcy process was over, they were forced to sell what was left of the business.

Lanson said the entire situation didn't make sense.

Baron's entered bankruptcy with $8.7 million in assets and $3.2 million in liabilities. The Lansons came out with almost nothing.

Convinced that their attorneys bungled both cases, the couple in 1999 sued lawyers Marc Cooper, Ron Kopplow and Sonya Salkin. That is the case pending before Cohen.

In 2005, six years after the bankruptcy case was closed, Lanson sought to reopen it, claiming the same attorneys had committed numerous frauds upon the court. She claimed the attorneys failed to disclose more than 60 conflicts that made it impossible for them to impartially represent the Lansons or Baron's.

In April 2007, bankruptcy judge Hyman said he found no evidence of fraud. "The court is not without sympathy for the Lansons, who have clearly suffered losses," he wrote in a 39-page ruling.

While Hyman criticized as "sloppy" some of the work Salkin did in handling the bankruptcy, he said he found no evidence any of the attorneys committed fraud. His ruling was upheld by another district court judge. The Lansons have appealed.

Like Hyman, those representing the attorneys say they sympathize with the Lansons. "It's sad. It's unfortunate," said attorney Robert Klein, who represents Kopplow. "They went from being the toast of the town to nothing. They thought they would come out with extraordinary sums of money."

But there were obstacles, he said. The accountants argued that the Lansons should have established safeguards to prevent the embezzlement. Baron's assets weren't worth as much as originally estimated.

Klein is skeptical about the existence of legal abuse syndrome, but after nearly a decade of litigation he suspects the attorneys Lanson is suing are starting to experience some of the symptoms.

Lanson, who said she has flirted with suicide and spent months in bed, said there's no doubt that the syndrome is real. Fighting back, she said, is part of the recovery.

Through her Web sites and her work with therapist Huffer, Lanson said she is trying to reform the system and help others. She has filed a suit against the Florida Bar, accusing it of protecting bad attorneys who buy malpractice insurance from Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co., created by the bar and governed by top bar officials.

"God defined this as my purpose in life," she said. "I have the power to make an impact, to make a difference in people's lives."

About Baron's

Baron's grew from a one-store operation in 1946 to 17 stores. It catered to upwardly-mobile professional men. The chain had stores from Miami to West Palm Beach, as well as two stores in Orlando and one in St. Petersburg.

Requested court accommodations

Meryl Lanson's therapist, Karin Huffer, wrote lengthy reports to federal and state courts, asking that the 54-year-old suburban Boca Raton woman receive accommodations for post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms that are caused by what she has dubbed legal abuse syndrome. Requesting the accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act, she says Lanson:

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