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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, May 23rd, 2014 / Law & Goverment, South Coast, Top Stories, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Attorney General goes after Distenfield venture in N.Y.
The New York State Attorney General has sent a cease and desist letter to a legal documents business run by a member of Santa Barbara’s Distenfield family, alleging the firm is illegally practicing law in the Empire State. The order is the first deep scrutiny of the newest document filing venture by a new generation Read More →
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By Editorial Board / Friday, April 20th, 2012 / Editorials, Opinion / Comments Off on Editorial: Holding our police chiefs accountable for actions
Top cops in cities across our region are finding themselves in hot water.
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By Editorial Board / Friday, March 2nd, 2012 / Editorials, Opinion / 2 Comments
We were not surprised in the least to see the show, called “On Patrol with Santa Barbara PD,” come to a screeching halt amid a blaze of litigation.
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By Stephen Nellis / Monday, February 1st, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Distenfield takes stand in bankruptcy
Ira and Linda Distenfield asked the American people to trust them with their legal documents. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, they built We the People, their discount legal filing business, into a nationwide chain of more than 1,000 stores. They garnered the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani and inked a deal to sell their Read More →
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By Stephen Nellis / Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 / Latest news / Comments Off on Court wants Distenfield to pay legal bills
After a daylong trial Jan. 20, a bankruptcy court in Santa Barbara let stand an earlier ruling that Ira Distenfield aimed to deceive Los Angeles attorney Richard Lubetzky by concealing a stock sale and not paying $115,000 in legal fees related to the sale of We the People. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robin L. Riblet Read More →
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By Stephen Nellis / Thursday, August 27th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on State order targets PRstore sales pitch
[Editor’s note: This story appeared in the Aug. 21 print edition of the Business Times. Ira Distenfield’s response, attached below, will appear in the Aug. 28 print edition. Source documents used to report this story are also attached below.] Ira Distenfield, the Santa Barbara man who built up and sold legal services franchise We the Read More →
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By Stephen Nellis / Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 / Latest news / Comments Off on Distenfield taken into custody
Ira Distenfield – who grew legal services franchise We the People into a national brand and sold it to Dollar Financial in a much-litigated transaction – was booked into a Los Angeles County jail March 16 on a five-day sentence for contempt of court, according to the county’s records. Distenfield’s sentence stemmed from a legal Read More →
