Sovereign Citizens Causing Grief For State Officials

State officials around the United States have grown tired of the "paper terrorism” that they've been increasingly subjected to in recent years.

Individuals who consider themselves to be sovereign citizens, that declare their government and its laws to be illegitimate--don't apply to them, have been growing in numbers. And these groups that exist in Australia, the US, Canada, and elsewhere, now have tens of thousands of members.

Over the years, they have been filing billions of dollars in liens against various public officials, including judges, lawyers, police officers, and others.

A lien is filed by a business or an individual who is seeking to collect on a debt. It's alleged to be a fairly simple process to carry out and state officials say that the sovereign citizens are exploiting this tool, using it for revenge. Though the process to issue a liens might be fairly easy, the reversal can be incredibly difficult.

Similar to civil asset forfeiture when the state decides that your property, be it cash, your home, your truck or boat etc, is a guilty of a crime and then they confiscate that property and then you are forced to endure the legal cost of fighting to get it back and prove your innocence. Likewise, state officials don't want to have to endure such a similar headache for themselves, when bogus and/or false liens are filed.

To try and reverse such a problem, the targeted officials would need to endure costly legal fees and potentially years of waiting before they'd see any results. It could end up causing tremendous damage to their credit and has even fueled bankruptcies for some.

They have warned that they have had just about enough of the harassment and they are fighting back against what they claim is a rising trend.

At least seven states have passed new rules in the last couple of years relating to this matter.

Lawmakers in states such as Nebraska, Indiana, New Jersey, Minnesota, and elsewhere, have sought to expand the protections for state officials so that they don't have to worry about this sort of harassment.

Whether its passing laws that make it a crime to file a bogus liens, or encouraging clerks and others to reject such claims, a variety of responses have been enacted to try and deal with the issue.

In Tennessee, the General Assembly there just managed to successfully pass a bill that would protect officials from such liens being field against them. The new law is expected to help public officials to be able to reverse the damage and try to have the liens cleared in an expedited fashion.

Public officials say that this problem is causing unnecessary mounds of paperwork for an already overburdened legal system, as well as a lot of headache and stress for those affected. They hope that the new rules being passed are going to discourage such liens from being filed in the future.

Pics:
Pixabay
pixabay
simpsons via Giphy

Sources:
https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Paper-Terrorism-Sovereign-Citizens-File-False-Liens-as-Revenge-Against-Public-Officials-431430383.html
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=215838773
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2017/paper-terrorism
http://www.startribune.com/snuff-out-use-of-liens-in-paper-terrorism/221562431/
http://gaveltogavel.us/2015/07/15/states-expand-protections-against-false-liens-for-public-officials/
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/cheatham/2017/11/24/new-law-protects-public-officials-fraudulent-liens-bligh-explains/892726001/
http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/fraudulent-liens-a-growing-concern/688230245

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