Ethical Misfit Mark Stopa Called Out By Legal Website

By Britt Reid

In Mark Stopa Horror Stories, Mark Stopa Scams, The 2019 Mark Stopa Disbarment

October 7, 2022

3 min read

Ethical Misfit Mark Stopa Was Classified As Just That By The Legal Website NoEthics.com In 2014. Did They Know Something We Didn’t?

Stopa’s former law firm

In 2014, Mark Stopa was classified as an “Ethical Misfit” by the website, NoEthics.com. NoEthics.com tracks shady lawyers and judges throughout the US. As a result in October 2014, Stopa showed up on the website’s radar.

Stopa began setting off alarm bells in judicial circle across Florida as early as 2012.

Trial court judges in nearly a dozen Florida counties were growing tired of Stopa’s violent tantrums when he didn’t get his way in court. Not to mention, his unethical theatrics.

In Spring 2014, the Florida Bar finally got fed up with judges complaining about Stopa. As a result, they leapt into action and brought disciplinary action against Mark Stopa.

Yet, Mark Stopa didn’t seemed dazed by the Florida Bar’s action. He deflected public attention away from all this. He would call up local media to promote his latest publicity stunt. The cameras would roll as Stopa pranced around local parks handing out $100 bills to homeless junkies.

Justin Shuck Finds Himself As One Of Ethical Misfit Mark Stopa’s First Scam Victims

Ethical Misfit Mark Stopa has a history of misleading the court.

The case that got the attention of NoEthics.com was Stopa’s bizarre conduct with the judge. Conduct that has since been the trademark of his legal practice.

Yet, if you scratch below the surface, you can also see this is more than a lawyer acting like an idiot. The case is a classic Stopa scam as detailed in a dossier that led to him being disbarred.

The story begins with Justin Shuck. Shuck was one of ethical misfit Mark Stopa’s foreclosure clients in 2011 and 2012. Stopa through his company, Abpaymar, LLC bought Shuck’s home from him for $6,900.00 and then gave him a lease-option. The agreement required Shuck to make payments totaling $12,500 over eight months. After 8 months, could obtain a quit claim deed to the property.

However, thanks to Stopa’s sloppy lawyering, he forgot to include the HOA fees attached to the property. Stopa representing his own LLC sent Shuck a letter stating Shuck was responsible for the unpaid $1,456.72 in unpaid HOA fees. Shuck wanting Stopa out of his life paid the $1,456.72.

After Shuck paid the HOA fees, Stopa attempted to evict Shuck in violation their agreement. The Florida Bar alleged in their complaint that Stopa mislead the court by not acknowledging the agreement. What the Florida Bar didn’t seem to discover was that Abpaymar was wholly owned by Stopa and his wife Adrienne Federico. Therefore, Stopa’s ownership in Abpaymar was never disclosed to the court.

The Florida Supreme Court only gave Stopa a public reprimand.

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