Any notion that social media can’t effect real life changes has just been proved otherwise by a man who makes a living shedding light on half-truths.
Adam Savage, the co-host of the popular TV show MythBusters on Discovery Channel has solved a problem of an $11,000 cell phone bill he got while travelling in Canada for five days. To sort the issue out, Savage decided to go on the popular micro-blogging site “Twitter” to let his 50,000 fans that follow him know about the problems.
A lot of people on Twitter have said, ’Well it’s great that it worked for you, because you’ve got 50,000 followers, but what about the rest of us?’ ”
And they are absolutely right! Most people suffer injustice in silence and they never get heard or get the injustice out to the public.
However this is not the case - when it comes to British-born Edward Kirwan residing in Spain.
The blogger has proof that one of DeCotta, McKenna & Santafè`s partners, Jon Sutton, has used fraud in order to bring Mr. Kirwan`s property in Spain on public auction.
Jon Sutton had an English Court Order translated and brought to Spain. The translation altered the Court Order 180 degrees giving Mr. Kirwan`s ex. wife (and her lawyers) the right to conduct the sale of the Spanish property – when in fact Mr. Kirwan was given that right by the English court.
Mr. Kirwan has been living a nightmare the past couple of years. He has not been able to understand why he was stopped by DeCotta, McKenna & Santafè every time he had a buyer to the property. He just wanted to sell, pay off his ex-wife and get on with his life.
Instead the interest on his debt to his ex-wife kept rising as time went by because every sale was stopped by her lawyers. It wasn’t until Mr. Kirwan sat down for hours with an enormous Spanish / English dictionary and went through the whole Court Order word by word – that he found what DeCotta McKenna & Santafè now refer to as "a translation mistake”
John Sutton brought the case to Spain. He is an English Solicitor and has the right to practice in Spain as well.
It is first of all very unlikely that Jon Sutton as an English Solicitor never read the English Court Order but only the Spanish “mistranslation”
But even if so; how could he stop Mr. Kirwan selling his property, referring to the Spanish Translation, 6 days before the Translation was even translated, stamped and delivered by the Sworn Spanish translator?
The auction was stopped by the Court in Torrox, Spain, only two hours before it was about to take place. It would not have been an auction with real buyers anyway. Mr. Kirwan`s ex-wife would have turned up, signed the papers and walked away with everything.
Never the less the charade goes on.
The Judge in Torrox declared the case null – but how come she didn’t demanded an investigation into the “mistranslation”!
DeCotta McKenna & Santafè appealed to the same court in Torrox and got denied.
Then they appealed to the High Court in Malaga, which has yet not answered – and at the same time to Hasting Court in England.
Jon Sutton emphasizes in his appeal to Hastings Court:
“We have asked for this matter to be dealt with without a hearing on the basis that we simply wish to enforce the original order and require it to be reworded in order to do so and therefore a hearing appears to be an unnecessary waste of the court’s time”
This is interesting!
Could it by any change have to do with the fact that the Court in Spain have denied DeCotta, McKenna & Santafe`s Client any costs from 2004 and up till now?
Would you believe that the requested rewording suggestion to Hastings Court includes costs and interest for all the time the same law firm has prevented Mr. Kirwan for selling and paying off his debt - waving a false translation of him?
Would you also believe that DeCotta, McKenna & Santafè request the rewording to be exactly as the “mistranslation”
Could it be that the big law firm and especially Jon Sutton are not really keen on discussing the circumstances that have been going on in Spain and certainly do not want any questions asked, about how the company could act on a mistranslated Court Order before it was even translated!
Mr. Kirwan, who has had to live with the threat of loosing his home and all that he has worked for in a lifetime for now 5 years, is entitled to a little boost – and he is sure getting it now! When asked if he can come up with an explanation for why DeCotta, McKenna & Santafè do not find it necessary to have a hearing, he seems to find the question hilarious;
- I think, he says with a twinkle in his eyes, that John Sutton finds it extremely difficult to tell the judge that he is clairvoyant, and I can’t really think of any other way he will be able to explain to the judge in Hastings how he knew, in advance, which words of the original English Court Order would be mistranslated in his favour.
Even though Mr. Kirwan has been really down and out for the last couple of years because of a work accident in Spain, that left him permanently damaged and with no income from day to day ( the insurance denied to pay – is this surreal Spain or what?) he is kicking back – even with a smashed knee.
Since he couldn’t afford a lawyer – due to no income, he has had to be his own lawyer and he has had to find out how to fight back with no money, no legal help and in a foreign country.
Edward Kirwan has become en expert in how to get noticed online and that knowledge is now gradually turning into a new business.
He has written the e-book “How to Get Noticed Online” which he is giving away for free. He believes that everybody should have the right to express them selves and not suffer in silence. He is also helping small businesses to get noticed online.
And it really seems to work. You try to Google “English Lawyers in Spain” or “ DeCotta, McKenna & Santafè” and you will find, that Mr. Kirwan pops up all the same places as the Big Boys, so when potential clients look for “English Lawyers in Spain” they will not only find DeCotta, McKenna & Santafè offering their services – but also serious questions about their actions.
Does the law firm like this? NO.
DeCotta, McKenna & Santafè have threatened to sue Mr. Kirwan for slander – back in November 2008.
The amount of posts about their actions found on Google has increased considerably since then - but they still haven’t sued Mr. Kirwan for slander.
I wonder why?
Even though Edward Kirwan does not have 50.000 fans on Twitter, like Adam Savage has, they both seem to have discovered the power of bringing light to shady business.
