Man jailed for posing as lawyer

A 48-year-old Omaha man accused of impersonating an attorney asked for a public defender Monday and pleaded his case in front of a judge.

M.A. Yah, owner since 2005 of Parental Rights, a business that does family legal work, was charged Monday with three counts of felony criminal impersonation. He had been arrested on six counts of misdemeanor unauthorized practice of law.

Yah charged clients $1,450 to file paperwork and documents that are supposed to be filed by lawyers, said prosecutor Shelly Stratman.

An assistant city attorney said more charges are possible.

Yah was ordered held on $40,000 bail by Douglas County Judge Lyn White, who noted that Yah has prior convictions including a gun possession charge and is on federal parole for bank fraud. He also is awaiting trial on a theft by deception charge.

Stratman said Yah has as many as eight aliases.

Yah would have to post $4,000, or 10 percent of the bail amount, to be released from jail pending trial. White granted the request for a public defender for Yah.

After the charges were read and the bail amount was set, Yah asked to speak. White warned that anything Yah said could be held against him.

“Our company just prepares documents,” Yah said.

White told Yah he is not authorized to do that.

“We’ve never said we were attorneys; I’ve never told any of my clients that I was an attorney,” Yah said. “I’m not running around impersonating attorneys.”

Yah was sent a cease-and-desist letter by the Nebraska State Bar Association after it received complaints from several legal services organizations and past clients of Parental Rights.

Court documents indicate that among the filings Yah prepared, some were related to child custody disputes and joint custody complaints.

Stratman said Yah started filing documents in June.

Contact the writer:

444-1279, jason.kuiper@owh.com

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