Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Chicago, Jan 10, (THAINDIAN NEWS) A Skokie man was charged on the grounds of posing as a lawyer. The Cook County Sheriff said today that Tahir Malik, 47, was charged in two traffic court cases. However, he is believed to have represented a good number of other clients over the past years. Tahir Malik, tried over 60 cases, and charged his clients something around $500 to $4500 for every case he represented on behalf of his clients. He passed himself off as an attorney to his defendants in Skokie, Bridgeview and in some suburban courthouses.

According to reports, mortgage foreclosures, traffic cases and a few low level criminal cases. His investigations began only last month, when a courtroom deputy and clerk grew suspicious regarding his credentials, as said by Steve Patterson, a spokesperson of the Sheriff. Investigation found out that Tahir Malik did not have any degree pertaining to law. Conversely, it appears as if he learnt his “lawyering” skills from the criminal background that he had. Steve Patterson went on to say that Tahir Malik appeared in the court today on charges of falsely impersonating himself as an attorney. He is held on $250,000 bail, said Judge Laura Sullivan.

After his case was filed in court on Dec 17, 2010, Tahir Malik was asked to show a proof of his identity as a licensed attorney. However, he failed to do so. initially he told the court officials that he was a member of a law firm, but the particular law firm denied such reports, he was taken into custody for contempt of court. At the time he was in police custody, documents from his briefcase showed that he represented over 60 cases. Investigations are still going on.