Yesterday the North Dakota Fair Housing Council filed a lawsuit against Earl Allen, a realtor from Minot, North Dakota, based on race and disability.

From the NDFHC website:

The North Dakota Fair Housing Council (NDFHC) and a former Minot resident have filed a federal lawsuit against Earl Allen, a Minot landlord, charging discriminatory housing practices against people with disabilities and due to race, color and national origin.

In 1999, the NDFHC received a complaint of discrimination against Mr. Allen from a then Minot resident alleging discrimination based upon race and disability. On the basis of the complaint, the NDFHC conducted an investigation of Mr. AllenÂ’s business operations. The investigation by the NDFHC confirmed the basis for the complaint. As a result, in 2000, a complaint was filed with the North Dakota Department of LaborÂ’s Division of Human Rights and with the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) alleging housing discrimination based upon disability and race. On October 28, 2002, the North Dakota Department of Labor issued a determination of no reasonable cause.

This matter has already been investigated by the Federal Government and the North Dakota Department of Labor. Neither of those organizations found any evidence of investigation. On the NDFHC website, however, they claim to have confirmed the basis for the complaint via investigation. This statement brings to mind investigative professionals making phone calls and performing interviews, but in reality the NDFHC does not employ an investigators. They advertise at college campuses with flyers looking for "volunteers." The people who perform these investigations have no investigative experience at all nor are they licensed. At least in North Dakota they're not. I know as I am a registered private investigator. As a professional, the NDFHC's use of "volunteers" to conduct investigations is absolutely astounding.

Approximately a year ago I attended a meeting of a local chapter of the North Dakota Apartment Association. During that meeting I was informed of the NDFHC's search for volunteers on our local college campus. The members at the meeting were worried that these "volunteers" would not conduct the investigation in a professional manner which would possibly lead to lawsuits based on false allegations. Feeling their fears were justified, I contacted the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board, the state agency in charge of licensing investigators. The NDPISB council discussed it at a meeting and made a formal inquiry only to find out that the NDFHC is exempt from the need to have their investigators licensed. Why, specifically, the NDFHC is exempt is not clear. Here is a list of the exemptions from section 43-30-02 of the North Dakota Century Code, the section that governs the NDPISB and private investigators:

1. Any investigator or officer employed by or under any contract with the federal government, state, or any county or city thereof, appointed, elected, or contracted with, by due authority of law, while engaged in the performance of official duties.


2. Any state's attorney.


3. Any attorneys or counselors at law in the regular practice of their profession and any paralegal or legal assistant employed by an attorney or law firm when the attorney or law firm retains complete responsibility for the work product of the paralegal or legal assistant.


4. Any person whose sole investigative business is the furnishing of information as to the business and financial standing and credit of persons.


5. Any person making any investigation of any matter in which that person or the person by whom that person is solely employed is interested or involved.


6. Any person making any investigation for any person engaged in the business of transporting persons or property in interstate commerce.


7. Any adjuster or investigator representing an insurance company.

Any adjuster or investigator representing an insurance company.

Keep in mind that the NDFHC is not a government agency despite the deceptive title of the ogranization. Rather they are, and this is from their website, a "non-profit organization which was founded in 1995 and serves the State of North Dakota and eastern South Dakota." Why then are they exempt? They are certainly not law enforcement nor are they any sort of an extension of the Attorney General's office.

The only possible exemption I could fathom could possibly come from third exemption listed above. In every one of the cases listed on the NDHFC website involve attorney Christopher Brancart from Pescadero, California. Mr. Brancart is an attorney who specializes in fair housing cases and is involved in them around the nation. Amy Schauer Nelson, the only apparent employee of the NDHFC from the impression their website gives, could possibly be considered a paralegal investigating cases for Brancart & Brancart law firm. This is a stretch especially when you take into consideration their use of "volunteers" to complete the investigations.

There is a lot to be worried about here. We have a non-profit organization "investigating" housing discrimination using unlicensed volunteers and then turning over the alleged cases to an out-of-state attorney who then sues the landlord, for big bucks I'm sure. What a nice little money-making scheme for Brancart & Brancart, which is how it appears to me.

It is quite noble of the NDHFC to want to investigate housing discrimination, but if its going to be done it should be done right. That means utilizing professional investigators. My opinion on this matter can probably be written off by my professional interest in the matter, but think twice before doing so. Ask yourself who you would rather have investigate an allegation of wrong-doing against you, a novice or an expert?

SUIT FILED AGAINST MINOT LANDLORD BY FAIR HOUSING COUNCIL