Brett Bacon: Exploitative Counsel
A record defined by procedural control, institutional defense, and the silencing of those least able to fight back.
A Documented Pattern
Ramsey County has a documented pattern: resist transparency, then force disabled pro se litigants on fixed SSI income to finance the fight themselves. Instead of absorbing costs that stem from its own statutory violations, the County weaponizes procedure to exhaust those least able to respond.
Brett Bacon’s entry into Strickland v. Ramsey County continues that posture. By stepping into a federal civil rights case rooted in ADA retaliation and altered court records, he did not correct the defects. He normalized them. His filings treated unsigned orders and re-dated notices as valid—just as his office has historically treated obstructed records and unreimbursed costs as acceptable.
Procedural and Financial Pressure
A significant portion of Bacon’s history with Ramsey County reflects the use of procedural motions and technical arguments to sidestep accountability. Whether in civil litigation or commitment proceedings, the goal is consistent: secure dismissal, delay, or dismissal-with-prejudice, regardless of the underlying merits.
“The County’s tactic is to bleed out the opponent, not to cure the defect.”
For low-income pro se litigants, this translates into endless rounds of fees, duplicative filings, and deadlines triggered by certificates of service that never reflect reality. Each step shifts the financial and emotional burden away from the County and onto individuals least able to carry it.
Commitment and Control
Bacon’s prior work has included defending the County’s role in civil commitment proceedings. These cases often involve the deprivation of liberty under the guise of treatment, placing individuals in locked facilities with little recourse. As with litigation against pro se plaintiffs, the emphasis is not on remedy or correction, but on institutional control and containment of those who resist County authority.
That history aligns with his current litigation strategy: use procedure to neutralize dissent, protect County actors from scrutiny, and exhaust the resources of those challenging systemic misconduct.
Why It Matters
Attorneys like Brett Bacon are not peripheral figures. They are the machinery by which Ramsey County converts institutional misconduct into court-sanctioned outcomes. By normalizing defective documents, invoking immunity doctrines, and pressing technical defaults, they ensure that errors never reach remedy.
The result is more than one lawsuit. It is a culture of retaliation: disabled litigants punished for asserting rights, patients remanded into treatment without meaningful review, and communities taught that speaking up against the County means being silenced by process rather than heard on the merits.