Litigating Against Law Firm Englander Fischer for a Year. Pro Se.

By Bianca Cypser

For one year, I represented myself against a board-certified litigator. I was sued

as a delinquent tenant. I had paid every dollar.

I thought lawyers followed the law. The scariest part wasn't the lawsuit. It was

realizing a licensed attorney would file it after I had paid every dollar.

I've been a St. Pete business owner for 20 years. For 12 of them, I ran my

business at 5029 Central Avenue. I paid my rent every month. My lease ran through

December 31, 2025.

On October 1, while I was still there and still paying, my landlord, Hal

Hershkowitz, signed a lease for my space with a new tenant at higher rent. Nobody

asked me.

Then the pressure started. Their broker told me he "personally would not mess

around with Hal." Letters from their attorney, Leonard Englander of Englander

Fischer, demanded I be out by October 24 or be sued for $81,000. Fighting would

cost me "thousands of dollars in damages and thousands of dollars in legal fees,"

and hurt my credit. "This is the last warning."

I asked, respectfully, which part of my lease I had broken. They never answered.

By October 22, I was afraid to walk into my own business after dark. So I gave

them a date: fully out by December 1. I asked them to put it in writing.

The next day, Hal texted me: "even though I might file a lawsuit this week, the

judicial system will not be able to act quick enough to remove you before then."

And: "Things become irreversible for you."

He knew the courts couldn't remove me. He kept going.

They never put my date in writing. Instead, their attorney sent a final notice:

sign their agreement by 5:00 PM the next day, be out by November 6, and "your

security deposit will be returned." My own security deposit, held over me to make

me sign.

I didn't sign. They didn't even wait for their own deadline. On November 4, they

filed an eviction against me, on a residential five-day form, for a commercial

space.

They called me a "holdover tenant." My lease ran through December. They called me

a "delinquent tenant." I had paid every dollar. They claimed more than $50,000.

I was never served. I found out the next day, when a debt settlement company I had

never heard of contacted me trying to collect. I answered anyway. And while they

were evicting me, they kept collecting my rent. September. October. November.

December.

Nothing was owed. Not one dollar.

I moved out December 4, with December's rent paid. I filed my claims and sent them

formal questions, as the rules allow. They never answered a single one. Under

Florida law, unanswered questions count as admissions.

So they admitted it. Hal Hershkowitz, Leonard Englander, his paralegal, and their

broker coordinated a campaign of pressure to force me out. I left because of

"cumulative pressure and intimidation." They sued me not "to obtain a legitimate

legal remedy," but to pressure me out "through fear of litigation."

For months, they litigated against me without ever questioning my right to

represent myself. Then my questions went unanswered, and those admissions locked

in. Suddenly, I couldn't represent myself.

Then they accused me of the unlicensed practice of law, a third-degree felony

under section 454.23, Florida Statutes, claiming I was filing for my company. They

later admitted, by never answering, that I had filed every document in my own

name. I was defending myself, in a lawsuit where they had sued me personally, for

something that never happened.

On June 30, 2026, Leonard Englander stood in court and told the judge:

"The plaintiff has received all of the money that was due under the terms of the

lease. All of it, all of the rent."

Not because I finally paid. I paid on time, every month, the whole time.

At that same hearing, he offered to drop his request for fees if I dropped all of

my claims forever. I said no. I wasn't going to give up the truth to make their

fee request go away.

They still won. Not on the facts. On technicalities that didn't even fit. They

said I never answered. I did. They said I was filing for my company. They admitted

I wasn't. That's all they had.

My motions were never heard. My motion to determine rent was never ruled on. My

motion to hold them to their own admissions was never ruled on. My hearing was

canceled and never reset. Not once were the merits of my case heard.

The rules applied to me. I followed them. They didn't seem to apply to them.

Now they want me to pay their attorney's fees, for a civil theft claim that was

only in a version of my counterclaim they argued didn't count. The judge agreed.

He said the only operative counterclaim was my original one, and civil theft was

never in it. When it helped them, it didn't count. When it could make them money,

suddenly it did.

When I asked the court to reconsider, Leonard Englander compared my position to

"the dark humor story of a defendant who sought mercy from the court after having

killed his parents because he was an orphan."

I paid every dollar of my rent.

I have appealed. They missed their deadline to answer, and the appeals court had

to order them to respond. Their answer admits I paid my rent. They still argue

technicalities, because they can't win on the merits. They even argue I wasn't

"injuriously affected" by the judgment that threw out every one of my claims.

I didn't build this record. They did, every piece of it: their text messages,

their emails, their filings, and the transcripts of their own words in court. For

a year, I stayed quiet and let it build. Now it's built, and I finally have a

voice.

This has taken a toll on my health and my business. I've lost time with clients

and spent hundreds of hours I'll never be paid for. All I've ever wanted is the

truth.

No single woman business owner deserves to be targeted and treated the way I was. I know things like this happen to woman daily, and this behavior needs to stop.

I will never quit. This is only the beginning. More is coming. I'll be sharing a

new piece of this story every day. Follow me to keep up.

My story will be heard. I promise.

Bianca Cypser

Every fact here is in the public court record:

Pinellas County Circuit Court, Case No. 25-006232-CI

Second District Court of Appeal, Case No. 2D2026-1814

#FloridaLaw #StPeteLaw #ProSe #WomenInBusiness #SmallBusiness #StPetersburg