In 2009, a lawyer in New York helped his client settle a claim for $30,000. The lawyer then had the check issued in his own name, deposited it into his own account and used all of the funds for himself. The client demanded his money to no avail.
It took more than three years before the lawyer was disbarred for stealing a client’s funds. During all that time, the lawyer, who already had a history of serious disciplinary infractions, kept working.
This
is a disturbingly common story in New York, which has more lawyers than
any other state. Punishments for those who violate obligations to a
client — if not the law — are slow, inconsistently levied and often
hidden from the public.
Professional
discipline is essential to the integrity of any legal system.
Unfortunately in New York, the process for dealing with lawyer
misconduct is “deficient in design and operation,” writes Stephen
Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law in an article
to be published next month in N.Y.U.’s Journal of Legislation and Public
Policy.
Professor
Gillers examined attorney-discipline cases going back to 1982 and all
577 court opinions imposing sanctions issued over the past six years. In
addition to the many instances of “unacceptable” delay in the official
response to complaints about lawyers, he documents the great disparity
in the way similar violations are handled by courts in different parts
of the state.
For
example, a lawyer who filed false documents, made false statements and
improperly notarized a client’s signature was suspended for two and a
half years by the appeals court in Manhattan. But, in Brooklyn,
comparable actions by a different lawyer resulted only in a formal
rebuke but not a suspension. In upstate New York, appellate courts
rarely explain the reasons for their decision to sanction or not
sanction, and, when they do, they often don’t follow their own earlier
rulings.
Full Article & Source:
Better Rules for Bad Lawyers
1 comment:
Tougher penalties are needed. A non-lawyer couldn't get away with what lawyers get away with.
Post a Comment