Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Commission recommends 1-year suspension for lawyer due to email criticism of judge


Indianapolis attorney and blogger Paul K. Ogden should be suspended from the bar for a year without automatic reinstatement for private communications criticizing a judge, the Indiana Disciplinary Commission recommended Monday.

The commission recommended to the Indiana Supreme Court that Ogden receive the sanction for emails that he sent to another attorney accusing Hendricks Superior Judge David Coleman of mishandling an estate case in which Ogden represented an heir. Coleman was removed from the case under a lazy judge motion Ogden filed, and Ogden claimed the judge made numerous mistakes handling the years-long case.

Ogden’s brief in reply says his speech was private and protected and there should be no sanctions.

At the heart of the complaint against Ogden is an email he sent to opposing counsel Steve Harris of Mooresville, who represented the estate of Robert P. Carr that was administered by Carr’s son, Robert Carr Jr. Ogden represented another heir in the matter.

Among other things, Ogden said in the email that Coleman “should be turned in to the disciplinary commission for how he handled this case.”

In the commission’s tender of proposed hearing officer’s findings of facts, it recommends that hearing officer Robert W. York find that he “cannot stress enough the conclusion that (Ogden) has a profound lack of both insight into his own conduct and lack or respect for those who disagree with him in any way.”

Full Article & Source:
Commission recommends 1-year suspension for lawyer due to email criticism of judge

5 comments:

  1. "Improperly added as beneficiary"?

    Do the rules of ethics spell out a prohibition against that?

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  2. Become a lawyer and lose your free speech rights!

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  3. "Among other things, Ogden said in the email that Coleman 'should be turned in to the disciplinary commission for how he handled this case.'"

    Amazing. So let's just assume that among the thousands upon thousands of judges in this country, there is even one who is somewhat less than perfect.

    And let's just assume that the judicial discipline commission in every state is there to handle just such a totally unforeseeable eventuality, that one single less than perfect judge on a single busy morning when maybe he's under the weather makes a totally unprecedented mistake, through completely uncharacteristic action or inaction in one little, teeny tiny case.

    Who would know about this single, solitary, isolated mistake by the one sole less-than-perfect judge in the entire country?

    Why, some unfortunate lawyer of course.

    So we must spring into action and muzzle the lawyer who so much as mentions the possibility of a judicial complaint, to protect all those other thousands upon thousands of judges out there who are totally perfect and completely incapable of a mistake, ever.

    What arrogant, short-sighted, corrupt thinking. This is exactly why people hate lawyers.

    There, I said it. Come get me, Bar investigators.

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  4. This is wrong! A year for criticizing a judge and yet lawyers who harm the public are given a slap on the wrist?

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  5. hey hey heeeeeey the lawyer criticized a judge and whut ?
    where's there smoke there's fire and the lawyer should NOW proclaim it publicly even though the media has already done it for him. He should rant on nonstop.
    There still are a handful of attorneys going after certain corrupt judges and withot any fear of disbarrment either--there is a guy Atty Enos over in Galveston who even PUBLISHES his news etc with his own newsletter "The Mongoose".
    http://www.divorcereality.com/the-mongoose/
    This man remains a rarity in TX as most definitely the loiyuuuhs and their judges are a protected species in other counties.

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