The Florida Supreme Court has disciplined a prominent Pensacola personal injury attorney for submitting frivolous and exaggerated filings to run up his attorney's fee to more than $28,000 in a single case.
Jeremiah J. Talbott's legal license was suspended for 60 days and he was ordered to attend the Florida Bar's Professionalism Workshop and Ethics School, according to a news release from the Florida Bar. The Florida Supreme Court served Talbott with a disciplinary order April 15 mandating he begin his temporary suspension within 30 days.
The disciplinary actions resulted from Talbott "churning" legal fees, a term used in the legal profession for when an attorney performs unnecessary work to run up the bill for their services.
Talbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the News Journal on Monday.
Talbott was hired to litigate a federal court case in February 2017 under the Fair Labor Standards Act. His client, Christopher Moss, was a driver-operator at a local construction company, Pav'R Construction Inc., or PRC.
Moss quit his job after his employers wanted him to pay for equipment they claimed he broke while on the job. After he quit, his wages were withheld for one pay period to compensate the company for some of the broken equipment.
"This action by PRC technically meant that Mr. Moss was paid less than the minimum wage for one pay period, and PRC had violated a federal statute, the Fair Labor Standards Act," according to the Florida Bar's complaint against Talbott.
Moss hired Talbott to take PRC and the company's owner, Michael Breton, to court, arguing he was owned $496.62 in withheld wages.
After several months of back and forth legal filings, Breton and PRC agreed to pay Moss the $496.62.
Talbott subsequently filed a motion requesting that Breton and PRC pay him $28,351 in attorney's fees that he claimed to have incurred while recovering the $496.62 on behalf of his client, and the court took issue with his request.
A complaint filed by the Florida Bar to the Florida Supreme Court stated that Talbott "exaggerated the amount of fees owned by claiming he did numerous secretarial tasks and paralegal tasks at his $350 per hour legal rate rather than delegating those tasks to his legal staff."
Talbott was charged with breaking Florida legal disciplinary rules that included conducting frivolous litigation, failing to expedite litigation, filing exaggerated billing sheets with the court and filing extensive and unnecessary discovery to increase attorney fees without a reason, according to the Florida Bar.
Florida Supreme Court documents showed Talbott did not contest the allegations, and he was subsequently disciplined.
On leave? How about jail!
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