Another bad lawyer steals money from client

LI Lawyer Charged With Stealing $185K From Client

Andrew Keshner, New York Law Journal  

A Long Island attorney was arrested and charged Friday for allegedly stealing more than $185,000 in personal injury settlement funds awarded to her client.

I had trouble getting my personal injury settlement from my own lawyers and filed a complaint with the Disciplinary Committee about that, and other matters.

So I wonder, as always, who brought this lawyer to the court and DA’s attention? Is is always the job of the client?

Which brings this up, grabbed from today’s New York Law Journal abstracts of stories:

Group Chosen to Study Attorney Discipline Rules

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal  

Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti and former Appellate Division, Second Department, Justice Barry Cozier will lead a commission created by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to study the state’s attorney discipline system and recommend improvements.

I’m thinking of writing this group a letter, suggesting that whatever improvements they make in the disciplinary system, they need to improve the guidance and information each lawyer must be mandated to give every client when a retainer is signed.

Laymen/plaintiffs need to be better informed of the ethical obligations of their lawyers, what warnings they should derive from certain kinds of behavior, and what they should do when they become uneasy about a lawyer’s behavior.

Because, hey new committee! we all know that fellow lawyers are not reporting ethical violations of their comrades. That intimidating job is left up to us, the floundering clients.

 

 

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