Two more bad lawyers, two more disbarrments

Okay, let’s get control of ourselves. There is not a recent epidemic of thieving lawyers. This is not a Dickens novel. Maybe I’ve just been reading the wrong, i.e., right news–The New York Law Journal. Before I read their abstracts, I would not have picked up this news from my other daily reading material.

I’ve recently learned that a legal panel is studying the attorney disciplinary process:

Attorney Discipline System To Be Addressed at Hearings

Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal  

A commission appointed by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman announced Thursday it will hold three public hearings on New York state’s system of attorney discipline and ways to improve it.

I congratulate you non-lawyers, because I’m pretty sure none of these bad lawyer-disbarrment stories would have come to light if the clients of these bad lawyers hadn’t gone through the process of filing complaints. How else would the court system learn about its bad lawyers?

A good time to remind you that I’ve posted the entire step-by-step of the process for plaintiff-laymen of filing a grievance against a lawyer. Search on “filing a grievance against a lawyer,” and start reading with “filing a grievance against a lawyer: Is yours valid?” There are three posts on that subject. Then continue with the numbered posts on “Filing a grievance against a lawyer. ”

Attorney Facing Criminal Charges Is Disbarred

Andrew Denney, New York Law Journal

The Appellate Division, Second Department, has accepted the resignation of an attorney who was facing 16 complaints of professional misconduct and who is facing criminal charges for stealing a client’s money.

And what happens if your lawyer neglects you and ignores the grievance you filed against him? This:

Attorney Who Neglected Client, Kept Fee Is Disbarred

Ben Bedell, New York Law Journal   

James Carl Jones’ disbarment stemmed from his refusal to respond to an investigation by the department’s disciplinary committee of a 2012 complaint alleging he neglected a client matter, failed to return the client’s file, and failed to refund an unearned fee.

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