Tcl - Disciplinary Opinion - April 2007 - Colorado Disciplinary Cases

• Publication year: 2007
• Pages: 113
• Citation: Vol. 36 No. 4 Pg. 113

36 Colo.Law. 113 Colorado Lawyer 2007.

2007, April, Pg. 113. TCL - Disciplinary Opinion - April 2007 - Colorado Disciplinary Cases

The Colorado Lawyer
April 2007
Vol. 36, No. 4 [Page 113]

From the Courts
Colorado Disciplinary Cases

Disciplinary Opinion

The Colorado Supreme Court adopted a series of changes to the attorney regulation system, including the establishment of the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge (PDJ) pursuant to C.R.C.P. 251.16. The Court also made extensive revisions to the rules governing the disciplinary process repealing C.R.C.P. 241 et seq., and replacing those rules with C.R.C.P. 251 et seq. The PDJ presides over attorney regulation proceedings and, together with a two-member Hearing Board, issues orders at trials and hearings. The Rules of Civil Procedure and the Rules of Evidence apply to all attorney regulation proceedings before the PDJ. See C.R.C.P. 251.18(d). These Opinions may be appealed in accordance with C.R.C.P. 251.27.

The Colorado Lawyer publishes the summaries and full-text Opinions of PDJ William R. Lucero and the Hearing Board whose members are drawn from a pool appointed by the Supreme Court. For space purposes, exhibits, complaints, and amended complaints may not be printed.

The full-text Opinions, along with their summaries, are accessible from the CBA website: http://www.cobar.org (click on The Colorado Lawyer tab, then the appropriate issue). Opinions, including exhibits, complaints, amended complaints, and summaries, also are available at the Office of the PDJ website: http://www.coloradosupremecourt.com/PDJ/pdj.htm; and on LexisNexis(r) athttp://www.lexis.com/research, by clicking on States Legal-U.S./Colorado/Cases/CO Supreme Court Disciplinary Opinions from 1999.

Case No: 06PDJ036

Complainant:

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF COLORADO,

Respondent:

CAROL A. CHAMBERS.

December 26, 2006

OPINION AND ORDER IMPOSING SANCTIONS

On October 23-25, 2006, a Hearing Board composed of Edwin S. Kahn, Richard P. Holme, both members of the Bar, and William R. Lucero, the Presiding Disciplinary Judge ("PDJ"), held a hearing pursuant to C.R.C.P. 251.18. Charles E. Mortimer, Jr. appeared on behalf of the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel ("the People"). Michael T. McConnell and Cecelia A. Fleischner appeared on behalf of Carol A. Chambers ("Respondent"). The Hearing Board issues the following Opinion and Order Imposing Sanctions based upon the evidence presented by the parties.

I. SUMMARY

The Hearing Board concludes that the following counts have not been established by clear and convincing evidence: Count I, violation of Colo. RPC 4.1(a) (in the course of representing a client, a lawyer shall not knowingly make a false or misleading statement); Count II, Colo. RPC 4.5(a) (a lawyer shall not threaten to present a criminal charge to gain an advantage in a civil case); and Count III, Colo. RPC 8.4(c) (a lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonest, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation). The Hearing Board concludes that clear and convincing evidence has been established that Respondent violated Count IV, Colo. RPC 8.4(d) (a lawyer shall not engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice).

SANCTION IMPOSED: PUBLIC CENSURE

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

On June 5, 2006, the People filed their complaint in this matter and Respondent filed her answer on June 28, 2006. The complaint contained four counts as enumerated in the summary above.(fn1) The People presented four witnesses at the hearing: Jonathan Steiner, Esq., Gwen Kikendahl, Respondent, and Michael Knight, Chief Investigator in Respondent's office. Respondent presented four witnesses: Laurett Barrentine, Nathan Chambers, Esq., Mason Finks, and former Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, Jean Dubofsky. The parties stipulated to the admission of Exhibits E, G, and Q. The People offered and the PDJ admitted Exhibits 1-5, and 7 during the hearing. Respondent offered and the PDJ admitted Exhibits A-C, K, M, and P during the hearing.

At the conclusion of the evidence, the People argued that Respondent's conduct, at a minimum, warrants public censure. Respondent argued that the People failed to establish clear and convincing evidence on any of the counts set forth in the complaint.

III. FINDINGS OF MATERIAL FACT

The Hearing Board considered the testimony of each witness and each exhibit admitted into evidence, and finds the following material facts established by clear and convincing evidence.

Background

Respondent has taken and subscribed the Oath of Admission, was admitted to the Bar of the State of Colorado on November 1, 1985, and is registered as an attorney upon the official records of the Colorado Supreme Court, Attorney Registration No. 14948. She is therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the Colorado Supreme Court and the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge in these proceedings.

Respondent began her legal career as a clerk for a Colorado Court of Appeals judge and later practiced as an associate in a private law firm. In 1990, Respondent joined the District Attorney's office for the Eighteenth Judicial District as a deputy district attorney. She became a chief deputy district attorney in 1998. In November 2004, Respondent was elected as the District Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial District and she serves in that capacity to date.

At all relevant times in this case, Respondent served as the elected District Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial District. Laurett Barrentine was and is an Englewood City Councilperson with whom Respondent was acquainted from various political functions. In November 2005, Ms. Barrentine informed Respondent about a collection lawsuit Central Credit Corporation ("CCC") filed against her in Arapahoe County Court for allegedly writing two bad checks to Wal-Mart stores. Jonathan Steiner represented CCC in the collection lawsuit. Ms. Barrentine told Respondent that she had been a victim of identity theft in 1999 and that she had not written the checks in question. Ms. Barrentine also told Respondent that CCC and Mr. Steiner both knew that she had not written the checks and that Mr. Steiner and CCC were using the court system in a way designed to "get people to pay on checks that they did not owe."

The Collection Lawsuit - CCC v. Barrentine

By the time Ms. Barrentine spoke to Respondent in early November 2005, she had already spoken on the phone numerous times to "collectors" from CCC. Ms. Barrentine repeatedly told the collectors that she had not written the checks in question and at the same time demanded copies of them. CCC never sent her the checks. Ms. Barrentine ultimately demanded that the CCC collectors stop calling and instead sue her if they thought she owed them money. Two weeks later she was served with a complaint.

On July 28, 2005, Mr. Steiner filed a complaint against Ms. Barrentine on behalf of CCC in Arapahoe County Court.(fn2) The parties appeared at a court-ordered return date on August 24, 2005. On that date, Ms. Barrentine filed an answer and counterclaim for $5,000 and also requested a jury trial. The magistrate scheduled the case for a jury trial and ordered mandatory mediation. Each party paid a mediation fee of $110.00.

The parties attended the mandatory mediation on October 26, 2005. Mr. Steiner offered to dismiss the case, however, Ms. Barrentine refused to accept a dismissal unless CCC paid her costs, as authorized for the prevailing party by C.R.S. § 13-21-109(6).(fn3) At that point, Mr. Steiner refused to pay her costs.

Mr. Steiner has been licensed to practice law for 15 years and has filed approximately 100 bad check cases a month over the past five years as a collections lawyer. When Mr. Steiner filed this case on behalf of CCC against Ms. Barrentine, he did so without determining whether the account on which the checks in question belonged to Ms. Barrentine. Instead, Mr. Steiner and CCC relied solely upon the name and signature on the checks: Laurett Barrentine. Mr. Steiner and CCC expected Ms. Barrentine to provide evidence that she did not author the checks in question

Respondent's Knowledge of Complaints

Against Collection Agencies as of January 23, 2006

In addition to Ms. Barrentine's specific complaint about CCC and Mr. Steiner, Respondent also possessed a general knowledge of other citizen complaints reported to her office concerning abusive collection agency practices and the exponential growth of identity theft in Colorado. The uncontested evidence is that Colorado ranked fifth in the nation in reported identity theft at the time Respondent called Mr. Steiner.

Before she spoke to Mr. Steiner...