Disciplinary Case Summaries
| Publication year | 2015 |
| Pages | 131 |
From the Courts
Colorado Disciplinary Cases
Disciplinary Case Summaries
The summaries of disciplinary case Opinions and Conditional Admissions of Misconduct are prepared by the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge (PDJ) and are provided as a service by the CBA. The CBA cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the summaries. Opinions, including exhibits, complaints, amended complaints, and summaries, are available at the PDJ website, www.coloradosupremecourt.com/PDJ/pdj.htm, and on LexisNexis.® The summaries and full-text Opinions are also accessible from the CBA website: www.cobar.org (click on "Opinions/Rules/Statutes").
Summaries of Opinions and Decisions Imposing Sanctions
No. 15PDJ011. People v. Doherty. 07/16/2015. Attorney Disbarred.
Following a sanctions hearing, the PDJ disbarred James P. Doherty, attorney registration number 10461. The disbarment was effective August 20, 2015.
Doherty engaged in serious misconduct in two separate matters. In the first, he represented a married couple who had physical and mental disabilities. Doherty began to manage the clients' finances in 2005, initially paying himself $250 monthly. He provided the clients no fee agreement. Later, Doherty increased his monthly payments to $400 without advising the clients. Over a five-year period, Doherty converted some of the clients' funds. Instead of keeping the funds in his trust account, he used them for personal and business expenses.
In addition, Doherty liquidated stock he had purchased with $27, 700 of the wife's money and kept the funds. On another occasion, Doherty counseled the husband to execute a deed of trust on the couple's home to a shell corporation created by Doherty. Doherty later asked a different client with diminished mental capacity to execute a fraudulent release of the deed of trust. Doherty gave the document to the public trustee, knowing it was fraudulent.
Doherty kept a handwritten ledger of the payments and investments he made with the clients' money. After the clients requested an accounting and hired new counsel, Doherty destroyed the ledger without the clients' permission. He then submitted to the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel a fabricated fee agreement, purportedly dating from 2005.
In a second matter, Doherty was hired to help secure a client's appointment as personal representative for an estate. Doherty neglected the matter and did not communicate with the client. Doherty later counseled the client to execute a real estate contract to sell property belonging to the decedent, even though the client lacked authority to do so. In addition, Doherty fabricated evidence, including a fee agreement and invoice.
Doherty violated Colo. RPC 1.1 (a lawyer shall provide competent representation); Colo. RPC 1.3 (a lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness); Colo. RPC 1.4(a) (2007) (a lawyer shall promptly comply with reasonable requests for information); Colo. RPC 1.4(a)(2) (a lawyer shall reasonably consult with a client about the means to accomplish the client's objectives); Colo. RPC 1.5(b) (a lawyer shall communicate the basis of the fee in writing); Colo. RPC 1.5(f) (a lawyer does not earn fees until the lawyer confers a benefit on the client or performs a legal service); Colo. RPC 1.15(a) (2008) (a lawyer shall hold client property separate from the lawyer's own property); Colo. RPC 1.15(j)(1) and (2) (2008) (a lawyer in private practice shall maintain trust account records); Colo. RPC 1.16A (a lawyer...
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