State Bar News
| Jurisdiction | Utah,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 10 No. 7 Pg. 29 |
| Pages | 29 |
| Publication year | 1997 |
DISCIPLINE CORNER
DISBARMENT
On July 31, 1997, the Honorable Pat B. Brian, Third District Judge, entered an Order of Disbarment, Costs and Restitution disbarring Paul A. Price ("Price") from the practice of law.
The Court found that Price intentionally misappropriated and failed to account for client funds in violation of Rules 1.15(a), 1.15(b), 1.15(c) "Safekeeping Property" and Rules 8.4(a), 8.4(b), 8.4(c) and 8.4(d) "Misconduct", of the Rules of Professional Conduct. The Court further found that, under the Rules of Professional Conduct, Price had a strict fiduciary duty to maintain and safeguard client funds, and to account to clients for those funds.
More specifically, the Court found that through the years 1995 and 1996, Price intentionally engaged in a continuing pattern of misconduct, misappropriation and conversion of client funds in excess of $154,000 including:
(a) Intentional misappropriation and conversion of $60,000.00 that Price held in escrow and was entrusted to Price by the parties to the sale or assignment of a Federal Communication Commission ("FCC") license;
(b) Intentional misappropriation and conversion of $55,492.26 from a client's trust funds that Price used to repay the $60,000.00 that Price misappropriated and converted from the escrow of the FCC license sale.
(c) Intentional misappropriation and conversion of $30,547.30 in client funds in a probate matter.
(d) Intentional misappropriation and conversion of $8600.00 in funds held in trust for a business client in an arbitration proceeding.
(e) On various occasions in 1995-1996, Price's client trust account had a negative balance, trust account checks were returned for insufficient funds, or the trust account was overdrawn as Price was depositing client funds into his own personal and/or business account. The Court found these actions constituted misappropriation and conversion of client funds.
(f) Misappropriation and conversion of funds held in trust for four other clients.
The Court ruled that: (1) Price knew that he held these client funds in trust and that he could not use these client fund for his own personal use; (2) that his misappropriation of client funds violated Utah Code sections 76-6-404 (theft) and 76-6-513(2) (violating fiduciary duty); (3) Price's conduct was aggravated by dishonest and selfish motives; a pattern of misconduct involving multiple offenses; substantial experience in the practice of law; illegal conduct; and (4) that Price's misconduct was not mitigated by any circumstances that justified imposition of a lesser sanction that disbarment.
Price's disbarment is effective March 12, 1997, the date that the Court entered an Order of Interim Suspension. The Court also ordered that Price pay costs and make restitution of $120,964.56, plus interest to his clients.
ADMONITION
On or about June 20, 1997, an Attorney was admonished by the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah State Bar for violating Rules 1.4(a) of (b) Communication, and Rule 1.15(b), Safekeeping Property, of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
The Attorney was retained to represent a client in a child custody proceeding. The Attorney failed to keep his client reasonably informed about the status of her child custody matter and failed to properly comply with reasonable requests for information. The Attorney also failed to make explanations to his client regarding her child custody matter and thus failed to enable her to make informed decisions regarding the representation. The Attorney further failed to properly safe keep his client's original documents and failed to promptly deliver to the client said documents upon request.
There were no aggravating or mitigating circumstances offered to the Screening Panel.
ADMONITION
On July 14, 1997, an Attorney was admonished by the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah State Bar for violating Rules 1.15 (Safekeeping Property) and Rule 5.3 (Responsibilities I Regarding Nonlawyer Assistants), Utah Rules of Professional Conduct.
The Attorney had delegated the responsibility to his secretary/bookkeeper, who had been employed by him for 12 years, to keep track of all deposits and checks that were written from the Respondent's office accounts, including the client trust account.
Due to the secretary's serious health problems, the secretary failed to deposit proceeds from a settlement into the Respondent's trust account. The Attorney was not aware that funds had not properly been deposited into the trust account and disbursed settlement proceeds to the client and disbursed his fee from the settlement resulting in funds from other clients being used to pay a different client's settlement. Additionally, a number of checks written to pay client bills were not honored.
The mistake was discovered, settlement proceeds deposited into the Attorney's trust account and a reconciliation of the trust account was completed. To prevent further occurrences, the Attorney changed his trust account such that trust checks require two signatures, and the Attorney must be one of those persons signing the trust check.
An attorney has a non-delegable duty to monitor his trust account, and he is ultimately responsible for any acts of his employees as they relate to the handling of client trust funds in the trust account.
The failure of the Attorney to more closely supervise his employees and the negligent bookkeeping by the Respondent's employee resulted in violations of Rules 1.15 Safekeeping Property and 5.3 Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistants of the Utah Rules of Professional Conduct.
ADMONITION
On July 21, 1997, an attorney was admonished by the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah State Bar for violating Rule 1.3 (Diligence), Rule 1.4 (Communication), and Rule 1.16 (Declining or Terminating Representation) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
The attorney was retained to represent a client in a civil action. Thereafter, the attorney moved from Ogden to Salt Lake City without informing the client of the move. On the day before a pre-trial conference in her case, the client discovered that her attorney would be unavailable to represent her at the conference and was forced to attend the pre-trial conference without counsel. The attorney failed to take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect the client's interests upon termination of representation of the client, such as giving reasonable notice to the client, and allowing time for the client to employ other counsel.
The attorney was court-appointed in 1994 to represent another client, who was incarcerated. The attorney met with the client only once between the time of the appointment and the time a complaint was filed on the client's behalf in October 1996. The attorney failed to respond to written correspondence from the client, and moved from Ogden to Salt Lake City without informing the client of the move. Again, the attorney failed to take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect the client's interests upon termination of representation of the client, such as giving reasonable notice to the client, and allowing time for the client to employ other counsel.
In aggravation, the fact that there were multiple (two) offenses was considered, as well as the fact that the second client, being incarcerated and unable to freely communicate with the outside world, was vulnerable.
In mitigation, the attorney has no prior record of discipline, had no dishonest or selfish motive, exhibited a cooperative attitude toward the disciplinary proceedings, was inexperienced in the practice of law, and expressed remorse for failing to adequately notify all clients that the attorney was moving from Ogden to Salt Lake City.
ADMONITION
On July 23, 1997, an Attorney was admonished by the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah State Bar for violation of Rule 1.15 (Safekeeping Property), Utah Rules of Professional Conduct.
On July 8, 1995, the attorney deposited a client's IRS refund check in the amount of $4,166.85 and a Utah State Tax Commission refund check in the amount of $2,007.84, for a total of $7,174.69 into his trust account.
On July 24, 1995, the Attorney issued two checks to his client, each in the amount of $3,587.34. Due to negligent bookkeeping practices, there were insufficient funds in the trust account to cover these two checks at the time they were written on the trust account. When the error was discovered, the amounts were promptly paid to the client.
Judicial Discipline Summary July 18,1997
A. ADMONITIONS
Canon 3B(7) of the Code of Judicial Conduct (CJC) provides that "... a judge shall neither initiate nor consider, and shall discourage, ex parte or other communications concerning a pending or impending proceedings." A judge was admonished for initiating and participating in an ex parte communication concerning a pending proceeding. A mitigating factor was that within a short time after participating in the ex parte communication, the judge notified all other counsel concerning it. In a separate case, the Commission admonished a judge for participating in an ex parte communication with potential witnesses concerning a pending proceeding without having first obtained the consent of the parties' attorneys. [NOTE: THE JUDGE RECENTLY OBJECTED TO THE SECOND ADMONITION, AND THE COMMISSION WILL REVIEW THE OBJECTION DURING ITS NEXT MEETING.]
Canon 3B(94) of the CJC requires judges to be "patient, dignified, and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity ..." A judge was admonished for failing to be patient and courteous with an attorney during oral argument. The judge threatened the attorney with contempt under circumstances where the...
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