Case Title: James C. Cotter v.

Citation: 

Docket Number: 1997AP002676-D

State: wisconsin

Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Date: 1997-11-04T00:00:00Z

Document:
SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN 
 
 
Case No.: 
97-2676-D 
 
 
Complete Title 
of Case: 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary 
Prceedings Against 
James E. Cotter, 
Attorney at Law. 
 
 
 
 
DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST COTTER. 
 
 
Opinion Filed: 
November 4, 1997 
Submitted on Briefs: 
 
Oral Argument: 
 
 
 
Source of APPEAL 
 
COURT: 
 
 
COUNTY: 
 
 
JUDGE: 
 
 
 
JUSTICES: 
 
Concurred: 
 
 
Dissented: 
 
 
Not Participating:  
 
 
ATTORNEYS: 
 
 
No. 97-2676-D 
 
1 
 
NOTICE 
This opinion is subject to further editing and 
modification.  The final version will appear in 
the bound volume of the official reports. 
 
 
No. 97-2676-D 
 
STATE OF WISCONSIN               :        
        
 
 
 
 
IN SUPREME COURT 
 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings 
Against JAMES C. COTTER, Attorney at Law. 
FILED 
 
NOV 4, 1997 
 
Marilyn L. Graves 
Clerk of Supreme Court 
Madison, WI 
 
 
 
ATTORNEY 
disciplinary 
proceeding.  Attorney’s 
license 
suspended.  
¶1 
PER CURIAM   We review the stipulation of the parties 
that the license of James C. Cotter to practice law in Wisconsin 
be suspended for one year as discipline for professional 
misconduct. That misconduct consisted of his preparing, signing 
and presenting documentation containing false information in his 
application for a duplicate operator’s license in the name of 
another person. We determine that the license suspension to 
which the parties stipulated is appropriate.  
¶2 
Mr. Cotter was admitted to practice law in Wisconsin 
in 1978 and practiced in Milwaukee. In 1992, the court suspended 
his license to practice law for two years for personally 
retaining legal fees while an employee of a law office, failing 
to prepare and timely file personal income tax returns for five 
years, failing to refund a client’s unearned fee and respond to 
her telephone calls, failing to file a brief timely in a 
No. 97-2676-D 
 
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criminal appeal and communicate with the court following its 
notification that he do so, and failing to cooperate with the 
Board 
of 
Attorneys 
Professional 
Responsibility’s 
(Board’s) 
investigation into the appellate matter. In re Disciplinary 
Proceedings Against Cotter, 171 Wis. 2d 373, 491 N.W.2d 475 
(1992). Mr. Cotter’s license has not been reinstated and remains 
suspended.  
¶3 
The parties stipulated to the following. When arrested 
on three outstanding warrants for operating after license 
revocation and disorderly conduct and on a bench warrant for 
failure to appear in a divorce matter, Mr. Cotter had in his 
possession an operator’s license in the name of another but with 
his picture on it and two credit cards in the name of that 
person. 
The 
police 
also 
recovered 
an 
operator’s 
license 
application issued in the name of that person and other 
documents in the name of James Cotter.  
¶4 
The person whose name appeared on the operator’s 
license, the license application and the credit cards had not 
applied for a duplicate operator’s license and had not given 
anyone his permission to do so. The analysis of the duplicate 
license application identified four fingerprints belonging to 
James Cotter on it. Mr. Cotter was charged with one count of 
misdemeanor forgery, which later was amended to a criminal 
violation of the Motor Vehicle Code -– using a false name on an 
application for a license. Mr. Cotter was convicted on a guilty 
plea and fined $750.  
No. 97-2676-D 
 
3 
¶5 
In the course of the investigation into this matter, 
Mr. Cotter asserted that he had obtained the credit cards from 
an acquaintance, who was the spouse of the person whose name 
appeared on them, and that he used them only as a form of 
identification to obtain the duplicate operator’s license. He 
stated that he expected to rent a motor vehicle during a planned 
vacation and that his own operator’s license had been suspended.  
¶6 
The parties stipulated that Mr. Cotter’s preparing, 
signing 
and 
presenting 
documentation 
containing 
false 
information in the application for a duplicate operator’s 
license constituted a criminal act that reflects adversely on 
his honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer, in 
violation of SCR 20:8.4(b).1 We accept the stipulation of the 
parties in respect to the facts and conclusions concerning Mr. 
Cotter’s misconduct in this matter and determine that the one-
year license suspension to which they stipulated is appropriate 
discipline to be imposed for it.  
¶7 
IT IS ORDERED that the license of James C. Cotter to 
practice law in Wisconsin is suspended for one year, commencing 
                     
1 SCR 20:8.4 provides, in pertinent part:  
Misconduct 
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:  
 . . .  
 (b) commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the 
lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in 
other respects;  
No. 97-2676-D 
 
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the date of this order, as discipline for his misconduct 
established in this proceeding.  
¶8 
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60 days of the date 
of this order James C. Cotter pay to the Board of Attorneys 
Professional Responsibility 
the costs 
of this 
proceeding, 
provided that if the costs are not paid within the time 
specified and absent a showing to this court of his inability to 
pay the costs within that time, the license of James C. Cotter 
to practice law in Wisconsin shall remain suspended until 
further order of the court.  
¶9 
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that James C. Cotter comply with 
the provisions of SCR 22.26 concerning the duties of a person 
whose license to practice law in Wisconsin has been suspended.  
 
 
 
 
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