Title: Jeffrey J. Tefelske v.

State: wisconsin

Issuer: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Document:

No. 95-1007-D 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTICE 
This opinion is subject to further 
editing and modification.  The final 
version will appear in the bound 
volume of the official reports.   
 
 
 
 
No.  95-1007-D 
 
STATE OF WISCONSIN             :                IN SUPREME COURT 
                                                                   
 
 
In the Matter of Disciplinary Proceedings 
Against JEFFREY J. TEFELSKE, Attorney at 
Law. 
 
FILED 
 
 
OCT 10, 1995 
 
 
 Marilyn L. Graves 
  Clerk of Supreme Court 
  
Madison, WI  
 
                                                                
   
 
 
 
ATTORNEY 
disciplinary 
proceeding. 
 
Attorney's 
license 
suspended. 
 
PER CURIAM.   We review the recommendation of the referee 
that the license of Jeffrey J. Tefelske to practice law in 
Wisconsin be suspended for nine months as discipline for 
professional misconduct.  That misconduct consisted of lack of 
diligence in representing three clients, misrepresentations to one 
of them, forging the name of a client to interrogatories and 
failing to cooperate with the Board of Attorneys Professional 
Responsibility (Board) in its investigation into allegations of 
his misconduct.   
 
No. 95-1007-D 
 
 
 
2 
 
We determine that the recommended license suspension is 
appropriate discipline to impose for that misconduct.  By it, 
Attorney Tefelske has demonstrated his unwillingness to be bound 
by trial procedure and has seriously neglected to perform the work 
for which he had been retained and concocted stories to conceal 
that neglect.   
 
Attorney Tefelske was admitted to the practice of law in 
Wisconsin in September, 1985 and practiced in Washington county.  
In early 1993, he relocated to Colorado and has not practiced law 
since then.  He currently is an inactive member of the State Bar 
of Wisconsin.  He was once previously disciplined for professional 
misconduct:  in 1993, the Board publicly reprimanded him for 
failing to act with diligence and promptness in a client's 
representation, failing to keep a client reasonably informed of 
the status of the client's legal matter and failing to cooperate 
in the Board's investigation.   
 
In this proceeding, the referee, Attorney Joan Kessler, made 
the following findings of fact in respect to Attorney Tefelske's 
professional misconduct in three matters.  In the first of those, 
Attorney Tefelske failed to name witnesses timely, including an 
essential witness, thereby preventing his clients from presenting 
necessary testimony.  He also failed to provide discovery, respond 
to document production demands and proceed timely with pretrial 
preparation, for which his clients were subjected to a $400 
sanction, which Attorney Tefelske failed to pay timely.   
 
No. 95-1007-D 
 
 
 
3 
 
In a second matter, Attorney Tefelske was retained to reopen 
a client's worker's compensation claim.  On several occasions he 
told the client that hearings had been canceled, once for the 
reason that the administrative law judge had been in an auto 
accident, when in fact no hearing had been scheduled.  Attorney 
Tefelske never attempted to reopen the client's claim.  He left 
Wisconsin without informing the client, who believed Attorney 
Tefelske continued to represent him.   
 
The third matter concerned Attorney Tefelske's representation 
of a contracting business in two actions.  He failed to file 
pleadings timely, failed to respond to discovery and did not 
comply with various provisions of pretrial orders.  In one of the 
actions, he signed his client's name to answers to interrogatories 
and notarized that signature as if it were his client's.   
 
During the Board's investigation of these matters, Attorney 
Tefelske did not respond timely to Board requests for information. 
 Once this proceeding began, he did not respond to the order to 
answer the Board's complaint and did not file his response by the 
date to which he and the referee had agreed.   
 
The referee concluded that Attorney Tefelske's conduct in 
these matters violated the following provisions of the Rules of 
Professional Conduct for Attorneys:  SCR 20.1.3,1 requiring a 
                     
     1  SCR 21.03 provides:  Diligence   
 
A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness 
in representing a client.   
 
No. 95-1007-D 
 
 
 
4 
lawyer to act with reasonable diligence and promptness in 
representing 
a 
client; 
SCR 
20:8.4(c),2 
proscribing 
conduct 
involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation; and, 
implicitly, SCR 21.03(4)3 and 22.07(2),4 requiring an attorney to 
cooperate with the Board in its investigation of grievances and 
provide requested information.  As discipline for that misconduct, 
the referee recommended a nine-month license suspension.   
 
We adopt the referee's findings of fact and conclusions of 
law concerning Attorney Tefelske's professional misconduct in 
these matters.  A nine-month license suspension is the appropriate 
discipline to impose for that misconduct.   
                     
     2  SCR 20:8.4 provides, in pertinent part:  Misconduct 
 
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:   
 
. . . 
 
(c)  engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or 
misrepresentation;   
     3  SCR 21.03 provides, in pertinent part:  General 
principles.   
 
. . . 
 
(4)  Every attorney shall cooperate with the board and the 
administrator in the investigation, prosecution and disposition of 
grievances and complaints filed with or by the board or 
administrator.   
     4  SCR 22.07 provides, in pertinent part:  Investigation. 
 
. . . 
 
(2)  During the course of an investigation, the administrator 
or a committee may notify the respondent of the subject being 
investigated.  The respondent shall fully and fairly disclose all 
facts and circumstances pertaining to the alleged misconduct or 
medical incapacity within 20 days of being served by ordinary mail 
a request for response to a grievance.  The administrator in his 
or her discretion may allow additional time to respond.  Failure 
to provide information or misrepresentation in a disclosure is 
misconduct.  The administrator or committee may make a further 
investigation before making a recommendation to the board.   
 
No. 95-1007-D 
 
 
 
5 
 
IT IS ORDERED that the license of Attorney Jeffrey J. 
Tefelske to practice law in Wisconsin is suspended for a period of 
nine months, commencing the date of this order.   
 
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within 60 days of the date of this 
order Jeffrey J. Tefelske 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 Jeffrey J. Tefelske to practice 
law in Wisconsin shall remain suspended until further order of the 
court.   IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Jeffrey J. Tefelske comply 
with the provisions of SCR 22.26 concerning the duties of a person 
whose license to practice law in Wisconsin has been suspended.   
 
JANINE P. GESKE, J., did not participate.   
   
  
 
No. 95-1007-D 
 
 
 
 
SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN 
 
                                                              
 
Case No.: 
 
95-1007-D 
                                                              
 
Complete Title 
of Case: 
In the Matter of Disciplinary  
 
 
 
Proceedings Against 
 
 
 
Jeffrey J. Tefelske, 
 
 
 
Attorney at Law. 
 
 
 
________________________________________ 
 
 
 
 
DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST TEFELSKE 
 
                                                              
 
Opinion Filed:  
October 10, 1995 
Submitted on Briefs: 
 
Oral Argument: 
 
 
                                                              
 
Source of APPEAL 
 
COURT: 
 
 
COUNTY: 
 
 
JUDGE: 
 
 
                                                              
 
JUSTICES: 
 
 
Concurred: 
 
 
Dissented: 
 
 
Not Participating: 
 
                                                              
 
ATTORNEYS: