Opinion ID: 2458428
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 33

Heading: Part I: Duty Violated; Lawyer's Mental State; Actual or Potential Injury

Text: 46. Mr. McGrath's violation of ARPC 1.1, ARPC 1.4, ARPC 1.5, ARPC 1.8 and ARPC 1.15 breached duties to clients. See ABA Standards §§ 4.0, 4.1, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, and 4.6. Mr. McGrath's violation of ARPC 3.4 and 4.1 breached duties owed to the legal system.
47. Under the ABA Standards § III Definitions: Negligence is the failure of a lawyer to heed a substantial risk that circumstances exist or that a result will follow, which failure is a deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable lawyer would exercise in the situation. Knowledge is the conscious awareness of the nature or attendant circumstances of the conduct but without the conscious objective or purpose to accomplish a particular result. Intent is the conscious objective or purpose to accomplish a particular result. 48. As shown by the facts above, Mr. McGrath acted negligently or with gross negligence when he failed to provide competent representation in a workers' compensation proceeding, ignored clients' efforts to contact him, impeded communication by providing addresses of a house where he no longer lived and an office where he no longer worked, collected unreasonable fees, settled a claim without client authority, and failed to recognize that providing financial support to his client created a conflict of interest. He knowingly failed to pay medical providers in accordance with his client's directive, failed to account promptly to clients for client money, ignored the Workers' Compensation Board's order to reimburse attorney fees to his client within 30 days, and delayed reimbursing his client the settlement money that he kept after cashing the settlement check.
49. Mr. McGrath caused actual or potential harm to his clients through delay, expense, anxiety, possible loss of legal rights, or other impairment of their interests. Mr. McGrath caused actual or potential harm to the legal system by failing to abide by the legal rules of substance and procedure which affect the administration of justice.