Opinion ID: 1582319
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Joan Osborn.

Text: Those counts in the complaint involving Joan Osborn flow from the following transactions as shown by the record. Joan Osborn moved to Iowa from the state of Washington in September, 1979, and employed respondent to represent her in a post-dissolution decree dispute with her former husband. This dispute involved in part sums of money in Osborn's possession, which her husband claimed were owed to him under the decree. At the inception of the attorney-client relationship, Joan Osborn paid respondent a $1000 retainer and agreed to an hourly rate of $50 for legal services performed in this representation. During the time that respondent was representing this client, she gave respondent additional funds to place in his trust account. She gave him $6110.25 for this purpose on January 9, 1980, and $2000 on January 12, 1980. Joan Osborn terminated respondent's representation on May 9, 1980, and asked him to return to her the funds he was holding in his trust account. At this time, respondent informed her that his bill to date for attorney fees and expenses totaled $5931.94 and that said charges had been applied in reduction of the $9110.25 which had been paid to him leaving only $3178.31 to be returned to her. Respondent had not given Joan Osborn an accounting of fees and expenses prior to this time. During the May 9, 1980, meeting between Joan Osborn and respondent, she disputed his entitlement to the $5931.94 in fees and expenses but acquiesced in taking a check for $3178.31 from respondent's trust account until the matter was resolved. On May 9, 1980, the date this check was written, respondent did not have sufficient funds in his trust account to cover the check. Joan Osborn learned of this when she presented the check for payment at the drawee bank. On May 12, 1980, respondent made a deposit in his trust account sufficient to bring the balance thereof above the amount of the Osborn check. When she presented the check for payment a second time, respondent stopped payment on the check when the bank informed him that Joan Osborn had noted thereon that the check did not constitute full payment of sums owed. It was not until April 15, 1981, one day after the present complaint was filed by the Committee on Professional Ethics and Conduct that respondent made payment to Joan Osborn in the sum of $3178.31. An audit of respondent's trust account conducted by the Client Security and Disciplinary Commission revealed that based upon respondent's own billing records, a substantial portion of the $5931.94 had been transferred from the trust account as fees earned prior to the time the services are shown to have been performed. In addition, the audit reveals that on May 1, 1980, the total balance on deposit in respondent's trust account from all sources was only $238.95, at which time respondent concedes he still owed Joan Osborn at least $3178.31. At the hearing before the Grievance Commission, Joan Osborn testified that only the initial $1000 paid to respondent was to be applied toward the costs of litigation. She testified that the remaining $8110.25 was placed in respondent's trust account with his knowledge and approval in order to make the facts fit the testimony which she had given in a deposition. She stated that she had testified in the deposition that $8000 in her possession, which her former husband was trying to locate, had been placed in respondent's trust account. She testified that in fact the funds were given to respondent after such testimony had been given. Respondent denied Joan Osborn's version of the transaction in his testimony before the Grievance Commission and stated that the entire $9110.25 was paid to him for purposes of being applied on his attorney fees and out-of-pocket advances.