Opinion ID: 2071683
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Stuart Schulze

Text: In August, 1991, Schulze was arrested while returning with his wife from a party and charged with driving while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with an expired license, and speeding. Trial on the lesser traffic charges was set for December 18, 1991; trial on the alcohol-related charges was scheduled for January 28, 1992. In November, following receipt of a targeted solicitation from Ficker, Schulze called Ficker and arranged to meet him at the latter's Bethesda office. During that first conversation, according to Ficker, Schulze answered some standard questions about the event. From those answers, including Schulze's assertion that he had not been drinking, Ficker anticipated that the case would have to proceed to trialthat there would likely be no plea bargain to a charge of driving while intoxicated when the client claimed that he had not had anything to drink. When Schulze arrived at the appointed time, Ficker was not there, but Schulze discussed the case with Burfield and filled out a brief Client Information Sheet. Burfield gave him a retainer agreement, which Schulze took with him and later returned, along with a four-and-a-half page statement giving his version of the facts. In that statement, Schulze claimed that he had not been drinking, that the arresting officer had been nasty and abusive to both him and his wife, and that two other officers at the police station witnessed some of the arresting officer's inappropriate behavior. He did not identify the two officers or give the names of any other guests at the party who might be able to testify as to his sobriety. It is nonetheless clear from the statement that at least Schulze's wife and possibly the two officers would or could be important defense witnesses. Significantly, the statement revealed that Schulze had refused to take a breathalyzer test. It also noted that Schulze had a CAT scan scheduled the next day, although it did not indicate why he was in need of such a procedure. At some point, Schulze left with Burfield the two court notices and told Burfield that he wanted the charges consolidated. Burfield responded that Ficker would see to it. Schulze made a $300 deposit against a $750 fee, and Ficker entered his appearance in the District Court. No motion to consolidate was ever filed. Although Ficker's office was notified of the December 18 trial date on the lesser charges and Mr. Mooney was assigned the case, no one appeared in court, and, as a result, Schulze received a notice from the Motor Vehicle Administration that his license was in jeopardy. Receiving what he believed was an unsatisfactory explanation from Ficker, Schulze arranged with the court for a new trial date but eventually decided to pay the tickets. Although Judge Ferretti discredited much of Schulze's testimony concerning conversations he had with Mooney and Ficker, the judge made no finding as to why no one from Ficker's office appeared on December 18, despite knowledge that the tickets were set for trial that day and that no motion to consolidate had been filed, and despite the fact that the case was listed on Ficker's calendar for that day. [4] Schulze spoke with Ficker and Mooney on January 27the evening before scheduled trial on the alcohol-related offenses. According to Schulze, Ficker was unaware that Schulze had declined to take the breathalyzer test, notwithstanding that that fact was revealed in the typed statement he had left with Burfield. Ficker said that he would talk to people tomorrow morning and then decide on their strategy. As the two had never met, Ficker instructed Schulze to be in court by 9:00 and that I'll be in the hall calling out your name. Based on his conversation with Mooney, Schulze expected Ficker to pray a jury trial. In fact, Ficker did not appear in court until after the docket was called and court was in session. During a recess, Ficker spoke with the police officer who had stopped Schulze and was informed by him that (1) Schulze had been drinking, and (2) it was Schulze and his wife who were abusive and uncooperative. The other two officers were also in court and, according to Ficker, they laughed when he posited that his client had not been drinking. Ficker told Schulze that he was prepared to go to trial but discussed the option of trying the case before a jury in circuit court. He told Schulze that if the case were transferred to circuit court, there would be an additional fee of $599. Schulze agreed to a jury trial, signed a new retainer agreement, and gave Ficker a check for $400. Ficker prayed a jury trial, and the case was transferred to the circuit court. Unfortunately, through no fault of Ficker's, the clerk failed to enter his appearance and instead entered the appearance of the public defender. As a result of this mix-up, notice of a readiness conference scheduled for April 16, 1992 and a trial date of June 1, 1992, was sent to the public defender, rather than Ficker. Rather than informing the court of the mistake, which would have been the courteous thing to do, the public defender simply discarded the notice. Accordingly, Ficker was never notified of either the conference or the trial date. As a result, no one appeared when the case was called on June 1, and as a result of that, a warrant was issued for Schulze. Schulze was informed of the warrant on June 16, through a letter from the sheriff. His wife attempted to contact Ficker but was successful only in speaking with Burfield, who promised that Ficker would call back but he never did. On June 18, Schulze surrendered himself and arranged, on his own, for a bail hearing that afternoon. Ficker was finally contacted. He appeared at 2:00 and explained that the judge was willing to accept a guilty plea, enter probation before judgment, and impose a $200 fine. Schulze accepted that arrangement and was released. AGC charged Ficker with violations of MLRPC Rules 1.1, 1.3, 5.1, 5.3, and 8.4. Judge Ferretti regarded the alleged Rule 1.1 violation as based on the assertion that Ficker was not prepared for trial on January 28 because he had not sought out and interviewed other guests at the party as possible defense witnesses. The judge did not believe that AGC had established a duty on Ficker's part to seek out and interview such prospective witnesses, whose names were never supplied by the client, and, on that basis, found no violation of Rule 1.1. AGC has excepted to that ruling, pointing out that the problem was not simply the failure to seek out unidentified witnesses but rather a more fundamental failure to prepare for trial. Ficker, it contends, did very little to familiarize himself with the case, evidenced most dramatically by being unaware, even on the scheduled trial date, that Schulze had refused to take a breathalyzer test. In his closing argument, Bar Counsel made clear that the real basis for the complaint was that Ficker waited until the morning of trial to do any discovery or investigation. We agree with AGC. Notwithstanding Ficker's self-serving statement that he was prepared for trial, the evidence demonstrated that he was wholly unprepared when he appeared in District Court on January 28. Apart from his not inquiring as to other guests at the party, prior to the morning of trial he had never talked to Schulze's wife, who was a vital witness to most of what occurred, to the arresting officer, or to the other two officers who were present at the police station. Indeed, except for an initial conversation two months earlier and the brief conversation the evening before, he had never had any significant discussion with his client. Although presumably aware from the written statement given to Burfield that Schulze had a CAT scan scheduled for the day after the incident, Ficker did nothing to investigate the nature of the problem or whether it might have had some relevance to Schulze's conduct. Indeed, given his apparent unawareness that Schulze had refused to take the breathalyzer test, it is not clear that Ficker even read that statement carefully. This practice of waiting until the morning of trial to learn the facts of the case from last-minute courtroom interviews with police officers, prosecutors, or other witnesses, which Allen confirmed was more or less the modus operandi with Ficker, does not comport with the requirements of Rule 1.1. That rule requires a lawyer to provide competent representation to a client and defines competent representation as requiring, among other things, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation. The Comment to Rule 1.1 explains, in that regard: Competent handling of a particular matter includes inquiry into and analysis of the factual and legal elements of the problem, and use of methods and procedures meeting the standards of competent practitioners. It also includes adequate preparation. The required attention and preparation are determined in part by what is at stake.... The requirement of adequate preparation has long been recognized as part of a lawyer's responsibility to provide competent representation, and it is not without significance that, in the current Code of Professional Responsibility embodied in the MLRPC, the duty to provide competent representation is given the place of honor as the first ingredient in the lawyer-client relationship. 1 GEOFFREY C. HAZARD, JR. AND W. WILLIAM HODES, THE LAW OF LAWYERING, 2d ed. § 1.1:101 (1997). Former DR 6-101(A)(2) precluded a lawyer from handling a matter without preparation adequate in the circumstances, and the failure to make a proper investigation of the facts of a case prior to trial has led to discipline. See In Re Conduct of Chambers, 292 Or. 670, 642 P.2d 286, 291 (1982); People v. Felker, 770 P.2d 402 (Colo.1989). See also Lamar v. American Finance System of Fulton Cty., Inc., 577 F.2d 953, 955 (5th Cir.1978), noting the duty in a non-disciplinary context. This was not a simple, routine case. The written statement provided by Schulze should have alerted Ficker that there would likely be a significant dispute as to exactly what occurred during the roadside encounter and later at the police station. If Schulze were convicted of driving while intoxicated, he faced the prospect of incarceration in either a detention facility or a DWI facility, a prospect made more likely if the judge were to conclude that it was Schulze, rather than the officer, who was abusive and uncooperative. The decision to seek a jury trial was not made until the morning of trial; indeed, it hinged, among other things, on Schulze's willingness to pay an additional fee of $599, which had not previously been discussed with Schulze. What would Ficker have done if Schulze had decided not to pay that additional money? Presumably, Ficker went to court with the expectation of having to try the case that morning, and yet, when he entered the courtroom, late, he had little idea of what any of the witnesses would say. Indeed, only moments before the case would have been called for trial, he told Schulze that, if trial were to take place then, [w]e can go into the anteroom and rehearse all this and go over the facts of the case. That is not an acceptable way to practice law. See People v. Felker, supra, 770 P.2d 402 (preparing a case in the car on the way to court constitutes violation of former DR 6-101(A)(2)). We believe that Judge Ferretti erred in finding no violation of Rule 1.1. AGC charged two independent violations of Rule 1.3. The first arose from the fact that, having prayed a jury trial on January 28, 1992, Ficker did nothing to keep track of the case in the circuit court and, as a result, was unaware (1) that his appearance had not been entered, and (2) of the scheduled conference and trial dates. The second alleged violation arose from Ficker's failure to return the calls from Schulze's wife on June 16 and 18. Judge Ferretti found merit in the first claim, but none in the second. Ficker has excepted to the adverse ruling with respect to not keeping track of the case; AGC has acquiesced in ruling regarding the telephone calls. This Court has long recognized a duty on the part of counsel to keep informed about the status of a case in litigation. See Baltimore Luggage Co. v. Ligon, 208 Md. 406, 421-22, 118 A.2d 665, 673 (1955); Grantham v. Prince George's County, 251 Md. 28, 36, 246 A.2d 548, 552 (1968); Maggin v. Stevens, 266 Md. 14, 18, 291 A.2d 440, 442 (1972). Ficker admitted that he had no tickler or calendar system in place that would cause him to pull files at particular intervals to check whether court dates had been assigned, but instead relied on receiving notice from the court. He acknowledged that, normally, notices were sent within two to three months after the filing of a jury demand, although there were occasions when the notice did not arrive for four or five months. Ficker saw no need for greater diligence because this kind of mix-up by the clerk had never happened to him before and he did not anticipate it. It is true, as Ficker maintains, that defense counsel has no duty to bring a criminal case to trial; that is the State's obligation. He does have a duty, however, to keep track of his cases and assure that he does not miss important court dates, especially a trial date. The need for periodic review is most acute, of course, with respect to filings or other events that the attorney is responsible for generating, but it extends as well to filings and events expected from someone else. If a pleading, paper, or notice of some kind is due to be filed or sent by another party or the court and that filing or transmission will engender some duty on the attorney's part, the attorney cannot sit blithely by in blissful ignorance, as though the case doesn't exist. There are slips between the cup and the lip; things do get lost in the mail or misdirected. Although a lawyer may, in some instances, properly wait in silence for others to act and be under no obligation to them to call attention to their lapses, the lawyer does have a duty to his or her client to remain diligent, and that duty is not discharged by placing the file in indefinite hibernation. Had Ficker had a decent tickler system, whether diaried for two months, three months, four months, or even five months, he would have discovered the problem. Under his practice, Ficker would never have looked at the Schulze file again, even if a year or more elapsed. Although no hard and fast rule can be imposed governing the precise details of a proper tickler system, the need for some system is obvious. Ficker, by his own admission, had none. His exception to the finding of a violation of Rule 1.3 is overruled. Judge Ferretti found no independent violation of Rule 1.4, and no violation of Rules 5.1 or 5.3. AGC has acquiesced in those rulings. The judge found that Ficker's failure to maintain a proper tickler system, discussed in the context of Rule 1.3, also constituted a violation of Rule 8.4. Ficker has excepted to that ruling, largely for the reasons we discussed above. In Ficker I, supra, 319 Md. 305, 315, 572 A.2d at 501, 506, we concluded a failure to appear caused by the lack of a proper calendar system can constitute conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, and thus a violation of Rule 8.4. His exception is overruled.