Opinion ID: 2298289
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The February 5, 2010, Trial Date

Text: Early in the week of February 1, Mrs. Ferguson contacted Mr. Butler. When Mrs. Ferguson informed him that the trial was set for that Friday, Mr. Butler told her that he would be in Orlando, Florida, for an American Bar Association (ABA) conference and thus could not be at the trial. Mr. Butler suggested that he request another postponement. Mrs. Ferguson told Mr. Butler that she believed that opposing counsel was willing to dismiss FTI as a defendant, and that she did not wish to postpone the trial again. He responded that he would contact GEICO's attorney and that it was possible that the Fergusons would not need to appear for the February 5 trial date. According to Mr. Butler, he then told Mrs. Ferguson that he would also recruit substitute counsel to obtain a postponement, if necessary. Mrs. Ferguson, however, testified that Mr. Butler never told her about this possibility of a substitute lawyer. According to Mr. Butler, he was unable to reach GEICO's attorney. He then attempted to secure substitute counsel that week for the Friday court appearance. Although he did not appear to recall precisely the attorneys that he contacted, Mr. Butler stated that he would have made this request to two attorneys with whom he shared office space. He submitted phone records of calls made on February 4 to these attorneys as evidence that he attempted to recruit them as substitute counsel. However, he admitted that neither attorney had confirmed that he would act as substitute counsel in the case before Mr. Butler left for Orlando. In interviews with the Commission's investigator, one of the attorneys stated that he had substituted for Mr. Butler in the past, but could not recall whether he had agreed to do so in the FTI case; the other attorney denied that he had ever served as substitute counsel for Mr. Butler. In the end, no attorney attended the District Court on February 5 on behalf of FTI. Having not received an update from Mr. Butler about the status of their case, the Fergusons went to the District Court on February 5 to see whether their case was on the docket. They discovered that the case had already been called and that a default judgment had been entered against FTI in the amount of $12,213.54. The Fergusons then decided to terminate Mr. Butler as their attorney.