Opinion ID: 1926090
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: client s.h.counts 20-21

Text: [9] ¶ 49. The OLR complaint alleged that in December of 2001 S.H. retained Cavendish-Sosinski to represent her on a Town of Lisbon municipal charge, and that on December 20, 2001, S.H. paid Cavendish-Sosinski a retainer of $750. ¶ 50. Subsequently, Cavendish-Sosinski appeared in court on behalf of S.H. on two occasions and forwarded to S.H. copies of relevant police reports. S.H. also met with Cavendish-Sosinski several times including a meeting at Cavendish-Sosinski's office on March 11, 2002. ¶ 51. In April 2002, S.H. received a letter from the municipal court stating that a default judgment had been entered against her for her failure to appear at a scheduled March 15, 2002, hearing. Thereafter, S.H. and her husband repeatedly tried to contact Cavendish-Sosinski about the default judgment; Cavendish-Sosinski never returned their calls. ¶ 52. On May 24, 2002, S.H. sent a certified letter asking Cavendish-Sosinski why she had not appeared on S.H.'s behalf at the March 15, 2002, hearing. In that letter, S.H. stated that she had tried to call Cavendish-Sosinski several times regarding the status of the case including its disposition, but that Cavendish-Sosinski failed to return any of the calls. S.H. also noted that Cavendish-Sosinski had told her that she (Cavendish-Sosinski) had sent a letter to the court regarding resolution of S.H.'s case; however, according to S.H., her court file contained no such a letter. In addition, in her certified letter, S.H. pointed out she and Cavendish-Sosinski had discussed favorable factors that could be pointed out to the court in S.H.'s case. S.H. wrote that Cavendish-Sosinski had not followed through on those items. ¶ 53. The OLR complaint further alleged that Cavendish-Sosinski was aware that S.H.'s husband had attempted to contact her several times about the case. Cavendish-Sosinski told him, however, that confidentiality rules prevented her from speaking to him about S.H.'s case; she also asserted that she had been unable to speak with S.H. directly. Cavendish-Sosinski also claimed that she thought S.H. had agreed to a resolution and sentence in her case at the March 11, 2002, meeting in Cavendish-Sosinski's office. Consequently, Cavendish-Sosinski considered S.H.'s file closed and had not associated S.H.'s May 24, 2002, certified letter with any necessity to act on S.H.'s case. ¶ 54. S.H. thereafter filed a grievance with the OLR. Again, the OLR requested a written response from Cavendish-Sosinski, and again Cavendish-Sosinski did not respond. Then by certified letter on September 17, 2002, the OLR again requested Cavendish-Sosinski to provide information regarding S.H.'s grievance. The certified mail receipt was returned showing that that second letter had been received and signed for by Cavendish-Sosinski's secretary on September 25, 2002. ¶ 55. Even though the OLR's certified letter directed Cavendish-Sosinski to file her written response to S.H.'s grievance no later than September 27, 2002, it wasn't until October 18, 2002, that Cavendish-Sosinski faxed a request to the OLR for an extension of time to respond to S.H.'s grievance. The OLR granted that request giving the respondent until November 8, 2002, to respond. Cavendish-Sosinski, however, did not respond by that deadline. ¶ 56. The OLR complaint further alleged that on November 22, 2002, Cavendish-Sosinski was personally served with another OLR request for a response; on November 29, 2002, she faxed the OLR acknowledging that she had received the requests and she again asked for an extension of time to respond. She was granted another extension and finally, on December 12, 2002, Cavendish-Sosinski faxed her formal response to the OLR. ¶ 57. In that December 12, 2002, response Cavendish-Sosinski explained that during the time S.H. had attempted to contact her by certified letter, Cavendish-Sosinski was recovering from a year long clinical depression. She further reported that she had taken S.H.'s file home so she could work on it because she considered S.H.'s case, along with others, as one that needed to be dealt with delicately because the problems had been created or exacerbated by Cavendish-Sosinski's depressed state. According to Cavendish-Sosinski's response, those cases involved clients who were persistent or involved issues that had caused Cavendish-Sosinski to have panic attacks. This response further reported that there had been a fire at Cavendish-Sosinski's home in June of 2002 and that S.H.'s file had been destroyed in that fire, including the unopened May 24, 2002, certified letter from S.H. According to Cavendish-Sosinski, when S.H.'s husband began contacting her, her depression then manifested itself into an ignore the situation as the case is closed attitude. ¶ 58. Based on this course of conduct, the referee concluded that the respondent had committed the violations as alleged in Counts 20 and 21 of the OLR complaint. Specifically, the referee concluded that Cavendish-Sosinski had failed to respond promptly to a client's request for information, in violation of SCR 20:1.4(a) and had failed to cooperate with an OLR investigation, in violation of SCR 22.03(2).