Opinion ID: 2176514
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: report and recommendation of the board

Text: We have before us the Report of Hearing Committee No. 1, dated May 7, 1990, recommending that Respondent, Charles Stow, be subjected to sanctions for violating the Disciplinary Rules by neglecting a client matter. The Hearing Committee recommended the following sanctions: (a) that Respondent repay a $750 fee; (b) that Respondent be suspended for 30 days; (c) that the suspension be stayed for one year; and (d) that Respondent be placed on probation for one year during which his activities would be subject to oversight by a Practice Monitor. We agree with the Committee's recommendations and pass them on to the Court. Bar Counsel's Petition in No. 294-89 [2] had charged Respondent with three separate violations of the Disciplinary Rules arising from his undertaking to provide legal services to Elmer Wilbur Toogood. Mr. Toogood had just been convicted in a criminal case handled by a different lawyer. The principal factual issue at the hearing involved the nature of the legal services that Respondent had agreed to furnish for Mr. Toogood. Bar Counsel alleged that Respondent had been retained to represent Mr. Toogood as to all aspects of the appeal (for a fee of $1,500, of which $750 had been paid). Because Respondent did not handle the appeal, Bar Counsel charged Respondent with: (a) neglecting his client's legal interests in violation of DR 6-101(A)(3); (b) failing to seek the lawful objectives of the client, in violation of DR 7-101(A)(1); and (c) failing to carry out a contract of employment entered into with the client, in violation of DR 7-101(A)(2). Respondent denied that he was to handle the appeal. He said he had been hired only to review the trial record for the limited purpose of determining whether there was a basis for Mr. Toogood's appellate counsel to raise ineffective assistance of counsel as an appeal issue. The Hearing Committee generally credited Respondent's version of the events and determined that Bar Counsel had failed to establishto the requisite clear and convincing evidence standardthat Respondent had either intentionally failed to seek the lawful objectives of his client, in violation of DR 7-101(A)(1), or intentionally failed to carry out his contract of employment, in violation of DR 7-101(A)(2). The Hearing Committee did conclude, however, that a violation of DR 6-101(A)(3) had been proven. The basis for the finding was that, even in the limited role he said he was hired to play, Respondent failed to provide timely services. Neither Bar Counsel nor Respondent objected to this aspect of the Hearing Committee's Report.