Opinion ID: 1831592
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: E. Matter

Text: The referee found that Nelson falsely stated to M.E. that Nelson had filed the motion to vacate the default judgment when in fact he had not, and that certain hearing dates had been scheduled or cancelled when in fact no hearing date had been scheduled because the motion had not been filed. The referee concluded that Nelson's conduct in the M.E. matter violated Rules 1.3, 3.2, 4.1, and 8.4(c) and (d). [3] Nelson acknowledges that the misrepresentations and the failure to timely complete the motion to vacate the judgment was in violation of the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct. Nelson essentially argues in mitigation that he attempted to correct his conduct when he apologized to M.E., offered to file the motion, received M.E.'s approval to file the motion, and obtained a satisfactory outcome. Nelson states that he understood M.E. to be satisfied with the resolution of the matter. But we note that M.E. was not completely satisfied with the outcome because, although Nelson was able to get a $1,000 discount from the judgment against him, M.E. testified that he did not have any other choice due to the delay in filing the motion to vacate the judgment. We conclude that the referee's findings that Nelson made false statements to M.E. were not clearly erroneous.