Opinion ID: 6534235
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Potential or actual injury caused by misconduct

Text: [¶48] The third factor we consider is the potential or actual injury caused by the misconduct. The ABA Standards define injury as follows: [H]arm to a client, the public, the legal system, or the profession which results from a lawyer's misconduct. The level of injury can range from serious injury to little or no injury; a reference to injury alone indicates any level of injury greater than little or no injury. ABA Standards, III. Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions: Black Letter Rules, Definitions. Potential injury is:  [H]arm to a client, the public, the legal system or the profession that is reasonably foreseeable at the time of the lawyer's misconduct, and which, but from some intervening factor or event, would probably have resulted from the lawyer's misconduct. Id. [¶49] Certainly, Mr. Dudzik suffered financial harm when Mr. Hiatt refused to return the unearned portion of his fee. In addition, Mr. Dudzik was at least potentially injured by Mr. Hiatt's lack of diligence in this matter. As Mr. Dudzik explained in his termination letter, because of the delays, he was no longer in a position to seek full custody of his child since over that time Mother's behavior improved.