Opinion ID: 2053103
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: stockdale complaint

Text: Respondent was paid a $250 retainer by Gloria Stockdale on October 24, 1978 to represent her in obtaining a divorce from her husband. Respondent had been recommended to her by a friend whom he was representing in a pending divorce action. Respondent's office practice at that time would have been to have drafted the complaint after interviewing a client and to leave the paperwork to be followed-up by his partner who handled the office aspects of the practice. Respondent was the trial attorney in the firm. Following that initial interview, Mrs. Stockdale was unable to contact respondent. She telephoned his office weekly; he was never there and did not return her calls. In 1979, her husband was served with the legal papers. The summons was signed by respondent's partner. When she did not hear anything further about the case, she became suspicious. She went to respondent's office in Hasbrouck Heights, but no one was there. Although the office door was locked, respondent's name was still on the door. She assumed respondent had left town. No one had informed her that in the summer of 1979 respondent had moved his office from Hasbrouck Heights to Ridgefield Park. Mrs. Stockdale telephoned the Bergen County Clerk's office, which referred her to the office of the Clerk of Superior Court in Trenton, from whom she learned that the docket number on her complaint was not correct. She then communicated with the Bergen County Ethics Committee and the Clients' Security Fund. Her husband had retained his own attorney and had counterclaimed for divorce, which was granted on June 4, 1980. In February 1984, Mrs. Stockdale was reimbursed $250 from the Clients' Security Fund. The Ethics Committee had learned from the Clerk of the Superior Court that no complaint had ever been filed in the Stockdale matrimonial action; the docket number listed on the complaint had been assigned to another matrimonial case, the case of Mrs. Stockdale's friend, which respondent's firm was handling. Respondent maintained he had not written or used this docket number on the Stockdale complaint. He could not clarify this problem with his partner, who had left the area after being disbarred.