Opinion ID: 2360393
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Complaint of Brenda A. Myers

Text: On December 20, 2002, Ms. Myers filed an application for disability retirement with her employer, the Social Security Administration (SSA), seeking retirement benefits under the civil service retirement system. Ms. Myers, who had been employed by SSA for 35 years, suffered from lower back pain and headaches. On June 18, 2003, she received a letter informing her that, due to insufficiency of evidence, she did not qualify for disability retirement benefits. On July 10, 2003, Ms. Myers requested reconsideration of the initial determination and met with respondent for the first time. At their initial meeting, Ms. Myers provided respondent with x-rays, doctors' reports, correspondence regarding her claim and a signed release authorizing respondent to obtain medical information from her health care providers. Respondent did not charge Ms. Myers a flat fee or provide her with an up-front rate at this initial meeting. Within a few days after being retained, respondent mailed a letter to the SSA asking that Ms. Myers's application be reconsidered. On September 17, 2003, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) disallowed the request for reconsideration because there was insufficient documentation to support it. Ms. Myers had until October 27, 2003thirty daysto appeal OPM's decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board (Board). Respondent filed an incomplete and unsigned appeal with the Board on October 31, 2003, which resulted in the Board denying and dismissing the appeal because it was filed untimely. While respondent unsuccessfully attempted to obtain Ms. Myers's medical records from her health care professionals, he failed to inform her that the pursuit of her claim hinged on providing the requested medical documentation. After several unsuccessful attempts to reach respondent, and after respondent advised Ms. Myers that her application could be re-submitted, Ms. Myers re-filed an application on her own in November, 2004. On March 9, 2004, Ms. Myers filed a complaint against respondent with the AGC. Following two separate requests for information from Bar Counsel, respondent provided Bar Counsel with Ms. Myers's entire file. During a conversation with Assistant Bar Counsel, respondent stated that he had never received a complaint before and was unclear as to the information that was being requested of him. At that time, however, there was a pending complaint against respondent that was filed by Mr. Pitts. Respondent further stated that he was unable to obtain the name of Ms. Myers's doctors from her, but a review of his client file revealed that the names of the physicians were indeed provided to respondent. The hearing judge concluded that respondent violated MLRPC 1.4 by failing to comply with Ms. Myers's numerous requests for information and by failing to keep her informed of the progress of her case, MLRPC 8.1(a) by knowingly making a false statement to Assistant Bar Counsel that he had never had a complaint lodged against him when one complaint had been previously dismissed and two were pending, and MLRPC 1.3 by not providing sufficient information to the OAH for reconsideration of his client's claim and for filing an untimely, incomplete and unsigned appeal on his client's behalf. Bar Counsel filed exceptions to the hearing judge's failure to find a violation of MLRPC 1.1. We sustain Bar Counsel's exception and conclude that respondent failed to provide Ms. Myers with competent and thorough representation in representing her in her disability retirement benefit claim.