Opinion ID: 2314935
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 23

Heading: concurring and dissenting report and recommendation of hamilton p. fox, iii

Text: I agree with the Board's finding that Respondent has violated DR 1-102(A)(5), engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice; DR 2-110(A)(2), failing to return documents to his clients after his representation was terminated; and DR 9-103(B)(4), failure to return promptly clients' property. I also agree with the recommended sanction of thirty-day suspension, but I disagree that Respondent should not be required to make restitution to Ms. Cante in the amount of $1,435 plus interest at seven percent, compounded annually, to run from November 23, 1985, the date Ms. Cante paid Respondent $1,635.00 in legal fees and filing fees. I would condition his reinstatement on his making full restitution. In January, 1987, Ms. Cante filed a complaint with Bar Counsel alleging, in essence, that Respondent had neglected the matter for which she had retained him in November, 1985. Respondent chose not to contest this claim, but rather on three separate occasions promised Bar Counsel that he would repay to Ms. Cante the legal fees that she had paid him. In part in return for this promise, Bar Counsel proceeded to dismiss the complaint against Respondent. Respondent made one $200 payment to Ms. Cante in January, 1988, and then failed to make any further payments. Bar Counsel then instituted the current proceedings, alleging that Respondent's failure to live up to his promise to make restitution to Ms. Cante constituted conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. For some reason, Bar Counsel did not charge neglect or failure to return an unearned fee. Thus, it appears that the Bar Counsel made two mistakes. First, he dismissed Ms. Cante's complaint based on Respondent's promise to make restitution before Respondent had actually done so. Second, when Respondent failed to live up to his promise, Bar Counsel elected not to charge neglect or failure to return an unearned fee when he reopened Ms. Cante's matter. The Board seizes upon the second mistake to justify its refusal to order restitution. The Board says, Our review of the record convinces us that the specification of charges did not adequately place Respondent on notice that the nature and extent of the services he performed for Ms. Cante were at issue in this case. This language suggests that at the heart of the Board's reasoning is a due process consideration. The notion seems to be that unless the specification of charges informs a Respondent that the nature and extent of his services are at issue, the remedy of restitution is not available. This overly punctilious approach to the niceties of pleadings is reiterated in footnote 3 of the Board's report. It says that since Bar Counsel failed to charge Respondent with one of the violations that relates directly to fees, the Board will not order him to make restitution of those fees. This is despite the fact that the initial complaint in this case was about Respondent's keeping a fee that he did not earn, that Respondent elected not to contest that charge but instead agreed to settle it, that Respondent failed to live up to his promise to make restitution, and that the failure to make restitution resulted directly in the charge that was brought against Respondent. To the extent that the Board's position is premised on an absence of notice in the charges, I believe the Board is being unduly technical. Charges must be sufficiently specific so that people can defend against them, but I am aware of no rule of law which says that charges must specify the potential remedies which may be employed if they are proven. Since restitution is a remedy, and not a violation, I am unmoved by the fact that the charges make no mention of the possibility that if they are proven, restitution may be ordered. The Court's rules seem consistent with the approach I advocate. Rule XI, Section 3(b) provides: When imposing discipline, the Court or the Board may require an attorney to make restitution either to the persons financially injured by the attorney's conduct or to the Client's Security Trust Fund ... or both, as a condition of probation or of reinstatement. This rule says nothing about whether the petition must charge a particular violation. Its focus is instead on the attorney's conduct and whether that conduct financially injures anyone. I have no difficulty in concluding that when a lawyer promises to make restitution to his client, and fails to live up to that promise, he has financially injured that client. Respondent promised on three separate occasions to make restitution to Ms. Cante. In consideration for his promise, Bar Counsel elected not to proceed on the complaint that Ms. Cante had filed. Respondent's failure to keep his promise is proven, the Board agrees, by clear and convincing evidence. Respondent was aware that Ms. Cante's initial complaint was, in essence, that he took her money and failed to provide her with significant legal services. He chose not to contest this claim, but rather to promise to pay the money back. I can see no reason why Respondent should not be required to live up to that promise. There may be some notion underlying the Board's reluctance to order restitution that Respondent cannot afford to make restitution. He did seek, unsuccessfully, a discharge in bankruptcy. Nevertheless, I find it difficult to believe that he cannot afford to make reimbursement. The sum in question (without interest) is less than $1,500. Raising such a sum is not beyond the means of most persons, much less most lawyers. It is certainly conceivable that making restitution will impose financial hardship on Respondent, but I find that fact irrelevant. I suspect that making the $1,600 payment may well have imposed a financial hardship on Ms. Cante, so I am not moved if in fact it imposes a hardship on Respondent. [1] Moreover, if in fact restitution were beyond Respondent's needs, that fact would seem to be one that would naturally be raised by Respondent in his defense to the charge that he failed to live up to his promise to make restitution. Yet the Hearing Committee made no finding that Respondent's failure to honor his promise of restitution was due to his impecunious condition. I also believe that in this case, and in every other case in which the Board recommends restitution, that it is not sufficient for Respondent simply to return the money paid to him by his client. That money ought to be returned at a reasonable rate of interest, say seven percent a year compounded annually, so that the client is in fact made whole. Lawyers are not entitled to interest-free loans from their clients, and clients are entitled to have the full value of their money refunded. Moreover, in light of Respondent's track record, I would also recommend imposition of the condition that Respondent not be reinstated until he can demonstrate that he has made restitution to Ms. Cante. See Rule XI, Section 3(b). It seems to me that at times the disciplinary system's focus is too much on the protection of lawyers and not enough on what I consider to be the primary goal of the system, the protection of the consumers of legal services. In my judgement, our focus should be on doing what we can to assure that clients are not hurt. This may be hard on lawyers, but when we consider the question of sanction, we are by definition dealing with lawyers who have failed to live up to their ethical obligations. In balancing our concern for the plight of the lawyers who appear before usa better educated, generally privileged class who have, nevertheless, failed to live up to their obligationsversus the interests of their clientsfrequently in the cases that appear before us, a much less favored class of societyI have no problem in striking the balance in favor of the clients. In this case, for example, Ms. Cante paid to Respondent the sum of $1,635 almost five years ago. Respondent promised to pay the money back more than three and one half years ago. If the Board's recommended sanction is imposed, following another lapse of time while the Court of Appeals considers this case, Ms. Cante will still not have returned to her the fees that she paid to Respondent, except for the one $200 payment. Instead, after many years have lapsed, the Board offers Ms. Cante the cold comfort of initiating litigation, which may well be impractical given the costs of litigation and the amount in question, or making application to the Client Security Fund to have her money returned. Even if Ms. Cante is successful in obtaining her money from the Client Security Fund, I see no reason why that fund should have to pay an obligation which belongs to Respondent and which he has three times promised to pay. I conclude, therefore, that when in a case, such as this, the facts reveal an obligation on the part of the Respondent to return funds to a client, the Board should recommend, and the Court should order absent some showing by the Respondent that such an order is not appropriate, that as part of the sanction, the client be made whole. /s/ Hamilton P. Fox, III Hamilton P. Fox, III Date: September 11, 1990 Ms. Kaiser and Mr. Freund join in this concurring and dissenting opinion.