Opinion ID: 1926090
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: client j.a.e.counts 3-5

Text: [3] ¶ 15. The OLR complaint alleged that Cavendish-Sosinski represented J.A.E. in a matter in Waukesha Municipal Court. Cavendish-Sosinski informed J.A.E. on August 9, 2000, that J.A.E. need not appear at a pretrial conference then set for August 21, 2000. That pretrial was subsequently rescheduled for August 23, 2000, but Cavendish-Sosinski was not notified of the new date. ¶ 16. When neither J.A.E. or Cavendish-Sosinski appeared at the rescheduled pretrial conference, a default judgment was entered against J.A.E. in the Waukesha Municipal Court. On September 6, 2000, Cavendish-Sosinski asked the court to reopen the default judgment asserting lack of notice. That request was granted and a new pretrial was scheduled for October 10, 2000. ¶ 17. On September 20, 2000, Cavendish-Sosinski wrote to J.A.E. informing her of that new date, but telling J.A.E. that she need not appear. Cavendish-Sosinski also informed J.A.E. that informal negotiations were ongoing with the city attorney. ¶ 18. Neither Cavendish-Sosinski nor her client J.A.E. appeared at that October 10, 2000, pretrial; as a result, a default judgment was again entered against J.A.E. who had not appeared based on the respondent's information. Cavendish-Sosinski did not inform J.A.E. of that default judgment. ¶ 19. The OLR complaint further alleged that during her representation of J.A.E. Cavendish-Sosinski failed to respond to various requests for information about the status of the case. Cavendish-Sosinski later explained her failure on the ground that she had no legal assistant and her office systems were in disarray at the time. ¶ 20. In April of 2001 J.A.E. filed a grievance with the OLR against Cavendish-Sosinski. The OLR staff on April 24, 2001, wrote a letter to Cavendish-Sosinski requesting her written response to the J.A.E. grievance. Cavendish-Sosinski did not respond nor did she respond to a second OLR request sent to her on May 24, 2001. After personal service of the OLR's third request requiring a response by June 14, 2001, Cavendish-Sosinski finally responded on June 22, 2001. Thereafter, however, she failed to respond to two additional letters from OLR staff seeking supplemental information. ¶ 21. After the matter was referred to the OLR's district committee, the district committee's investigator on May 23, 2002, and June 5, 2002, wrote to Cavendish-Sosinski requesting that she contact him; on May 29, 2002, the investigator also attempted to contact her by telephone. Cavendish-Sosinski did not respond to the investigator's letters or to his phone call; she did not cooperate with the district committee's investigation until after she had been personally served with a notice to appear. ¶ 22. Based on this course of conduct, the referee concluded that respondent had committed the violations alleged in Counts 3, 4, and 5 of the OLR complaint. Specifically, the referee concluded that Cavendish-Sosinski's conduct violated the attorney's duty to act with reasonable diligence as prescribed by SCR 20:1.3; constituted a failure to keep a client informed as required by SCR 20:1.4(a); and was a failure to cooperate with an OLR investigation and with a district committee as required by SCR 22.03(2), SCR 22.03(6) and SCR 22.04(1).