Opinion ID: 1742730
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Eckert Matter

Text: In September of 1998, D'Angelo was hired to represent Gary Eckert, administrator of the estate of James Arthur Eckert. In November of 2000, D'Angelo accepted a $4541 check from Eckert for his work on the estate. D'Angelo deposited this check in his trust account and almost immediately withdrew $2846 of the proceeds from the trust account without court authorization. [2] It is not clear when D'Angelo withdrew additional proceeds from the original $4541, but by April 2001, only $657.73 remained in his trust account for the Eckert estate. D'Angelo cannot verify why the funds were withdrawn, but speculates they may have been inadvertently withdrawn from the Eckert estate trust account for payments related to personal work done for Gary Eckert. D'Angelo also received a $6057.73 check from Eckert in April 1999, the date the inheritance tax return was signed by Eckert. D'Angelo did not file the inheritance tax return and the funds were not provided to the Iowa Department of Revenue for payment of the inheritance tax. D'Angelo does not know what happened to these funds. After a claim was filed with the Client Security Commission, D'Angelo reimbursed the Eckert estate for the missing funds.