Opinion ID: 1832639
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Trust Accounting Violations

Text: On May 30, 1997, The Florida Bar served a subpoena duces tecum on Williams seeking his trust account records. Although cooperative, Williams failed to provide all of the documents sought. Some items, such as ledger cards or journals for the clients and ten months of bank statements for 1995, were missing altogether. Williams claimed that his ledger consisted of client cards maintained in the client files, but that many files had been lost or destroyed. Williams provided check stubs in lieu of clients' journals, but the referee concluded that they were woefully inadequate and Williams' trust account could not be audited. Based upon these findings, the referee found Williams guilty of violating the following Rules Regulating the Florida Bar: 4-1.15(d) (failing to comply with Bar rules regulating trust accounts); 5-1.1(c) (failing to preserve records of trust accounts for a period of six years); 5-1.1(d) (failing to maintain the minimum required trust accounting records and follow the minimum trust accounting procedures); 5-1.2(b) (failing to maintain the minimum required trust accounting records); and 5-1.2(c) (failing to follow the minimum trust accounting procedures).