Opinion ID: 1095024
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Misrepresenting Conflict in Trial Schedule

Text: Respondent White filed a motion in a state district court asking to be relieved of appointment as counsel for an indigent on the grounds that such representation would conflict with his role as counsel in a civil jury case scheduled for trial in federal district court. The bar association asserts that White knew that the federal case had been removed from the trial docket and that he made a false statement of fact in order to escape the appointment to represent an indigent. The United States district judge in whose court the federal case was pending and an attorney representing the adverse party testified that prior to White's motion to be relieved of the appointment, at a pre-trial conference attended by all three, the judge had cancelled the trial in the federal case and had agreed to consider motions for summary judgment to be submitted by the parties. Further, a copy of the minute entry of the federal court reflecting cancellation of the scheduled trial was mailed to the respondent. White claims that he did not receive the minute entry and did not understand the federal judge to say at the pre-trial conference that he definitely had cancelled the trial. However, in view of the definite, consistent, and disinterested testimony of the federal judge and attorney in the federal case, and the unlikelihood that White could have been mistaken or uncertain about whether he had to be prepared for a civil jury trial within 10 days of the date he filed his state court motion, we find that it is highly probable that White knowingly concealed the fact of the federal trial cancellation and made a false statement of fact to the state court in an attempt to be relieved of an indigent appointment. In doing so, he violated disciplinary rules in his representation of a client by concealing or knowingly failing to disclose that which he was required to reveal and by knowingly making a false statement of law or fact. DR 7-102(A)(3) and (5).