Court Opinion

ID: 9648652
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:31:29.9446+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:45.239124
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice CAPPY
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s imposition of a suspension for a period of five years, and would disbar Respondent. Initially, I note that Respondent has failed to satisfy his burden of demonstrating that his psychiatric disorder was a substantial causal factor in his misconduct pursuant to Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Braun, 520 Pa. 157, 553 A.2d 894 (1989). The nature of his misconduct—affixing a judge’s signature to an order approving the settlement of a claim and submitting the same to an insurance carrier—is of the most egregious nature. Respondent further attempted to conceal his misconduct by filing a motion with the court in which he falsely asserted that the trial judge had signed the order, but that the order had been inadvertently misplaced. Under these circumstances, where the very nature of the legal *461process has been compromised, the appropriate sanction is disbarment.
Justice SAYLOR joins this dissenting statement.