Court Opinion

ID: 9737380
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:23:35.554521+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:23:58.512010
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE MORAN, dissenting: The Hearing Board found that respondent intentionally recanted a sworn statement to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC). In other words, respondent intentionally lied to the ARDC. Normally such serious misconduct would warrant a substantial suspension or disbarment. (See, e.g., In re Nadler (1982), 91 Ill. 2d 326.) The substantial mitigating factors in this case are sufficient to convince me that neither disbarment nor a long suspension is appropriate. Nonetheless, I do not feel that censure alone is a sufficient sanction given the serious nature of the misconduct involved. In a similar case, In re Crisel (1984), 101 Ill. 2d 332, this court recognized the mitigating nature of the respondent’s psychological problems but still imposed a three-year suspension, stayed pending completion of a concurrent three-year period of probation. The requirement in Crisel that the respondent undergo psychiatric treatment as a condition of probation was, in my view, an additional measure to safeguard the public; it was not, as the majority here suggests, the reason for imposing probation instead of censure. I believe that a similar approach is necessary in this case to adequately protect the public. However, since there is no need for lengthy ongoing psychiatric treatment, I would not impose as long a period of probation as in Crisel. Therefore, I would suspend respondent for one year, stay the suspension, and impose a concurrent one-year period of probation.