Court Opinion

ID: 9751458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:28:32.1702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:18.811474
License: Public Domain

Judge WEFING
(temporarily assigned), dissenting.
I write separately because I am unable to join my colleagues’ conclusion that a censure is the appropriate measure of discipline for respondent. In support of their conclusion, my colleagues cite, among other reasons, the corrective measures respondent has taken, the fact that no client suffered harm, and the length of time *104it has taken to resolve these proceedings. I do not find these factors persuasive, either singly or in combination.
As to the corrective measures taken by respondent, many are elemental steps that respondent should have assured himself were in place from the first day he opened his practice. It is inexplicable that one with the accounting and business background of respondent would fail to institute such measures.
That no client suffered a loss as a result of respondent’s failure to follow elemental principles of recordkeeping is a matter of great fortune, both for respondent’s clients and for respondent. In my judgment, such sheer fortuity does not mitigate the quantum of discipline for respondent’s recordkeeping infractions.
Nor can I consider the passage of time a sufficient mitigating factor. My colleagues cite two cases for that principle: In re Alum, 162 N.J. 313, 744 A.2d 172 (2000), and In re Pena, 162 N.J. 15, 738 A.2d 363 (1999). In my judgment, the manner in which this Court referred to the passage of time in those cases is significantly distinguishable from the present matter. In those cases, the Court dealt with disciplinary charges that had been filed many years after the unethical attorney conduct occurred; the passages of time were not attributable to protracted disciplinary proceedings. In Pena, supra, the conduct at issue took place seven years before a grievance was filed, 162 N.J. at 20, 738 A.2d 363, and in Alum, supra, the conduct occurred eleven years earlier. 162 N.J. at 316, 744 A.2d 172. In neither case did we find that the length of time needed to conclude the disciplinary matter could serve as mitigation. In Alum, moreover, although we accounted for that eleven-year time span, it did not serve to step down entirely the quantum of discipline. Rather, the Court ordered that the respondent be suspended for one year but then suspended that suspension and placed respondent on probation for that period of time, conditioned on the requirement that respondent “perform legal services of a community nature consisting of the equivalent of one day per week.” Id. at 316, 744 A.2d 172.
*105In my judgment, the nature of the recordkeeping infractions at issue in this matter mandates a short period of suspension for respondent in order to preserve public confidence in the bar. Thus, I must dissent.
ORDER
It is ORDERED that KEVIN P. WIGENTON of RED BANK, who was admitted to the bar of this State in 1992, is hereby censured; and it is further
ORDERED that the entire record of this matter be made a permanent part of respondent’s file as an attorney at law of this State, and it is further
ORDERED that respondent reimburse the Disciplinary Oversight Committee for appropriate administrative costs and actual expenses incurred in the prosecution of this matter, as provided in Rule 1:20-17.
For censure—Chief Justice RABNER, and Justices
LaVECCHIA, ALBIN, HOENS and PATTERSON—5.
For Suspension—Judge WEFING (temporarily assigned)—1.