Court Opinion

ID: 9536162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:55:51.351912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:28.401291
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Chief Justice,
specially dissenting.
The Administrative Committee recommended to the Disciplinary Board of the State Bar of Arizona that there be issued a private reprimand to the respondent, Mercer. The Disciplinary Board recommended a two-month suspension. I am of the opinion that two months’ suspension is a wholly inadequate and inappropriate punishment for such unconscionable charges. It is alarming to me that both the Administrative Committee and the Disciplinary Board seem to feel that this is a minor violation of the Disciplinary Rules. I do not think so.
Here, in a case in which an injured person’s claim is processed almost automatically without the need of a lawyer, Mercer charged a fee of nearly 100% of what his client received as compensation. In this Court respondent still argues that the fee he charged was not excessive. It is obvious that he does not understand the basic concepts of a lawyer’s moral obligations to society. The facts of this case at a minimum justify a suspension for two years. The State of Arizona is not a jungle where stragglers are fair game to be picked off by the ruthless.