Court Opinion

ID: 9673917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:20:26.375724+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:24.772062
License: Public Domain

*556BLACKMAR, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I agree that the respondent should be disbarred. The evidence shows that he commingled monies belonging to others with his own funds, and did not make prompt remittance. He used his trust account for his own purposes, and the balance was not always adequate to cover outstanding obligations. The case therefore comes within the holdings of In re Mendell, 693 S.W.2d 76 (Mo. banc 1985) and In re Lechner, 715 S.W.2d 257 (Mo. banc 1986). I suppose that it is possible that a trust account could become impaired by reason of carelessness, as in drawing a check for a larger amount than was due, or having a check deposited in the account returned by the drawee bank after the proceeds had been checked out of the trust account, but it is incumbent on the lawyer who is faced by problems of this kind to provide justification.
This case is unfortunate, because of the evidence that the respondent is a capable advocate in the workers compensation area, and has shared his knowledge with others. It is also unfortunate that all of the charges involve conduct occurring before our earlier opinion was handed down. But I am persuaded that, had the present charges been known to us at the time of the first proceeding, disbarment would have been necessary.
This proceeding shows the need for a counseling procedure, such as I recommended to The Missouri Bar in September of 1989. See C.B. Blackmar, In Pursuit of Excellence, 45 J.Mo.Bar 395, 396 (1989). Had counseling on office management and docket control been available to this respondent at the time of the initial complaints against him, perhaps correction could have been made before multiple serious charges accumulated.
I concur in the principal opinion.