 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
In re Complaint as to the Conduct of Eadie12/6/2001
"shall not neglect a legal matter entrusted to the lawyer." The Bar also alleged that, by entrusting opposition of the summary judgment motions to Gresham, the accused violated that rule. The accused responds that Gresham had the requisite qualifications to be an effective advocate for clients in litigation.
To prove a violation of DR 6-101(B), the Bar must show a "course" of negligent conduct. In re Meyer (II), 328 Or 220, 225, 970 P2d 647 (1999). The Bar has failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the accused has engaged in a "course" of negligent conduct in violation of DR 6-101(B).
E. Summary
In sum, we find that the accused violated DR 1-102(A)(3) in both the Burke and Collins matters; DR 1-102(A)(4), DR 7-102(A)(5), and DR 7-110(B) in the Collins matter; DR 6-101(A), DR 7-106(C)(1) and DR 7-106(C)(7) in the Cassady matter; and DR 6-101(A) in the Martin matter. Those violations fall into four categories: misrepresentation and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice; incompetence; ex parte contact; and misconduct at trial. We turn to the appropriate sanction. In that regard, the Bar argues that this court should affirm the trial panel sanction and disbar the accused. The accused responds that the complaint should be dismissed.
III. SANCTION
In arriving at the appropriate sanction for lawyer misconduct, this court makes a preliminary determination by consulting the American Bar Association's Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions (1991) (amended 1992) (ABA Standards). Gustafson, 327 Or at 652. The ABA Standards direct us to analyze the accused's misconduct in light of the following factors: the duty violated, the accused's mental state at the time of the misconduct, the actual or potential injury that the accused's misconduct caused, and the existence of any aggravating or mitigating circumstances. ABA Standard 3.0. Finally, we analyze this court's case law to determine the sanction that should be imposed in the particular situation. In re Devers, 328 Or 230, 241, 974 P2d 191 (1999).
We analyze the factors described above with respect to each of the categories of misconduct identified in this case: misrepresentation and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice; incompetence; ex parte contact; and misconduct at trial.
A. Preliminary Determination
1. Misrepresentation and Conduct Prejudicial to Administration of Justice
The accused's misrepresentations in the Burke and Collins matters violated his duty to the public to maintain personal integrity. ABA Standard 5.1. The accused violated his duty to the legal system to refrain from making false statements and misrepresentations. ABA Standard 6.1.
We find that the accused's misrepresentations were intentional. That is, the accused acted with a conscious objective or purpose to accomplish a particular result. ABA Standards at 7. In the Burke matter, the accused intentionally submitted a default judgment for the purpose of being awarded costs after leading Burke to believe that he would dismiss Shon's action if Burke agreed to the settlement. The accused's dishonesty caused Burke actual injury , because a default judgment was entered against her.
In the Collins matter, the accused wanted the pretrial and trial dates changed, and he intentionally misrepresented to the trial judge that the judge had intended to change those dates. The accused also intentionally told several judges in the Collins matter that opposing counsel had made no effort to notify the accused of the hearing to quash the subpoena that the accused had issued to the Safeco employee, apparently with the motive to impug
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Oregon Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|