 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Kentucky Bar Association v. Lococo9/27/2001
TO BE PUBLISHED
OPINION AND ORDER
Effective February 24, 2000, Respondent, Alecia Lococo, was temporarily suspended from the practice of law by this Court pursuant to SCR 3.165. lnauirv Com'n v. Lococo, Ky., 18 S.W.3d 341 (2000). Subsequently, Respondent was found guilty by the Kentucky Bar Association Board of Governors of five counts of professional misconduct arising from two separate incidents. The Board of Governors recommended a three-year suspension and assessed Respondent the costs of the action. We adopt the recommendation of the KBA Board of Governors.
FACTS
Two bar complaints were filed against the Respondent in 1999. The first was filed by William Tackett in January of 1999. The complaint was investigated by the Office of Bar Counsel and the Inquiry Commission issued a Charge in April of 1999. This Charge was labeled KBA file 7175. The second complaint was filed by Nellie Combs, one of Respondent's clients, in October of 1999. Again, the complaint was investigated and a second Charge was filed in December of 1999. This Charge was labeled KBA file 7664. The two KBA files were consolidated and tried as a single disciplinary case in May of 2000.
KBA File 7175
This Charge contained two counts concerning the alleged mismanagement of Respondent's escrow account and the alleged mishandling of a client's settlement funds. On or about October 15, 1998, Virginia Southwood, Respondent's client, settled her personal injury case for $17,500. The settlement check was transmitted to Respondent on October 23, 1998, and was deposited into Respondent's escrow account. However, because of pre-existing problems with the escrow account, the Southwood settlement funds were delivered to "cover" an escrow check previously issued to another client. A week or two later, Respondent authorized her secretary to issue a check on the escrow account payable to Ms. Southwood in the amount of $11,086.27, as payment of the net proceeds of the settlement that Ms. Southwood was entitled to receive. Ms. Southwood, unaware it was a cold check, endorsed the check from Respondent's escrow account and transferred it to Engle Funeral Home as payment of a $1,242.09 debt owed by Ms. Southwood to the funeral home. The manager of the funeral home, William Tackett, accepted the check and gave Ms. Southwood a funeral home check in the amount of $9,844.18, which represented the difference between Ms. Southwood's outstanding debt and the check she endorsed over to him. When Respondent's escrow check was presented for payment by the funeral home, it was returned due to insufficient funds. Mr. Tackett went to Respondent's office in December of 1998, demanding that his loss be cured.
Respondent did not immediately pay the funeral home and Mr. Tackett filed his bar complaint in January 1999. Engle Funeral Home was not made whole by Respondent until approximately nine months later, in August 1999, as a result of this disciplinary proceeding.
KBA File 7664
This Charge contained three counts concerning incompetent, non-diligent representation of a client, and general office mismanagement arising from Respondent's failure to file Ms. Combs' lawsuit within the appropriate statute of limitations. In December of 1998, Ms. Nellie Combs employed Respondent to represent her on a personal injury claim arising out of an automobile accident. Respondent did not file Ms. Combs' claim before April 20, 1999, the date that the statute of limitations expired on the claim. Respondent did not realize that a lawsuit had not been filed until August 1999, about four months after the statute of limitations expired. Respondent only became aware of the problem as
Page 1 2 3 4 Kentucky Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|