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People v. Vigil12/16/1996
Original Proceeding in Discipline
EN BANC
A hearing panel of the supreme court grievance committee approved the findings and recommendations of a hearing board that the respondent in this lawyer discipline proceeding be disbarred. Neither the respondent nor the deputy disciplinary counsel has excepted to the panel's action. We accept the hearing panel's recommendation.
I
The respondent was admitted to practice law in Colorado in 1976. Because he failed to answer the formal complaint filed by the deputy disciplinary counsel, a default was entered against him, and the allegations of fact contained in the complaint were deemed admitted. C.R.C.P. 241.13(b); People v. Barr, 855 P.2d 1386, 1386 (Colo. 1993). Based on the respondent's default and the evidence presented by the complainant, the board made the following findings.
On June 2, 1992, Melissa Doll was involved in a serious automobile accident. She remained in a coma for about two weeks and was hospitalized for a total of three months in Colorado and Pennsylvania. She was twenty-four years old. Ms. Doll was incapacitated for several months and she continues to suffer from memory loss and other residual effects of her head injury .
The respondent knew Ms. Doll from the athletic club where she worked. Shortly after the accident, the respondent petitioned the probate court to become Ms. Doll's temporary conservator, after consulting with her father who lived in Pennsylvania. John Doll was ill at the time and could not stay in Colorado to assist his daughter. The respondent did not request that a guardian ad litem be appointed. He was approved as temporary conservator on June 15, 1992. The respondent's petition for appointment requested limited authority to confer with Ms. Doll's employer, negotiate PIP claims with the insurance company, and make initial contact with the insurance companies regarding their liability to Ms. Doll. The respondent's conservatorship was valid until September 15, 1992.
Melissa Doll's brother, Steve, was also a passenger in the car, but he was less seriously injured. The respondent entered into an agreement with the brother to handle his personal injury claim.
In July 1992, the respondent retained James DeRose, his father-in-law and a lawyer, to handle Melissa Doll's personal injury claim. The respondent, on the protected person's behalf, signed a contingent fee agreement which provided that his father-in-law would receive 20% of any settlement amount recovered. The respondent neither obtained nor sought the required court approval to enter into the contingent fee agreement.
The driver's insurance policy had a maximum liability limit of $300,000 per accident, without regard to the number of claimants. Melissa Doll and her brother therefore had to compete for their share of that amount. The respondent eventually settled Steve Doll's claim for $80,000. In September 1992, the respondent's father-in-law settled the protected person's claim for $220,000. DeRose performed limited services to obtain his $44,000 fee, consisting of a brief exchange of correspondence with the insurer. Before the insurer issued the settlement check, but after the respondent's temporary conservatorship had expired, the respondent and John Doll authorized the appointment of DeRose as trustee for Melissa Doll.
DeRose drafted the trust agreement that the respondent signed as conservator to create the trust, without the approval of the court. While the order of temporary conservatorship did not specifically require court approval for such action, the probate court expected the respondent to obtain
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