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In re Disciplinary Proceedings Against Hausmann7/19/2005
ATTORNEY disciplinary proceeding. Attorney license suspended.
We review the referee's report and recommendation that Attorney Charles J. Hausmann's license to practice law in this state be suspended for one year for his professional misconduct as alleged in the complaint filed by the Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) in this court on January 15, 2004. That complaint alleged that Hausmann, who was admitted to practice law in this state on February 12, 1971, and has had no prior disciplinary history, committed two counts of professional misconduct by violating SCR 20:1.7(b) and SCR 20:8.4(b). Attorney James Winiarski was appointed as referee in this matter. Shortly before the scheduled public hearing, the parties filed a joint stipulation whereby Hausmann stipulated not only to the facts supporting the violations as alleged by the OLR in its complaint, but also that the facts established his violations of SCR 20:1.7(b) and SCR 20:8.4(b). The only issue in dispute before the referee concerned the appropriate sanction to be recommended for Hausmann's admitted violations of the two rules. The OLR urged the referee to recommend a two-year suspension of Hausmann's license; Hausmann, on the other hand, advocated a five-month suspension as being the appropriate sanction for his admitted misconduct. In his report, the referee recommended that this court impose a one-year suspension plus require Hausmann to pay the costs of this disciplinary proceeding now totaling $14,431.78.
Neither Hausmann nor the OLR have appealed and neither challenge the referee's recommendation regarding the sanction to be imposed; accordingly, this court's review proceeds pursuant to SCR 22.17(2).
After our review of the record in this matter, we adopt the referee's findings of fact and conclusions of law as stipulated to by the parties. We also accept the referee's recommendation and agree that a one-year suspension of Hausmann's license to practice law in this state is an appropriate sanction to be imposed for his admitted misconduct. We also determine that Hausmann should pay all the costs of these disciplinary proceedings in the amount specified, $14,431.78.
Charles Hausmann practices law in Milwaukee primarily representing personal injury plaintiffs. His firm, Hausmann-McNally, S.C., is one of the largest personal injury firms in the area with most of its clients coming from Milwaukee. Attorney Hausmann is no longer as active in the actual representation of clients as he had been in the past; now as the self-described firm's "rainmaker," he spends a substantial amount of his time marketing the law firm to prospective clients.
The firm's personal injury clients are required to sign a retainer agreement which usually provides that the firm will be paid one-third of whatever total sum is collected on behalf of the client. In the retainer agreement, the client authorizes the firm to pay medical and other bills directly to the medical providers and hospitals; the money to pay those bills comes directly from the client's portion of any settlement payments received. After a retainer agreement had been signed, the firm frequently would refer clients to various medical providers in the Milwaukee area. Between October 1999 and June 2001, the firm referred approximately 200 clients to a chiropractor, Scott Rise, and his clinic, Milwaukee Spinal Injury Center. Sometime before these referrals started, Hausmann and Rise entered into an oral agreement by which Rise agreed to provide chiropractic care and treatment to the law firm's clients who did not have insurance; Rise also agreed that he would not insist upon immediate payment, would wait for payment until conclusion of the personal i
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