 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Attorney Grievance Commission v. Zuckerman4/13/2005
uckerman, as a matter of routine practice, also did not distribute funds in timely fashion to third party medical providers and thereby violated MRPC 1.15 (b). He claims as his defense that he did not pay these providers because he was waiting for personal injury protection insurance coverage issues "to resolve." This routine practice left at least $144,000.00 in limbo over a period of at least three years. In order to correct this situation, it took Zuckerman until December 2004 to pay the medical providers their money.
By comparison, in DiCicco we sanctioned the attorney for negligent transgressions that impacted perhaps eleven clients, without a conclusive holding as to the amount of funds in question, by imposing an indefinite suspension with a right to reapply no sooner than ninety days. Sperling received the identical sanction, notwithstanding the lack of a specific holding as to the number of clients whose funds were misappropriated negligently, where his attorney escrow account had a $42,415.91 shortfall. In the present case, Zuckerman's unethical accounting practices impacted at least one hundred fifty-five clients and third parties and endangered $311,898.11 of client trust money and at least $144,000 owed to third parties. Unlike Stolarz and Adams, where the unintentional transgressions involved only one client and in much smaller amounts ($300.00 and $2,000.00, respectively), Zuckerman's unintentional (negligent) misappropriations were of greater impact and scope.
Lastly, I consider the mitigating factors. Like DiCicco, Zuckerman has no history of prior disciplinary proceedings. Yet, having an unblemished record is not a salve that cures all ills. It may have greater weight where the transgressions are minor in scope, apparently impact one client or only a few clients, and the misconduct may be characterized fairly as an isolated incident in a long career. See Stolarz, Adams, supra. When the misconduct of an attorney impacts potentially hundreds of clients and third parties and significant sums of money, a lesser sanction, even though the attorney has a "spotless" disciplinary record, hardly seems commensurate as a general deterrent against similar conduct by other attorneys. DiCicco, 369 Md. at 686, 802 A.2d at 1028. If a sanction is to protect generally the public from future, similar transgressions by lawyers, it must encourage all lawyers, not just those who have prior disciplinary records, to account responsibly for their client trust accounts. An indefinite suspension with a right to reapply no sooner than ninety days is the more appropriate sanction in the present case.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|