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Attorney Grievance Commission v. Zuckerman4/13/2005
nt deposited $5,500 in his trust account, representing the amount of the settlement. On April 27, 1999, he removed $1,833.00 from his trust account as a fee in the case and an additional $30.00 for expenses. On May 10, 1999, respondent again removed $1,833.00 from the account as a fee and another $30.00 for expenses. As a result of his charging duplicate fees, he invaded the funds of other clients when he removed his fees from his trust account.
B. Conclusion of Law: Respondent Violated Rule 1.15(a) and Md. Bus. Occ. & Prof. Code Ann. § 10-306
"The conduct described above violates Rule 1.15(a), which provides in part that `a lawyer shall hold the property of clients or third persons that is in the lawyer's possession in connection with a representation separate from the lawyer's own property. The funds shall be kept in a separate account maintained pursuant to Title 16, Chapter 600 of the Maryland Rules.' His conduct also violates BOP § 10-306, which provides that `a lawyer may not use the trust money for any purpose other than the purpose for which the trust money is entrusted to the lawyer.'
"Respondent violated the Rule and the Code by writing checks drawn on his trust account to clients who had no funds on deposit in his trust account. In doing so, respondent was giving these clients funds belonging to other clients and thereby failing to keep funds belonging to the other clients in a separate account. In other words, he was giving funds belonging to one client to another. This is a misuse of the money he was holding in trust, which was given to him for the purpose of paying the obligations of the clients whom the settlement checks were written.
"The facts recited above show that this practice was routine in the respondent's office. Time after time, checks were written to clients from respondent's trust account before their settlement checks had been deposited. For example, in the cases of Frances Hubbard and Sally Smith, there was a thirteen day gap between the writing of the check and the deposit of the funds. In the case of a loan to Brittingham, it was a twenty-seven day gap. In the case of McKinley Richardson, it was five months.
"It is further evident from respondent's testimony that he did not view this practice as a matter of concern, even though on one occasion it produced an overdraft. His testimony concerning the overdraft was to the effect that it was not a matter of great import because the account balance was up to several thousand dollars the same day of the overdraft. It is inferable that respondent's view of the matter was that as long as there were funds available to cover the checks that were coming in on any one day, the advancing of funds to individual clients was not a matter of concern. As the Court made clear in Attorney Grievance Commission v. Glenn, 671 A.2d 463,474, an attorney's trust account must have funds in it to cover the outstanding obligations of the account. Respondent failed to do this and thereby violated Rule 1.15(a) and BOP §10-306.
III. Rules 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.15 (b) (Competence; Diligence; Communication; Failure to Notify or Deliver the Funds of Medical Providers and Others)
A. Findings of Fact
"Respondent routinely held money from personal injury settlements for the purpose of paying medical providers. He did not pay the providers promptly after the settlements because he wanted to resolve PIP issues before disbursing the funds to the medical providers. He directed his office employees to put the files which had undisbursed funds aside, to be reviewed periodically. When respondent hired Ms. Becker, money had accumulated in the account for a period of over three ye
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