Judge commits lawyer who tried to back out of agreed mental evaluation
A suspended Georgia lawyer won a delay of a contempt hearing last week by voluntarily agreeing to a psychiatric evaluation. But Christopher Nicholson was involuntarily committed the next day by the same judge, when he tried to leave the Georgia Regents Medical Center Hospital before the exam was complete.
Hospital staff called Richmond County Superior Judge Daniel J. Craig as attorney Christopher Nicholson was about to exit, and Craig issued the commitment order. It says Nicholson’s attending psychiatrist thought the commitment would be reasonable, the Augusta Chronicle reports. Another Augusta Chronicle article provides additional details.
The newspaper says involuntary commitments in the state normally do not exceed 72 hours, but Craig’s order requires Nicholson to be held until an evaluation is completed and Craig OKs his release.
Craig was scheduled last week to hear a Dec. 11 contempt citation against Nicholson by Judge J. Wade Padgett, who accused the attorney of disrespectful and abusive behavior in court.
Nicholson was temporarily suspended from law practice Dec. 22 in an apparently unrelated legal ethics case. It concerned a dispute over medical bills for a deceased accident victim that Nicholson agreed to pay, as estate administrator, under the terms of an insurance settlement, the newspaper explains.
After Nicholson didn’t pay the bills, Judge J. David Roper found him in contempt Oct. 30 and imposed a $1,000-a-day fine for not complying with the insurer’s discovery.
