Lawyer Gets Enhanced Sanction (a Reprimand) for Ignoring Both Client and Disciplinary Authorities
The New Jersey Supreme Court imposed an enhanced sanction on a lawyer who not only failed to return a former real estate client’s many phone calls but didn’t refund $250 from an escrow account, reports the Legal Profession Blog. But that was because Christopher McCarthy also didn’t respond to a legal ethics complaint.
As the court explained, in a written opinion (PDF) linked to the post, “For respondent’s lack of diligence, failure to communicate with the clients, failure to promptly return their funds, and failure to reply to the grievance, only an admonition might have been sufficient. Here, however, there is the additional element of the respondent’s default. In a default matter, the appropriate discipline for the found ethics violations is enhanced to reflect the attorney’s failure to cooperate with disciplinary authorities as an aggravating factor… We, therefore, determine that a reprimand is the appropriate discipline in this case.”
It appears that the former client still hasn’t gotten the $250 back, the post notes, questioning whether McCarthy was sufficiently penalized. He has no prior record of attorney discipline, the court notes.
