Lawyer, Paralegal Blame Each Other for $200,000 in Missing Client Money
Recent testimony by an ex-attorney in Florida and her former paralegal, office manager and best friend sheds considerable light on why their law firm had trouble managing its money and lost track, at least, of some $200,000 in missing client funds.
The ex-attorney, Jessica Miller, who is currently being held in jail, awaiting sentencing for criminal contempt of court, says she left everything to her paralegal, Kristen Collins, to manage. Collins, on her side, doesn’t deny paying firm and personal bills with client trust account checks, but contends Miller authorized her to do so, according to the St. Petersburg Times, which doesn’t name the now-defunct firm. It apparently was a solo or very small practice in Port Richey, in Pasco County, with Miller at the helm.
Although they blame each other for the firm’s financial problems, the two women agree on one thing, the newspaper notes: It didn’t have a financial ledger.
A criminal investigation is ongoing, and for Collins it is not the first: She “was sentenced to probation in 2005 for forging the signatures of a Pasco judge and a Pinellas attorney,” reports the Times. Meanwhile, “twice in nine years the ar found she engaged in the unlicensed practice of law” and “she’s now under investigation on charges that she did it again.”
