Lawyer Remains Stuck in Jail Over Failure to Pay $1.5M
A disbarred Massachusetts lawyer remains in jail after failing to persuade a judge that he is unable to repay a former client another $1.5 million.
In a hearing last week, Richard Birchall, who has been in jail for almost a year, said he has no more money, the Cape Cod Times reports. He argued he has already given the client half of the almost $3 million he was ordered to repay, and that satisfies an original court order that he make “full or partial payment.”
The argument failed to sway Judge H. Gregory Williams, who held Birchall in contempt last year after finding he had the ability to repay the entire $3 million he took from a former client, Suzanne D’Amour. The judge said he would not be satisfied with a partial payment if D’Amour was not satisfied, and Birchall could file a judicial misconduct complaint against him if he didn’t like the explanation, the story reports.
Birchall was disbarred based on complaints by the client and others that he promised to protect their assets from creditors and then deposited their money into corporations and bank accounts he controlled.
