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Attorneys

Oct 6, 2023

Attorneys – Definite Suspension – Bar Disciplinary Board – Reciprocal Discipline

A definite suspension of 18 months is the appropriate sanction as reciprocal discipline for respondent lawyer’s professional misconduct in Virginia. No reason to justify different discipline; definite suspension imposed. On August 11, 2022, the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed a decision by the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board imposing an 18-month definite suspension as a sanction […]

Dec 2, 2022

Attorneys – Discipline – Definite Suspension – Overbilling 

The respondent-associate is suspended from the practice of law after using his firm’s software to inflate the hours that he worked, resulting in an overpayment of $17,772.74 by the firm (no clients overpaid). The associate repaid the overpayment, expresses remorse and explains that his preoccupation with financial security arose from his disadvantaged upbringing. Respondent explains […]

Oct 24, 2022

Attorneys – Discipline – Definite Suspension – Domestic Violence – Alcohol Monitoring 

After an altercation with her boyfriend in which both parties suffered minor injuries and a gun was accidentally discharged, (1) respondent was charged with third-degree domestic violence, (2) she self-reported the charge and was placed on interim suspension, (3) she entered into a monitoring contract with Lawyers Helping Lawyers (LHL), (4) she successfully completed an […]

Jul 13, 2022

Attorneys – Bar Applicant – Truthfulness & Candor – Past Misdeeds 

Despite his passage of the bar exam, because of misrepresentations on his law school application and on social media, a bar applicant’s admission to practice law is delayed for one year.  The anonymous applicant’s petition for admission to practice law is granted but delayed.  Facts  On his law school application, the anonymous applicant (applicant) failed […]

Sep 14, 2018

Consumer Protection – Attorneys – Debt Collection Letters – Possibility of Litigation – Confession of Judgment

The defendant-law firm’s original debt collection letter didn’t violate 15 U.S.C. § 1692g of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act just because it mentioned that litigation could be commenced during the same period in which the plaintiff-debtor could contest the debt. However, the law firm may have violated 15 U.S.C. § 1692e in follow-up letters […]

Aug 31, 2018

Civil Practice – Attorneys – Rule 11 Motion – Timeliness – Post-Appeal

A motion for sanctions under Rule 11, SCRCP, filed by defendant nine days after remittitur from plaintiff’s unsuccessful appeal, was timely, especially since one part of the consolidated appeal involved the same conduct at issue in the Rule 11 motion. We affirm the Court of Appeals’ ruling that defendant’s motion under the Frivolous Civil Proceedings […]

Aug 7, 2018

Criminal Practice – Attorneys – Conflict of Interest – Adequate Screening

Only a week before trial, the state disclosed a witness who was represented by an attorney in the public defender’s office in obtaining a deal for his testimony against defendant. Although no explicit screening mechanism was in place between that attorney and defense counsel, who also worked in the public defender’s office, no confidential information […]

Jan 10, 2018

Court OKs removal of bickering attorneys

  A trial judge did not abuse his discretion when, just two weeks before the start of a capital murder trial, he removed and replaced the defendant’s bickering attorneys, the state Supreme Court ruled Dec. 20. The defendant, Allen Cottrell, had established a relationship with his appointed attorneys and told Circuit Court Judge Larry Hyman […]

Dec 22, 2017

Criminal Practice – Attorneys – Removal of Defense Counsel – Jury & Jurors – Murder of a Police Officer

State v. Cottrell (Lawyers Weekly No.010-001-18, 24 pp.) (Kaye Hearn, J.) (John Few, J., concurring in the result only) Appealed from Horry County Circuit Court (Larry Hyman Jr., J.) S.C. S. Ct. Holding: When the first chair defense attorney accused the second chair of dishonesty and unethical conduct while the second chair challenged the first […]

Jun 14, 2017

Hearing set in lawsuit over inmate access to attorneys

A hearing has been scheduled in a lawsuit accusing a South Carolina jail of violating inmates’ constitutional rights by preventing them from meeting with lawyers from a civil liberties group. Court documents filed Tuesday show a hearing is scheduled for June 22 in federal court in Greenville. The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina […]

May 8, 2017

Civil Practice – Federal Question – Remand – Attorneys – Legal Malpractice Claim

Tuomy v. Nexsen Pruet, LLC (Lawyers Weekly No. 002-117-17, 9 pp.) (Margaret Seymour, S.J.) 3:16-cv-02806; D.S.C. Holding: Although defendant’s defenses may raise issues of federal law, the complaint does not call into question the proper interpretation of the Stark Law or the False Claims Act; rather, it concerns the reasonableness of defendant’s advice regarding certain […]

Mar 29, 2017

Criminal Practice – Attorneys – Ineffective Assistance Claim – Failures to Object – No Prejudice – Victim Impact – Rehearing Petitions

Editor’s Note: On petitions for rehearing in Stone v. State, the court denied the petitions, withdrew its previous opinion, and filed a substitute opinion. The only changes in the substituted opinion are at the end of the “Evidence of Brain Damage and Intellectual Impairment” section in the following paragraph: “As to Stone’s claim that trial […]

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