Wasted Effort

The Utah Supreme Court concluded that an appeal of a district court order of suspension was untimely. The suspension was imposed as reciprocal discipline based on the attorney’s suspension in federal court.

The court here rejected the attorney’s assertion that the lower court did not have jurisdiction to impose the sanction, and closed with a bit of advice:

In affirming the denial of [the attorney’s] attempt to revive his initial appeal, we cannot help but wonder whether the time and effort [he] devoted to this appeal may have been better spent seeking readmission under RLDD 14-525 or, as suggested by counsel for the OPC at oral argument, by compliance with RLDD 14-525(j). [His] one-year suspension has long since lapsed. His compliance with these provisions as a condition of reinstatement seems a small price to pay to resume the practice of law— presumably a smaller price than the time and effort spent on this untimely appeal.

(Mike Frisch)