No Discipline For Minor Transgressions

The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed findings of ethics violations but nonetheless imposed no discipline in light of the “minor” nature of the transgressions.

Having considered the referee’s report and the parties’ briefs and oral argument on appeal, we conclude that Attorney Rajek committed the rule violations on five counts as found by the referee.  The violations, however, involved relatively minor failures of communication, including failures in some instances to provide certain notices or pieces of information to clients under Supreme Court Rule (SCR) 20:1.15(b)(4m), which sets forth the alternative procedure for handling advanced fees.  They did not involve the sufficiency or quality of the legal representation provided by Attorney Rajek to his clients.  Given the particular facts of this case and the nature of the violations, we determine that it is not necessary to impose any discipline on Attorney Rajek and that there is no basis for a restitution award.  We do require Attorney Rajek to pay costs, but we reduce the amount of costs he must pay to $8,500.

The referee had recommended a public censure. (Mike Frisch)