Long Ago In Arkansas

The Arkansas Committee on Professional Conduct has reprimanded an attorney who was retained to represent a husband and wife in a criminal matter but failed to appear for court proceedings.

The clients also failed to appear for trial (because the attorney did not advise them of the scheduled court date) and were later arrested and represented by court-appointed counsel.

The attorney received $1,000 to retain a handwriting expert but stiffed the expert and did not return the advance

The $1,000.00 delivered to Coe by the Kirkpatricks for his use in obtaining the handwriting expert was not used to pay Taylor nor refunded to the Kirkpatricks when Coe effectively terminated his representation of them. Model Rule 1.16(d) requires that upon termination of representation, an attorney shall take steps to the extent reasonably practicable to protect the client’s interests, such as giving reasonable notice to the client, allowing time for employment of other counsel, surrendering papers and property to which the client is entitled and refunding any advanced payment of fee that has not been earned.

He must also pay the expert.

Notably, the misconduct took place in 2003. (Mike Frisch)