Ohio Bar Hearings Scheduled For October 2016

The Ohio Supreme Court has posted notices of bar discipline hearings scheduled next month.

The Columbus Dispatch had reported on the charges in one of the matters

In a complaint by the Columbus Bar Association, Lindner, 33, of Hilliard, is charged with dishonesty and failing to demonstrate legal competence after being arrested four times. She failed a drug test while on court-ordered probation and admitted to substance-abuse problems.

During 2014, she twice was charged with domestic violence and assault and pleaded guilty each time to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct.

She also pleaded guilty on another occasion to two counts of attempted child endangering in Franklin County Municipal Court. She received suspended sentences and was placed on probation in each case. In a pending case, Lindner is charged with hit-skip, falsification and other traffic charges.

The Chronicle had a story on the other scheduled matter

Former Lorain Law Director Mark Provenza is facing potential sanctions from the Ohio Supreme Court’s disciplinary arm for allegedly failing to provide legal services for two of his clients and then refusing to cooperate with the investigation into allegations against him.

According to a certified complaint filed by the Lorain County Bar Association with the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline last week, Provenza neglected his responsibilities to the two clients earlier this year.

In one instance Provenza is accused of taking $800 from Robin Maxwell-Smith to file a divorce for her and then not doing any of the work.

Maxwell-Smith paid Provenza $300 on Dec. 27, 2013, for the divorce paperwork to be filed. That money should have been deposited in Provenza’s trust account, where lawyers are supposed to keep money from clients while cases are pending, but that never happened, the complaint said.

Over the next few months, Maxwell-Smith made several attempts to contact Provenza, but never had any meaningful communication with him, although she did pay him another $500 on Feb. 20. That money also wasn’t put into the trust account.

Provenza told Maxwell-Smith to meet him in court March 31, but that day he ignored text messages from her and only talked to her when she had him paged by court staff at the Lorain County Justice Center.

Provenza then told her “that he had not filed any divorce pleadings on her behalf and had forgotten he told her to appear in court for a hearing,” the complaint said.

He also didn’t return the money Maxwell-Smith paid him after she demanded a refund in April, according to the complaint.

In the second incident, Provenza was appointed in March to represent Susan Hughes in a contributing to truancy case in county Juvenile Court and a court appearance was scheduled for April 9.

But Provenza allegedly didn’t make contact with Hughes and ignored her calls. Hughes made several attempts to discuss the issue with court staff, but she was told to get in touch with Provenza, the complaint said.

On May 5, the complaint said, county sheriff’s deputies showed up at Hughes’ house to arrest her on a warrant for failing to show up for her court date, but she wasn’t home.

Hughes continued her efforts to get in touch with Provenza, including reaching out to his family members and another attorney, but she was unable to speak with him until he contacted her May 13, two days before her next scheduled court appearance.

When the two met, the complaint said, Provenza spent only five minutes talking to Hughes before suggesting that she take a plea deal in the case.

“Hughes felt coerced to plead and take the deal as she knew that she could not get another court-appointed attorney, was in tears about the situation, and felt as if she had no other options,” the complaint said.

In both instances, Provenza didn’t have professional liability insurance, something he was required to have under rules for Ohio lawyers.

The complaint also said that Provenza repeatedly failed to provide a written response to the allegations against him when he was contacted by Bar Association attorneys. Failing to cooperate with the investigation is also an ethics violation.

Provenza, who resigned as Lorain law director in 2009 after being sent to serve out a jail sentence for his fourth arrest on drunken driving allegations, declined to comment on the disciplinary complaint Tuesday.

Chris Cook, the Bar Association attorney handling the case against Provenza, said he’s hopeful that Provenza will cooperate.

“My hope is that attorney Provenza engages in the process, otherwise we will be looking at the suspension of his law license,” Cook said.

(Mike Frisch)