Untimely Answer Permitted

The Iowa Supreme Court reversed and remanded a bar discipline matter, concluding that the attorney should have been allowed to file an untimely answer to the bar charges

In this case, the respondent’s counsel apparently believed that he had an informal agreement of some kind that the Board would not seek to enforce rule 36.7. Respondent was providing information to the Board, though not at a pace that we would ordinarily expect in disciplinary proceedings. Although the record does not provide direct evidence of an agreement between the respondent and the Board, it is noteworthy that the Board did not seek to enforce rule 36.7 when it sought to establish a new schedule, thereby giving some support for respondent’s position. Further, the Board has a practice of generally allowing a reasonable period of time to file an answer beyond the twenty days. The practice of the Board generally, and the course of conduct between the respondent and the Board specifically, did not suggest that the respondent was at risk of forfeiting his right to litigate the merits of the action by failing to file an answer.

Further, as we have stated above, the issues presented under rule 36.7 included questions of first impression. Like the commission, we question whether the respondent made the case for a lengthy or indefinite extension of time to answer the Board’s complaint. Nonetheless, we think the legal uncertainties surrounding rule 36.7, the Board’s general and specific acquiescence in the failure of respondents to file timely answers, Doe’s active, if dilatory, participation in the proceedings, and the preference for deciding disciplinary cases on the merits provides sufficient good cause that the commission should have allowed a brief period of time to allow the respondent to file an answer.

 We emphasize that we do not regard compliance with rule 36.7 as merely a good idea or an aspirational goal. Lawyers subject to disciplinary proceedings must cooperate in a prompt disposition and comply with mandatory rules. To the extent good cause in this proceeding was based on ambiguity in rule 36.7 and whether the Board must file a motion to enforce it, that ambiguity is now resolved. Respondents in disciplinary proceedings are admonished that the failure to timely respond to the Board’s complaint results in admission of the allegations that may be unraveled only if the respondent shows good cause for the delay. Although we prefer deciding disciplinary proceedings on the merits, extensions of time to respond to the Board’s complaint are not automatically granted and should ordinarily be of a relatively short duration. See In re Kern, 345 A.2d at 326. Respondents should regard disciplinary proceedings as a priority, not an unpleasant task that may be avoided through inordinate delay.

 (Mike Frisch)