From $3.80 To $201,048.43
The Ohio Supreme Court permanently disbarred an attorney for misconduct described in the report of the Board of Professional Conduct.
From the court’s opinion
According to the parties’ stipulations, from 2007 to 2014, Little primarily represented plaintiffs in personal-injury cases. During that time period, she misappropriated $363,444.30 in settlement funds in 23 separate client matters. With one exception, she engaged in a similar pattern of misconduct in each of those client matters. Specifically, after settling her clients’ cases, she deposited the settlement funds into her client trust account and paid out her clients’ share and amounts for her attorney fees—if she charged a fee—and other expenses. However, she wrongfully withheld all or portions of the remaining settlement amounts that should have been either paid to various lienholders or co-counsel or held in trust pending discovery of any additional liens…
The amounts that Little misappropriated in the 23 client matters ranged from $3.80 in one case to $201,048.43 in the McIntires’ case. In most of the matters, she stole between $500 and $11,000 from her clients’ settlement funds. In addition to using the misappropriated funds to pay liens in unrelated cases, she also used the money for her own personal and professional benefit, including to pay office-related expenses.
Little’s misconduct in one of the 23 client matters identified in relator’s complaint was slightly different than the others. As alleged in count 11, she represented Ashley Ruth in a personal-injury matter and after settling the case, she deposited $440,890.19 into her client trust account. She should have disbursed $281,951.80 to Ruth but instead disbursed only $281,451.79, and therefore misappropriated $500 from her client. Little also failed to promptly withdraw her share of attorney fees from her client trust account, and she ultimately withdrew only $43,899 of the $75,000 in fees that she was entitled to, which resulted in her commingling personal and client funds.
In September 2014, Little self-reported her misconduct to relator and later commenced repaying some of the amount that she had stolen. At the time that the parties entered into stipulations, Little still owed $104,989.65 in restitution. She also admitted that since 2007, she had failed to maintain required ledgers for her client trust account, which made it difficult to determine the source and purpose of many of her transactions.
The court concluded that the only sanction for such conduct was permanent disbarment. (Mike Frisch)