A Lengthy Process Ends In Disbarment

The Utah Supreme Court has affirmed the disbarment of an attorney

The district court disbarred Susan Rose for violations of Utah’s Rules of Professional Conduct in cases Rose handled in both federal and state courts. Her disbarment came after the district court struck her answer and entered default judgment against her. The disbarment did not come suddenly, or by surprise. Over the course of several years, Rose had received multiple warnings from multiple tribunals. These tribunals called her motion practice “bizarre,” “inscrutable,” “dilatory,” “frivolous,” “legally meritless,” “wholly superfluous,” “utter[ly] incomprehensibl[e],” “unresponsive, immaterial, and redundant,” and “not based in reality.”

After receiving and investigating referrals concerning Rose’s conduct, the Office of Professional Conduct brought an action in the Third District Court. Nearly eight years later, the district court struck Rose’s answer and entered default judgment, concluding that Rose had abused the discovery and litigation process. By entering default judgment, the court accepted as true the allegations that Rose had violated a number of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

At her subsequent sanctions hearing, Rose refused to defend herself. She told the district court, “I think it’s fair to say I know how this will go, I know how the end result will be, and I’m done.” And in the end, Rose was disbarred.

Rose does not explicitly argue on appeal that the district court should not have entered default judgment, that her conduct did not violate the rules, or that disbarment was too harsh a sanction. Instead, she claims that Utah’s process is unconstitutional in a number of ways. She contests this court’s jurisdiction and argues that the Supremacy Clause and principles of res judicata prevent Utah from disciplining her. She also brings a number of constitutional claims, arguing that Utah’s attorney discipline proceedings violated her due process and equal protection rights under the United States Constitution. She ultimately petitions this court to dismiss this case entirely because “Utah’s system is an inquisition” that violates her due process and equal protection rights. and is therefore “void.”

The court rejected the various claims and affirmed default findings of frivolous litigation in state and federal court matters.

In the bar case

To illustrate how the case proceeded, OPC’s Complaint against Rose comprises pages 1–25 in a 28,000+ page appellate record; Rose’s answer does not appear until page 2,507. Her answer was filed more than a year after OPC filed the Complaint. In the interim, Rose moved for various extensions of time, for a more definite statement, for dismissal, for change of venue, to file an overlength brief, to stay proceedings, to strike various portions of the Complaint before responding, to strike the Complaint itself, and to disqualify Judge Faust—among other things.

 Rose failed to competently contest the order of the district court disbarring her as a sanction for violating various rules of professional conduct. While we recognize that disbarment is the most serious sanction a court may impose on an attorney for professional conduct violations, we acknowledge that Rose did not challenge the substance of the district court’s sanction, opting instead to level constitutional challenges to the entire attorney discipline system. Rose’s arguments are inadequately briefed, and to the extent we can decipher them, they are without merit.

(Mike Frisch)