Full Restitution Must Precede Reinstatement

The Mississippi Supreme Court has held that a suspended attorney’s failure to make his victim whole barred reinstatement.

The Bar sought guidance on whether insurance payments satisfy the obligation

While the Mississippi Bar supports Stanford’s petition for reinstatement, its support is conditioned upon the Court’s determination of whether “restitution by a third party, such as an insurance company, satisfies the Benson requirement that an attorney petitioning for reinstatement must make full amends/restitution[.]”   Because Stanford’s petition fails to satisfy the jurisdictional requirements necessary for reinstatement, we deny his petition for reinstatement.

Because the payments were less than the full loss, the question went unanswered

it is clear from the face of the petition that the party has not been made whole by the settlement. Additionally, there is an important distinction between a party’s legal liability that can be cured by a settlement and a party’s duty to provide full restitution as a requirement for reinstatement. Plaintiffs and creditors often accept settlements that equal less than the actual debt, and they do so for varied reasons, e.g., to avoid litigation expenses and to avoid a full or nearly-full loss of the amount in the event of an adverse verdict or bankruptcy. The execution of a release by the injured party does not release Stanford from the full restitution duty imposed by the reinstatement process. As stated previously, it is the duty of the petitioner to satisfy each requirement, and based on the petition currently before the Court, Stanford did not satisfy the requirement…

The Court has explained that “[t]o make restitution is ‘1. [a]n act of restoring the proper owner of something taken away, lost, or surrendered. 2. [a]n act of repaying or compensating for loss, damage, or injury. 3. [a] return to or restoration of a former state or position’.” In re Prisock, 5 So. 3d 319, 323 (¶ 27) (Miss. 2008) (citation omitted). Although not a lot of caselaw exists on the specific issue, the Court appears to have taken a hardline approach to restitution.

(Mike Frisch)