Industry Standards
The Iowa Supreme Court has imposed a suspension of at least one year of an attorney convicted of overbilling in court-appointed matters.
The attorney had sought a 90-day suspension.
An audit by the Iowa State Public Defender (SPD) revealed an Iowa attorney billed the state for services he did not perform and made excessive mileage claims. The attorney pled guilty to two counts of fourth-degree theft for billing for family team meetings he did not attend. The Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board (Board) subsequently brought a complaint against the attorney alleging he violated numerous Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct while performing legal services for the SPD…
The commission found Noel violated rule 32:1.5(a) by claiming duplicate mileage and fees for family team meetings he did not attend, rule 32:8.4(b) for billing the SPD for family team meetings he did not attend and his criminal convictions for this billing, and rule 32:8.4(c) for intentionally making dishonest statements about his mileage and billing practices. The commission recommended we suspend Noel’s license for an indefinite period with no possibility of reinstatement for at least one year from the date of our decision in this matter.
The court held that issue preclusion was properly applied in light of the conviction as to the mileage and attendance issues
the Board satisfied all four requirements to invoke issue preclusion offensively. The issue of Noel’s conduct as to his billings for family team meetings in his disciplinary proceeding is identical to his criminal proceeding, which provided Noel with a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in his criminal case.
He got little mileage out of the argument
The auditor’s report revealed the SPD overpaid Noel for at least $12,333.45 in mileage expenses, which represented payment for more than 35,328 miles at thirty-five cents per mile. Approximately twenty percent of Noel’s total payments from the SPD each year of his contract came from his mileage claims.
Despite Noel’s claims that he was mistaken about how to properly bill for mileage due to his past billing practices as an electrician and the way his previous law firm incorrectly taught him to bill mileage, the minutes of testimony contradict his claim. In the minutes of testimony, the general manager for Noel’s former employer during his time as an electrician planned to testify “that their electricians do not get involved in billing mileage for work done.” He further planned to testify that “mileage would be divided up among the customers so that each paid their proportion of only the actual miles traveled” if an electrician drove to another city to do work for multiple customers, and that “he was not aware of any industry-wide standard that would allow more miles to be billed than were actually traveled.” Another electrician also planned to testify to the same information. Moreover, an attorney in Noel’s previous law firm planned to testify that Noel called him after the SPD terminated his contract due to billing problems and told the attorney, “I fucked up,” “I’m going to prison,” and “my children are not going to have a father.”
As to The Electrician’s Tale
Noel also attempted to excuse his actions by claiming he was simply following the electrician industry standard of billing. This claim was rebutted. Despite Noel’s knowledge of his incorrect claims for mileage, he never contacted the SPD to remedy this issue and waited until Langholz informed him of the investigation into his practices to inform the SPD about his problems billing mileage. This level of deceit rises above mere negligence or incompetence and speaks to Noel’s intention “to mislead rather than to inform.” Id. Consequently, we find Noel violated rule 32:8.4(c) for claiming excessive mileage, in addition to his violation of rule 32:8.4(b) for billing for family team meetings he did not attend.
The court found he had violated several rules warranting a suspension of at least a year. (Mike Frisch )