Iowa Reprimands

The Iowa Supreme Court approved reprimands of four attorneys on July 26.

One of the reprimands  involved a conflict of interest based on an email that had disclosed a prior bar proceeding against the attorney. The Attorney Disciplinary Board rejected allegations of excessive fees and concluded that a mistakenly sent email to the wrong client had been promptly fixed and did not amount to a violation. 

The email that established the conflict made disclosures about the former client (and bar complainant) and the bar deliberations.

The board noted that the attorney had been privately admonished five times, publicly reprimanded and suspended for 30 days in prior matters.

Another reprimand involved an attorney who had assisted clients in transferring assets in derogation of the rights of the deceased client’s ex-wife.

The Iowa Court had affirmed findings in the civil litigation that the attorney participated in a conspiracy to defraud the ex-wife.

A third reprimand involved an attorney’s submission of false evidence in a custody matter. 

The board found that the attorney had received extensive medical records of the opposing party – a veteran treated for post-traumatic stress. He either ghostwrote or allowed to be ghostwritten an expert report of a doctor that “grossly exaggerated  and misrepresented” the information in the records. 

The doctor had disavowed the content of his so-called report.

The fourth reprimand involved a conflict of interest in which the attorney accepted a divorce matter while simultaneously representing both husband and wife in an unrelated matter.

If the links do not work, try here. (Mike Frisch)