The New Jersey Supreme Court has censured an attorney for misconduct that was uncovered by a random audit of his firm’s trust account.

The Disciplinary Review Board described the 

The audit revealed that, as of December 31, 2017, the firm’s trust account held $169,043.03 of unidentified funds and numerous inactive balances. The audit revealed further that respondent, as the settlement agent in five real estate matters, had failed to timely disburse excess fees to clients that he had collected for recording real estate documents.

Corrective action

Respondent has implemented new procedures to ensure that clients who are owed fees are repaid in a timely fashion. As of January 1, 2019, he had opened a dedicated business account to segregate recording fees from his business revenue so as to prevent commingling recording fees with personal funds in his business account.

Warning for the future 

respondent also should receive a censure. Because respondent’s conduct predated the Court’s Orders announcing the possibility of more stringent discipline in the future for this type of purposeful, systematic, and unauthorized practice, discipline in excess of a censure is not warranted.

(Mike Frisch)