File Held Hostage
The New Jersey Disciplinary Review Board has admonished an attorney who has had a 56-year discipline-free career for failure to return a client file in an estate matter
Specifically, in December 2022, Amanda Byrne retained your firm to represent her, as sole heir and executor, in connection with her father’s estate. You referred the matter to Linda Mallozzi, Esq., who worked on the matter for your firm until she and Byrne developed an irreconcilable conflict.
In March 2023, Mallozzi billed $19,260.75 for the representation; however, you reduced that amount to $15,285.75, which Byrne paid, in full, from the estate. On or around June 15, 2023, Mallozzi resigned from handling the matter, citing an irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship and informed Byrne that your firm would no longer represent her
On June 23, 2023, you notified Byrne, in writing, that the firm was withdrawing from the representation. You also informed her that the file had been copied and that her final payment, in the amount of $5,270.20, was expected when she came to the office to attend the final office conference and to retrieve the file.
On June 27, 2023, you informed Byrne, via e-mail, that the file would not be released until after her outstanding bill was paid, stating “[w]e will not release documents that remain in our possession” until “after receipt of our fees and costs due to us.” You reiterated in another e-mail that day that you would send “a box full of items as soon as we receive an estate check in payment of our fees and costs.” That same date, you also sent Byrne a letter stating that “[u]pon receipt of the executed check the box containing the file for the [e]state . . . shall be delivered to your residence by UPS next day delivery.” In your correspondence, you enclosed an estate check in the amount of $5,449.56, for her endorsement, and asserted that it would cover both the costs of mailing the documents to Byrne and the legal fees.
On August 30, 2023, you sent Byrne another letter stating “[u]pon receipt of the payment [for services] a box containing the file for your father’s [e]state would be delivered to your residence promptly by UPS next day delivery.”
On February 20, 2024, eight months after withdrawing from the representation, you returned the estate file to Byrne. By failing to surrender, for nearly eight months, the papers and property to which Byrne was entitled, you violated RPC 1.16(d). Worse, on June 23, June 27 (in two e-mails and one letter), and August 20, 2023, you repeatedly and unequivocally informed Byrne that you would not release the file until she paid the outstanding legal fees. Although you eventually returned the file to Byrne, it was only after she paid your shipping costs.
Sanction
In imposing only an admonition, the Board accorded considerable mitigating weight to your unblemished fifty-six-year career at the bar and the remorse you demonstrated.
(Mike Frisch)