March 20, 2005 - Sunday
Oklahoman
By Nolan Clay, Staff Writer
Nearly 80 Oklahoma attorneys were disbarred,
suspended or resigned in the past five years for such
misconduct as neglecting cases, embezzling
settlement checks or having sex with clients, records
show.
Some were disciplined after getting criminal
convictions.
The results are part of a long operating
disciplinary process that officials admit is too slow in
some cases and critics say is badly underfunded.
"We are going to take care of it," said Dan
Murdock, who prosecutes the cases for the Oklahoma
Bar Association, the main state lawyers' group. "We
need to work harder and that's what we're going to
do."
About 30 disciplinary cases are now pending
before the Oklahoma Supreme Court--the final step
in a process where attorneys police themselves.
Clients can seek reimbursement from a fund set
up by the lawyers' group but they may wait years for
their checks and not get all they lost, records show.
"I got 80 percent of my money back," said Joe M.
Beasley of Moore, who was reimbursed $4,000 in
January. "I figured they'd probably trash it or ... write
me back and say, 'Too bad.' I was pleasantly
surprised."
Almost $1.4 million has been paid out of the
Clients' Security Fund since its creation in 1965.
The latest payments--funded by attorneys'
dues--totaled $86,512 to 26 people. Almost half
went to clients of former attorney Steve Angel of
Edmond, who resigned in November 2003 after
repeated accusations of neglect.
Beasley, a physician's assistant, said he paid
Angel $5,000 a couple of years ago to file a civil
rights lawsuit against his then-employer.
"He never took any action whatsoever," Beasley
said. "The first time I went to see him and gave him
five grand he was all smiles and glad-handing and
that sort of thing. After that, the few times that I did
get him to talk to me, he was rude and
condescending."
Angel did not return calls from The Oklahoman. In
his resignation, he said he was being treated for
depression.
The Oklahoman looked at dozens of cases against
attorneys and other reports as part of an ongoing
check on the legal system. The review found:
Cases can take years to resolve.
Among the longest-pending cases is one against
a former district attorney, John Maddox, who pleaded
guilty to embezzling state funds five years ago. It is
expected to be resolved soon with a suspension.
"I don't have an excuse for Maddox," said
Murdock, the bar association's general counsel. "It
took too long. There are other things that took
priority. ... Some things get pushed to the back
burner."
Some with pending cases have moved out of
state or can't be found and are no longer a threat to
Oklahomans, Murdock said.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph M. Watt said
prosecutors keep most cases moving along. "We do
notice on occasion that some have languished down
there," Watt said.
Justices also can be slow, records show. They
took five years on one case before disbarring a Tulsa
attorney in 2003.
Other states with the same or fewer attorneys
have a bigger budget and more prosecutors handling
their disciplinary cases, studies show.
Murdock has four attorneys who assist him in
prosecuting cases, four investigators and a budget of
$870,454, which comes from attorneys' dues.
A national watchdog group, HALT - An
Organization of Americans for Legal Reform, said the
disciplinary process in Oklahoma is badly underfunded.
HALT called for attorneys to use a recent dues
increase to deal with "the burgeoning backlog."
Dues for Oklahoma attorneys have been raised for
the first time in more than a decade--from $175 to
$275 a year. Murdock said there has been no
discussion of increasing his budget.
"I think we do a good job with the people that we
have," Murdock said.
Last year, 1,070 of the 15,269 attorneys licensed
in Oklahoma had grievances made against them.
The Supreme Court disbarred one attorney last
year for neglect and approved the resignations of 10
others who faced disciplinary proceedings. Two were
suspended for a year; one was suspended for two
years and a day.
Most grievances are handled informally and do not
end up before the Supreme Court.
Officials said some grievances were cleared by
simply getting the attorney and client communicating
again. Others were deemed frivolous or involved fee
disputes and other issues not subject to sanctions.
"We got a grievance against a lawyer alleging he
was involved in the assassination of President
Kennedy and that he was involved in the Bay of Pigs
and helping the Russian Mafia....The lawyer wasn't
even born when that happened, so you have to apply
some common sense," Murdock said. "We deal with
some people who ... have some instability in their
lives."
The most common gripe about attorneys is that
they neglect cases. Almost half of the grievances
opened for investigation last year involved neglect, a
report shows.
The Supreme Court is getting tougher on
attorneys for sexual misconduct, sanctioning even
flirting with clients.
One attorney in 2003 was censured after his
divorce client reported he had touched her
inappropriately and made other advances. She
secretly taped him saying, "There is always that
fantasy that your hormones will kick in and I'll get to
do lewd and lascivious things to you."
Justices said they want to enforce a "transition
from what once, regrettably, may have been
tolerated, if not indeed accepted, behavior to new
standards of professional etiquette."
Justices in February suspended an attorney for a
year for having sex "with a particularly vulnerable
client." Prosecutors said in November they are
concerned many attorneys still view consensual
relationships as permissible.
