The Florida Bar v. Williams
| Decision Date | 24 February 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. SC92890, No. SC94111. |
| Citation | 753 So.2d 1258 |
| Parties | THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant, v. Julius L. WILLIAMS, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
John F. Harkness, Jr., Executive Director, John Anthony Boggs, Staff Counsel, and Patricia Ann Toro Savitz, Bar Counsel, Tallahassee, Florida, for Complainant.
Julius L. Williams, pro se, Orlando, Florida, for Respondent.
We have for review a referee's report finding ethical breaches by respondent, Attorney Julius L. Williams, and recommending disciplinary measures after The Florida Bar filed two separate complaints against Williams. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 15, Fla. Const.
Upon agreement by the parties, the referee consolidated the Bar's cases against Williams. After a hearing, the referee made the following findings of fact and conclusions of guilt:
CASE NUMBER SC92890
In May 1997, Gregory Julien employed Williams to handle a bankruptcy matter. Julien paid Williams $500 in legal fees and $175 in filing fees. Testimony differed as to whether Julien and Williams had further contact after the first visit. Williams did not complete the bankruptcy filing. When Williams gave Julien a personal check for $500 on October 13, 1997, representing the attorney's fees paid by Julien, the check was dishonored for insufficient funds. Williams eventually gave Julien a postal money order to cover the funds. Williams failed to return the legal fee, the filing fee and financial records to Julien until approximately February 8, 1998.
Based upon these findings, the referee found Williams guilty of violating the following Rules Regulating the Florida Bar: 4-1.3 (failing to act with reasonable diligence); 4-1.4 (failing to keep a client informed about the status of the case and failing to comply with reasonable requests for information); and 4.1-5 (collecting an excessive fee).
On May 30, 1997, The Florida Bar served a subpoena duces tecum on Williams seeking his trust account records. Although cooperative, Williams failed to provide all of the documents sought. Some items, such as ledger cards or journals for the clients and ten months of bank statements for 1995, were missing altogether. Williams claimed that his ledger consisted of client cards maintained in the client files, but that many files had been lost or destroyed. Williams provided check stubs in lieu of clients' journals, but the referee concluded that they were "woefully inadequate" and Williams' trust account could not be audited.
Based upon these findings, the referee found Williams guilty of violating the following Rules Regulating the Florida Bar: 4-1.15(d) (); 5-1.1(c) (); 5-1.1(d) (); 5-1.2(b) (); and 5-1.2(c) ().
Thelma Simmons hired Williams to represent her in a lawsuit against her employer. Simmons lost the lawsuit, and sometime afterwards suffered a stroke. In its complaint, the Bar alleged that Williams had attempted to orchestrate a continuance of Simmons' pending trial by urging her to check herself into the hospital when it was medically unnecessary. Williams failed to respond to the Bar's request for a response to the Simmons matter.
Based upon these findings, the referee found Williams guilty of violating Rule Regulating the Florida Bar 4-8.4(g) ().
Linda Wheaton was Williams' employee. One of Williams' paychecks to Wheaton was returned for insufficient funds. Williams later paid Wheaton for the returned check and her bank fees. Williams failed to respond to the Bar's request for a response to the Wheaton matter.
Based upon these findings, the referee found Williams guilty of violating Rules Regulating the Florida Bar 3-4.3 (engaging in conduct that is unlawful or contrary to honesty and justice) and 4-8.4(g) ().
When recommending discipline in these two cases, the referee noted that any one of Williams' violations alone would not support suspension. However, the referee found that these violations taken together formed a pattern of negligent conduct and refusal to respond to official inquiries. The referee recommends that Williams be suspended for one year, requiring passage of the ethics portion of the bar prior to his reinstatement. The referee further recommends that Williams be placed on probation for the three years following his reinstatement. The referee recommends as a condition of Williams' probation that he complete a trust accounting workshop, and that for the first two years of his probation he provide monthly trust account records and reconciliations to a person designated by the Bar. Finally, the referee recommends that payment of the Bar's costs be made a condition of Williams' reinstatement to the practice of law.
In making the aforementioned recommendation, the referee considered the following aggravating factors: (1) an escalating pattern of misconduct; (2) multiple offenses; (3) bad faith obstruction of the disciplinary proceeding by intentionally failing to comply with rules or orders of the disciplinary agency; and (4) substantial experience in the practice of law. The referee noted that Williams was admonished in 1995, publicly reprimanded in 1996, and suspended for twenty days followed by a one-year probation in 1997. The referee found the following mitigating factors: (1) absence of a dishonest or selfish motive, and (2) timely or good faith effort to make restitution in the Wheaton case.
Williams alleges that several of the referee's conclusions of guilt are not supported by competent substantial evidence. A party contesting a referee's findings of fact and conclusions of guilt "carries the burden of demonstrating that there is no evidence in the record to support those findings or that the record evidence clearly contradicts the conclusions." Florida Bar v. Spann, 682 So.2d 1070, 1073 (Fla.1996). Further, where competent substantial evidence supports the referee's findings of fact and conclusions concerning guilt "this Court is precluded from reweighing the evidence and substituting its judgment for that of the referee." Id. Applying this standard of review, we find Williams' arguments to be without merit.
First, as to count one of case SC92890, Williams claims that he did work on behalf of Julien and maintained contact with him. However, at the hearing Julien testified that Williams never filed any documents in his bankruptcy case. Julien further testified that after his initial meeting with Williams on the bankruptcy case, Williams never called him or met with him. Julien's current attorney, Irwin Sperling, testified that he never had any direct correspondence from Williams. This testimony provides competent, substantial evidence that Williams failed to file documents on Julien's behalf and failed to maintain adequate contact with his client. See Florida Bar v. Herzog, 521 So.2d 1118, 1119-20 (Fla.1988)
().
Second, as to count two of case SC92890, Williams argues that there is no evidence to show that he did not keep the required records. However, the Bar's chief auditor, who was accepted by the referee as an expert in the field of trust accounting without objection by Williams, testified that he could neither complete a compliance audit nor recreate a trust history of Williams' accounts due to the sheer incompleteness of the documents provided by Williams. He concluded that in his opinion, Williams was not in compliance with the rules governing trust accounts. Given the testimony of the auditor and Williams' failure to produce the records that the Bar requested (and that are required under the rules), Williams' arguments are not sufficient to demonstrate that the referee erred in recommending that he be found guilty of violating the Bar's rules regarding trust accounting procedures.
Finally, as to count two of case SC94111, Williams argues that giving a check to Wheaton when there were insufficient funds to cover the check was not a deliberate act.2 However, this Court has held that "the issuance of a worthless check by an attorney constitutes unethical conduct and subjects the attorney to professional discipline by the Florida Bar." Florida Bar re Roberts, 721 So.2d 283, 285 (Fla.1998) (quoting Florida Bar v. Davis, 361 So.2d 159, 162 (Fla.1978)). Writing worthless checks, even where restitution is made, Id. at 285 (quoting Florida Bar re Lopez, 545 So.2d 835, 837 (Fla.1989)). Further, in Florida Bar v. Dingle, 235 So.2d 479, 480 (Fla.1970), an attorney charged with writing a worthless check claimed that he was honest, but merely a poor bookkeeper. This Court found that "[t]his explanation may well be true but does not excuse [the attorney's] misconduct." Id. Williams admitted that he gave a worthless check to his employee and the referee's recommendation of guilt on this charge is supported by substantial competent evidence. In light of the foregoing, we find that the referee's findings of fact and conclusions of guilt are supported by substantial competent evidence in the record.
This Court has described the standard of review of a referee's recommendation of discipline as follows: "In contrast with a review of the referee's...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
The Florida Bar v. Forrester
... ... See Florida Bar v. Forrester, 656 So.2d 1273 (Fla.1995). In assessing discipline, "this Court also considers prior misconduct and cumulative misconduct as relevant factors, and deals more severely with cumulative misconduct than with isolated misconduct." Florida Bar v. Williams, 753 So.2d 1258, 1262 (Fla.2000) ... Forrester cites this Court's opinion in Florida Bar v. Burkich-Burrell, 659 So.2d 1082 (Fla.1995), to support her argument that a sixty-day suspension is too severe. In Burkich-Burrell, the Court imposed a thirty-day suspension for attorney ... ...