The Florida Bar v. Broome
| Decision Date | 25 May 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. SC03-84.,No. SC04-1375.,No. SC03-1205.,No. SC03-1206.,No. SC04-448.,No. SC03-1931.,SC03-84.,SC03-1205.,SC03-1206.,SC03-1931.,SC04-448.,SC04-1375. |
| Citation | 932 So.2d 1036 |
| Parties | THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant, v. Elizabeth Aileen BROOME, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
John F. Harkness, Executive Director, John Anthony Boggs, Staff Counsel and Olivia Paiva Klein, Bar Counsel, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, FL, for Complainant.
Lois B. Lepp, P.A., Pensacola, FL, for Respondent.
We have for review a referee's report regarding six consolidated cases, arising from nine different Florida Bar investigations into the conduct of Elizabeth Aileen Broome. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 15, Fla. Const.
We approve the referee's findings of fact and recommendations as to guilt, but disapprove of the recommendation as to sanction, imposing a one-year suspension instead. Indeed, were it not for the substantial mitigating evidence in this case, the sanction might have been disbarment.
The report of the referee found Broome guilty of thirty-three separate rule violations of eighteen different Bar rules, spanning a period of almost seven years, from March 1997 through October 2003, and impacting several different clients. Only four of the thirty-three rule violations involved solely failures to respond to Bar or grievance committee inquiries.
Neither the Bar nor Broome took issue with the facts as found by the referee, although the Bar took issue with the referee's failure to make certain findings. Because the facts are not at issue, except as they impact what the appropriate discipline should be, and because they are lengthy, they are only briefly summarized here, by case.
Samuel, No. SC03-84, Florida Bar No. 2001-01,274
Samuel hired Broome to defend him on drug possession charges in June 1999. From June 1999 until April 2000, when Samuel fired her, Broome failed to diligently pursue Samuel's case, requesting and receiving numerous continuances for the stated purpose of taking the depositions of prosecution witnesses. She never took the depositions, despite her client's repeated requests that she do so.
Broome failed to adequately communicate with her client. She failed to sit down and discuss the case with him, to review his options and the evidence against him before trial, so that he could make an informed decision as to whether to take the prosecutor's offered plea of probation or go to trial. Samuel chose to go to trial and was convicted. He was sentenced to imprisonment for five years in two cases, with the sentences to run concurrently. Following his conviction, Samuel fired Broome and hired another attorney, who filed a petition for postconviction relief which cited to Broome's failure to take the requested depositions.
Broome represented Beasley at his criminal trial in August 1999. Following his conviction, Beasley was sentenced on February 2, 2000. He told Broome, on at least two occasions, that he wanted her to file an appeal of the final judgment with the First District Court of Appeal (First DCA). Broome failed to file a timely notice of appeal.
Two weeks after the deadline, Broome filed a notice of appeal, a statement of judicial acts to be reviewed, a designation to the court reporter, a motion to withdraw, and a motion to extend the time to appeal with the circuit court. The appellate paperwork was submitted to the First DCA after the circuit court judge inadvertently signed the order to extend the time. The First DCA returned the papers to the circuit court for further disposition because the circuit court did not have jurisdiction to extend the appeal deadline.
In April 2000, at a hearing before the circuit court, Broome withdrew the motion to extend the appeal deadline and told the court she would file a motion for a belated appeal directly with the First DCA. She was reappointed to the case for that purpose. Broome failed to file the motion. Over three months later the public defender's office stepped in and filed a motion on Beasley's behalf. A month after that, the First DCA ordered Broome to reply as to whether Beasley asked her to file an appeal before the deadline. Broome did not respond. Neither did she respond to two subsequent show-cause orders as to why her conduct should not be referred to the Bar for investigation or to the Bar's inquiry letter after the First DCA referred the matter to the Bar. She also failed to respond to an inquiry from the investigating member of the grievance committee.
Brown, No. SC03-1206, Florida Bar No. 2002-00,811
Broome's former client, Brown, sued Broome for recovery of $5,000 in legal fees in small claims court. In November 1998, Broome agreed, in a mediation agreement, to pay Brown $2,100 and to forward his file to his new attorney. She further agreed to the entry of a final judgment of $5,114.50 plus court costs if she failed to abide by the agreement. Broome breached the agreement and judgment was entered against her for $4,814.50, with costs and interest. Despite her earlier agreement, Broome filed a motion to set aside the judgment, which was denied.
Over two years after the judgment was entered and numerous attempts to settle the matter had failed, Brown filed a motion for a writ of garnishment. In February 2002, he complained to the Bar. Broome told the Bar and the grievance committee that she was taking steps to resolve the matter with Brown when she was not.
The court granted Brown's request for a hearing in aid of execution and ordered Broome to appear and to file a Fact Information Sheet. Broome appeared for the hearing, but failed to file a Fact Information Sheet. Broome told the court she would pay Brown by December 2, 2002. The court ordered her to either pay Brown or file a Fact Information Sheet by that date. Broome did neither. She was ultimately held in contempt.
In January 2003, Broome promised Brown and the grievance committee that she would start making $500 payments to Brown toward the debt, but, again, failed to do so.
Sapp, No. SC03-1931, Florida Bar No. 2003-00,493
In June 2002, Sapp hired Broome to represent him in two criminal cases, paying her $6,700 in attorney fees to do so. There was no written fee agreement and Broome did not communicate the basis of the fees to him in writing. The fee was clearly excessive; the legal work she did on Sapp's cases was insufficient to earn that amount of money.
Broome failed to diligently represent her client throughout his criminal proceedings. She performed no substantial legal work on his cases from June through November 2002. She failed to file a timely alibi notice and failed to engage in reciprocal discovery with the prosecution in one of his cases. She failed to adequately communicate with her client and to keep him informed about the status of his cases. She scheduled a bond hearing, but then had another attorney substitute for her (claiming she needed an emergency medical procedure), without telling her client that another attorney would be handling the hearing.
She failed to tell her client of his speedy trial rights and the effect continuances would have on these rights. She requested two continuances in one of his cases without his knowledge or consent, waiving her client's right to a speedy trial. She asked for the second continuance after her client wrote to the court pro se, requesting a speedy trial and objecting to a continuance. She failed to respond to her client's numerous requests for a meeting to discuss his cases.
Sapp fired her and hired new counsel. His new attorney asked Broome for his client's case files. Broome failed to forward the files and failed to return the unearned portion of the fees. Sapp complained to the Bar. Broome failed to respond to the Bar's letter of inquiry and failed to contact or meet with the investigating member of the grievance committee.
Phifer, No. SC03-1931, Florida Bar No. 2001-01,091
Phifer hired Broome in March 1997 to file a motion for postconviction relief on her behalf for a sentence imposed in September 1996. Broome failed to file the motion until February 1999, after the motion was time-barred. Broome failed to competently and diligently perform the legal services she was retained to perform. After Phifer complained to the Bar, Broome failed to respond to two inquiry letters from the Bar.
Smith, No. SC04-448, Florida Bar No. 2004-00,174
Smith hired Broome to represent him in five criminal cases and paid her a total of $3,900. Ultimately, Smith complained to the Bar about Broome's representation. Broome failed to respond to either the Bar or the grievance committee. If she had responded, the disciplinary hearing which was held might have proven to be unnecessary.
Spooner, No. SC04-1375, Florida Bar No. 2004-00,357
The referee made numerous findings concerning the Spooner case, all of which led to the conclusion that Broome's representation of Spooner was adequate. The only ethical violation the referee found in this case, a failure to respond to the Bar's letter of inquiry in violation of rule 4-8.4(g)(1), was not supported by a factual finding by the referee that Broome failed to respond to a letter of inquiry from the Bar. However, Broome admitted the allegation in her answer to the Bar's formal complaint against her. Nor is she taking issue with the referee's finding of the violation. See also Fla. Bar v. Lancaster, 448 So.2d 1019, 1022 (Fla.1984) ().
Mailloux, No. SC04-1375, Florida Bar No. 2004-00,410
Mailloux hired Broome to prepare a motion for modification or reduction of sentence or a motion to withdraw plea or both. Although Broome had a plan of action in Mailloux's case, when she realized her plan would not work she failed to tell her client. She further failed to respond...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
The Florida Bar v. Valentine-Miller
...e.g., The Florida Bar v. Whigham, 525 So.2d 873 (Fla.1988). Her conduct was negligent rather than intentional. See The Florida Bar v. Broome, 932 So.2d 1036 (Fla.2006). Compare The Florida Bar v. McIver, 606 So.2d 1159 (Fla.1992); The Florida Bar v. Spears, 786 So.2d 516 (Fla.2001); and The......
-
The Fla. Bar v. Bander
... THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant, v. STEPHEN MATTHEW BANDER, Respondent. No. SC2021-0011 Supreme Court of Florida May 11, 2023 ... THE ... determining whether conduct is violative of the rules ... See Fla. Bar v. Broome , 932 So.2d 1036, 1042 (Fla ... 2006) (providing that substantial experience in the law is ... relevant as an aggravating factor for ... ...
-
The Florida Bar v. Varner
...must maintain. We have imposed a one-year suspension where the lawyer has violated similar duties to the client. In Florida Bar v. Broome, 932 So.2d 1036 (Fla.2006), the respondent engaged in multiple instances of client neglect, inadequate communication, contempt, excessive fees, an instan......
-
The Fla. Bar v. Irish
...record contains competent, substantial evidence to support the referee's finding, the finding should not be disturbed. Fla. Bar v. Broome, 932 So.2d 1036 (Fla.2006). Thus, the burden is on Respondent to prove that the referee erred. Respondent has failed to meet that burden. The record supp......