THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF LEGAL JOBS ON EARTH
LawCrossing Feature
The Florida Flood in Housing Crisis-Related Attorney Misconduct Cases The recent flood of attorney misconduct cases in Florida serves as an ideal example of a situation where changes in law pushes both lawyers and clients into unfamiliar territory and triggering of suspicions and allegations. This does not mean that all of 1400 attorney misconduct cases related to the housing crisis in Florida are results of misunderstandings. However it is safe to assume that lack of process familiarity and lack of knowledge over mutual responsibilities led to a large number of those attorney misconduct complaints. At least 208 of the housing related cases have
An exemplary case of the situation would be that of
already affected attorneys with penalties ranging from
Boca Raton attorney William O’Toole. O’Toole’s Summit
disbarment to public reprimand. Out of the 793 loan
Legal Group worked with as many as 3,000 clients
modification cases filed since 2010 there have been
across the nation and according to a deposition O’Toole
three disbarments and 137 cases of disciplinary action.
gave in his misconduct case; he had to allow almost exclusive control of his office to non-lawyers who
A situation like this is truly unthinkable in the centuries
handled contact with all clients. In August, O’Toole
of legal profession in the state and the country, so
was put under emergency suspension with the Florida
what went wrong is worthy of investigation. Attorneys
Supreme Court opining that his foreclosure defense
committing wholesale misconduct are difficult to find in
business was causing “great public harm.”
history, and as one lawyer put it “Everybody pushes the fraud button, that’s everyone’s first reaction. You may
This kind of situation is exactly what professional
find sloppy processing, but not necessarily fraud.”
lawyers like to avoid, and the reason why the ABA recently stepped back from considering the extension
In the cases of foreclosure fraud, which is the highest
of non-lawyer ownership of law firms to regions outside
kind of fraud in the housing sector, out of the 54
the District of Columbia. When a lawyer is no more
attorney misconduct cases which have been disposed
than the ‘front’ of a business and clients are contacted,
so far, there has not been a single conviction.
acquired, and handled by non-lawyers, the lawyer has ‘stake,’ but little ‘control.’ This is hardly a situation
The situation was brought about by change in laws. A
where a professional lawyer would like to find himself
2010 law that required loan-modification businesses
or herself. However, the socioeconomic influence of the
to be state licensed, coupled with a 2008 law banning
recession also left its scars on every segment of the
companies from collecting upfront fees, left attorneys
society, lawyers included. And seeking an easy, but
as the only professionals outside the ambit of
doubtful way out has taken its costs.
restrictions. The fact that the unprecedented number of attorney Suddenly, loan modification firms found that employing
misconduct cases before the Florida bar are almost all
attorneys to ‘front’ their activities was one of the few
related to the housing sector is sufficient to indicate
ways left to continue viable business. Attorneys started
that it was the lack of caution rather than misconduct
receiving hundreds of phone calls from such companies.
that is to blame. Attorneys moving into a new sector
While most declined from professional caution, others
can make mistakes, but suddenly attorneys practicing
accepted the offers and drifted into unfamiliar territory.
in a particular sector, and only that sector, do not start misconduct en masse. That is hard to digest.
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