Recent Decisions From the Louisiana Supreme Court
IN RE ROY RICHARD JR (Opelousas), 2016-B-0076, (4/4/16)
The Court suspended the respondent for one year and one day, with all but sixty days deferred, for overdrawing his trust account on one occasion and failing to cooperate with ODC’s investigation.
IN RE JALILA BULLOCK (New Orleans), 2016-B-0075, (3/24/16)
The Court suspended the respondent for one year and one day, with six months deferred, for allowing a client’s matter to prescribe, then misleading the client regarding the status of the matter.
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Amendment to Rule 1.15
Rule 1.15, Sections (g)(7) and (h) of the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct were enacted on March 29th as follows:
(g)(7) "Unidentified Funds" are funds on deposit in an IOLTA account for at least one year that after reasonable due diligence cannot be documented as belonging to a client, a third person, or the lawyer or law firm.
(h) A lawyer who learns of Unidentified Funds in an IOLTA account must remit the funds to the Louisiana Bar Foundation. No charge of misconduct shall attend to a lawyer's exercise of reasonable judgement under this paragraph (h).
A lawyer who either remits funds in error or later ascertains the ownership of remitted funds may make a claim to the Louisiana Bar Foundation, which after verification of the claim will return funds to the lawyer.
The Rules of Professional Conduct are available in entirety on the LADB website.
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