Blithe Spirit Doesn't Work For Escrow Accounts

The Delaware Supreme Court found that an attorney had failed to adhere to the terms of a private reprimand and imposed a public reprimand a probation for one year.

The original misconduct involved failure to pay taxes and to ahere to recordkeeping requirements for entrusted funds. Here, the attorney had failed to maintain proper books and records and to supervise a non-lawyer employee. As the Board on Professional Responsibility  found

[T]here was no effort to read [] Rule 1.15; and [the attorney] apparently blithely went on, thinking his books and records contained all necessary information, and therefore his bookkeeping and his computer program were adequate. There was apparently no basis for him to have made that assumption.

The court agreed with the board that the Office of Disciplinary Counsel had not proven that the attorney's statements of compliance with recordkeeping obligations did not amount to misrepresentations. (Mike Frisch)