Lisa Marie Nelson

http://macsnc.courts.state.mn.us/pubdocs/SC/Storage/OPA090472-0408.pdf

Minnesota Lawyer Hides Client’s Death

In In re Lyons, A09-472 (Minn. 2010) The Minnesota Supreme Court indefinitely suspended a lawyer for 1 year with no right to petition for reinstatement for being untruthful to both opposing counsel and referee in a disciplinary hearing. Montana Rule 3.3(a)(1) provides that “[a] lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false stat[e]ment of material fact or law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer.” And Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct 8.1 An applicant for admission to the bar, or a lawyer in connection with a bar admission application or in connection with a disciplinary matter, shall not: (a) knowingly make a false statement of material fact.

The lawyer, Thomas Lyons Jr, was retained in September of 2006 by plaintiff living in the state of Montana. Trans Union Corporation at this time erroneously reported plaintiff as dead. A complaint was filed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Plaintiff retained local counsel as well. On October 6, 2006, plaintiff was hospitalized while counsel was attempting a settlement with Trans Union. Lyons was advised by plaintiff’s local counsel on October 9th, 2006 that plaintiff was being removed from life support and was not going to make it. Lyons sent an email requesting a confirmation of settlement positions, per the client’s wife. The client died on October 9th, 2006. Lyon’s accepted an offer by email from Trans Union a settlement of 19,000.00.

The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the conclusions of the referee that the lawyer knowingly made false statements during testimony in which he failed to provide the Director with all information on file. This conduct violates Rule 25(a), RLPR.

The referee also concluded the conduct violated Rules 3.3(a)(1), 4.1. and 8.4(c) and (d) of the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct.

Lyons knowingly made false misrepresentations to opposing counsel in whether he knew of his client’s death before or after the parties reached a settlement, concerning a material fact. See In re Forrest, 730A.2d 340, 345-46 (N.J. 1999). (Noting that lawyer’s failure to disclose his client’s death “deceived both his adversary and the arbitrator about a fact that was crucial to the fair and proper resolution of the litigation” and suspending lawyer for six months)

This case demonstrates that several ethical considerations in the legal profession were violated. MRPC 8.1 says a lawyer should not make a false statement of material fact. Our Minnesota Rule 3.3 is the same as the state of Montana’s. Rule 3.3 Candor Toward the Tribunal (a) A lawyer shall not knowingly : (1) make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal or fail to correct a false statement of material fact or law previously made to the tribunal by the lawyer.
Tags attached: misconduct, suspension, Rule 8.1, disciplinary, false, misleading, MRPC