Staff members in Columbus on June 8 will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fund, which has reimbursed more than $14 million since 1985 to 1,795 clients who have been ripped off by their lawyers. “We’re celebrating the fact that lawyers help victims when they’re harmed by our profession,” said fund administrator Janet Green Marbley, who is an attorney.
The fund, financed entirely by attorneys’ registration fees, pays up to $75,000 to clients whose attorneys stole their money or property. The fund doesn’t cover legal malpractice, fee disputes, attorney negligence, or client dissatisfaction. Seven volunteer commissioners decide which claims qualify for reimbursement.
The fund makes reimbursements four times a year, most recently on March 5, when three former clients of disbarred Centerville attorney Charles E. Bursey II received a total of $7,029. Bursey, 39, misappropriated client money, forged their signatures and mixed their money with his own, the Supreme Court found. He also was criminally convicted of grand theft.
About 80 percent of the claims involve unearned fees: “You pay a lawyer to, say, handle your divorce and you never hear from the lawyer again,” Marbley said.
These often are low-dollar claims but they can add up. The fund paid out $225,000 to settle 93 claims against former Dayton immigration attorney Fuad B. Nasrallah Jr., who was disbarred in 2002 after years of pocketing fees he didn’t earn, often involving foreign-born clients seeking green cards. Nasrallah was suspended twice, in 1993 and 2000, before the supreme court disbarred him.
Other, more lucrative theft involves attorneys failing to turn over funds to clients after the conclusion of a civil lawsuit or an estate case.
The attorney whose misdeeds most taxed the fund was Richard Goldberg of Youngstown: The fund paid out more than $1 million to settle the claims of 53 clients. Goldberg, who built a thriving practice as a medical malpractice lawyer, pleaded guilty in criminal court to defrauding 23 clients of at least $4.4 million from 1993 to 1999. He served time in both federal and state prisons.
“Most often, he would tell (clients) he could not settle their (case) or he would make up a reason why the money had to be deposited with him for a time,” Marbley said. “He had a number of schemes.”
Typically, complaints begin with a call to the local bar association. In Montgomery County, Dayton Bar Association counsel John Ruffolo screens complaints and refers some to a certified grievance committee, which determines if an attorney’s actions violate the profession’s code of conduct. The local committee can refer cases to the Ohio Supreme Court’s grievances board, which can recommend Supreme Court sanctions against the attorney. Only after sanctions are issued does the Clients’ Security Fund make payments, Ruffolo said.
“(Clients) don’t automatically get their money as soon as they file their complaint,” he said.
Clients don’t need attorney representation to file a claim, nor is there a charge. Call the Dayton Bar at (937) 222-7902 or the Ohio Supreme Court at (800) 231-1680.
Last year, the court disbarred eight attorneys, indefinitely suspended 19, and suspended another 37 for specified periods.
The good news, Marbley said, is in the relative rarity of complaints against attorneys. Each year, fewer than one-tenth of one percent of the state’s 42,000 attorneys is involved in theft claims.
“That says to the court that the overwhelming percentage of lawyers practice with integrity and serve their clients’ interests,” she said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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