If you have received a letter from the Attorney Grievance Commission, your ability to practice law is at stake.  There is a time when even a lawyer needs a lawyer. This is one of those times.  It is necessary that you respond promptly, and that your response be well-reasoned and truthful. It is also necessary that your response be appropriate.

Claims against lawyers in the grievance process include:

▪           Problems with trust funds;

▪           Inadequate communication with clients;

▪           Incompetent representation;

▪           Conflicts;

▪           Failure to maintain calendars;

▪           and breach of fiduciary duty.

The top five problems that occur as a result of Requests for Investigation, separate and apart from the initial concern which led to the grievance in the first place, are:

●          Failing to respond to a request for investigation;

●          Attempting to go it alone without your own attorney since the matter has quasi criminal importance;

●          Attempting to negotiate directly with the complaining client;

●          A careless or late response;

●          Lack of complete truthfulness.

There is a growing number of claims involving lack of authority to settle, or, related to incompetent representation, attorneys who take on cases where they are not familiar with the area of the law. Additionally, the Grievance Commissioner appears to be more vigorously pursuing the impaired lawyer, either because of substance abuse or because of a mental condition, real or perceived. These further demonstrate the need for able counsel when there is a Request for Investigation.

You need lawyers such as those at Roy, Shecter & Vocht, who are experienced in representing and counseling attorneys in the grievance process. Roy, Shecter & Vocht attorneys have been on the Attorney Discipline Board, the adjudicative arm of the Michigan discipline process, both in the appellate and the trial process. They have also participated in the committees which have written ethical opinions and which have supervised discipline proceedings, as well as on the Client Protection Fund, and have helped to pass on the ethical propriety of potential lawyers.