Legal Question in Business Law in California
An attorney providing a past address (evicted over 1 year) on letter head, and actually utilizing a "Postal Drop" as their actual physical address, as well, having sporadic operating phone lines, of which, sometimes work and sometimes not.
Would this be considered a violation to the state bar "Guidelines of Civility and Professionalism"?
The basis of involvement for counsel is, he is representing a relative that has a corporate bad debt issue, of which is currently grossly delinquent. Therefore, counsel is merely buying additional time by utilizing his legal veil as a smoke screen.
Additionally, this particular attorney has faced disciplinary actions by the California State Bar, Office of the Chief Trial Counsel Intake, for exactly the same guise, which is not returning calls and/or written responses to received letters and documents from his client, as well, the State.
How can I legally contact his client (relative & business owner) as the attorney did provide a document to my firm stating all collection procedures and correspondence be referred to his office, of which, is not an office, but rather a postal mail drop (Post Net).
Note: Dependent on the legal responses received, I would like to find counsel to file suit on additional current and future cases.
Standing by.
3 Answers from Attorneys
A client can terminate the services of an attorney at will. The client may be responsible for the previous attorneys time.
A new attorney can advise the client accordingly and notify the previous attorney that he no longer represents the client.
Roy Kohler
If you are an attorney, you cannot contact an opposing party if you know that the party is represented by counsel, regardless of whether the attorney has been evicted or is using a postal mail drop to receive mail. If you are a lay person, or the client, you can contact them, although you may be triggering problems under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If you were retaining the attorney, his lack of an office, unresponsiveness and history of discipline would be relevant factors. However, you're talking about the other party's (your debtor's) attorney. Except for cases involving conflicts of interest in the representation, there's nothing you can do about the other guy's choice of lawyer. The debtor probably hired this flaky lawyer because he was cheap.
I think you could legally contact the debtor directly (unless you are an attorney yourself), because the debt-collection laws allowing a debtor to refer calls to his attorney don't seem to apply to non-"consumer" indebtedness. However, I also think it is the wrong strategy. First, even if there's no law preventing your making the call, it's unethical. Second, it's probably going to be ineffective, perhaps counterproductive.
I'm not sure what stage your collection efforts are at, whether you have security, or what the debtor's financial circumstances may be, but I have a hunch that the time has come to sue. Not only does this put you on track to get a judgment (perhaps a default judgment), but it tends to stimulate discussion about settlement. Finally, you need to keep in mind that a debtor may elect to file for bankruptcy at any time, without warning.
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