If an attorney with a suspended license files a notice of appeal, the client will pay a price, even if neither the lawyer nor the client knew of the suspension, the Virginia Court of Appeals has ruled.
"When an attorney’s license to practice law in the commonwealth has been suspended, any pleading filed during that time is a nullity," wrote Judge Robert J. Humphreys in Jones v. Jones, No. 2426-05-4 (Oct. 24). As a result, the appeal must be dismissed.
"This opinion gives new meaning to the word formalistic," says Rory Little, a legal ethics professor at the University of California-Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
Little, a former member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics, argues, "To say that a suspension which only lasts 30 days which the lawyer doesn’t even know about is sufficient to terminate the rights of plaintiff is just outrageous."
However, Sheila Reynolds, a professor at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan., says she understands the court’s position even though "I think it is natural to feel sympathy for the client terminated through no fault of her own."
"The attorney-client relationship is based on an agency relationship," notes Reynolds, who teaches professional responsibility and legal malpractice and is the former chair of the Kansas Bar Association Professional Ethics Advisory Committee. "Even though the client is innocent, she is bound by what the agent does because she authorized the agent."
Details here from the ABA Journal.