| ► Attorney Ben D. Cooper of San Diego; ethical elf |
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Attorney Ben D. Cooper of San Diego; ethical elf
The state of California provided Ben D. Cooper with a law license in 1981 after he graduated from Suffolk University Law School in Boston.
The California Bar Court found Ben guilty of misconduct in two matters as set forth below.
In the first case, Ben was hired to handle three matters and to disburse funds received in settlements and agreed to judgments. After receiving a check for $23,000 on his client’s behalf, Ben didn’t provide an accounting to the client and only gave the client $10,000 of the money. Ben never gave the client any additional funds and admitted that he wasn’t entitled to any of the remaining $13,000 as fees. In short, Ben paid himself a fee of almost 60% even though he was only entitled to one-third.
In the second case, Ben guaranteed his client a net recovery of $5,000 if her personal injury case settled. Ben told her he would try to negotiate medical liens and would pay those liens from the remainder of the settlement. Ben received $10,500 in settlement funds and paid his client $5,000 and paid three of the four medical lien holders. Ben asked the fourth doctor to reduce his bill by 50% to $1,000, but the doctor refused and said he’d reduce it by 20%. Subsequently, the doctor was forced to sue Ben for his bill and received a judgment of $2,500.
As a consequence of his misconduct, the Patron Saints for Attorney Misfits sitting on the California Bar Court punished Ben by gifting him with a complimentary stayed 180-day suspension of his law license. In truth the comedians sitting on the Bar Court didn’t mete out any meaningful punishment to Ben.
As we speak (ca. October 2012) Ben continues to practice in the San Diego area.
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