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Matthew J. Dever (WSBA No. 24193, admitted 1994, of Puyallup was disbarred, effective March 26, 2003, by order of the Supreme Court, following a hearing. This discipline was based on his conduct in 2000 and 2001 involving lack of diligence and communication with several clients, failure to preserve client funds and failure to cooperate with the disciplinary process.
Matter 1: Mr. Dever represented Washington collection clients of a California law firm. In December 2000, the firm terminated Mr. Dever’s employment and he agreed to complete his pending cases. In April 2001, the firm discovered a judgment entered against one of the clients Mr. Dever was responsible for handling. In this case, Mr. Dever could have obtained a default judgment, but delayed, allowing defendant’s counsel to file a notice of appearance, answer and counter claims. Mr. Dever failed to respond to the defendant’s discovery requests. Mr. Dever also failed to appear for defendant’s motion for summary judgment, during which the court entered a $15,600 judgment against the client. After several unsuccessful attempt to contact Mr. Dever, the firm retained new counsel, who filed a motion to set aside the judgment. The court denied the motion. The firm discovered that Mr. Dever had not filed complaints and other pleadings in other client matters assigned to him.
Matter 2: In 2000, Mr. Dever agreed to represent a landlord in an eviction. Mr. Dever filed the unlawful detainer action and the defendant filed a counterclaim. The court ordered the tenant to make $1000 monthly payments to the landlord, pending resolution of the counterclaim. Opposing counsel sent respondent the payments for March through July 2001. Initially, Mr. Dever did not forward any of these payments to his client. After the client retained new counsel, Mr. Dever sent him one monthly payment. The client’s new counsel subpoenaed Mr. Dever to testify at a hearing regarding the four missing checks. Mr. Dever failed to appear and the court ordered him to appear at a continued hearing. Mr. Dever failed to appear at the continued hearing.
Matter 3: In July 2001, a client retained Mr. Dever to collect a judgment. The client paid Mr. Dever $70. Mr. Dever took no action on the clients case and moved out of his office without leaving a forwarding address or telephone number. Mr. Dever failed to cooperate with the disciplinary investigation in all three of these matters.
Mr. Dever’s conduct violated RPCs 1.3, requiring lawyers to diligently represent their clients; 1.4, requiring lawyers to keep clients reasonably informed about the status of their matters; 1.14, requiring lawyers to keep complete records of client funds and disburse them promptly upon request; and ELCs 1.5 and 5.3(e), requiring lawyers to cooperate with the disciplinary process.
Jonathan Burke represented the Bar Association. Mr. Dever represented himself.
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