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Panel hears arguments for, against suspending Atty. Large
YOUNGSTOWN
A lawyer for the Trumbull County Bar Association told a disciplinary panel that Atty. John H. Large of Warren should be suspended from law practice for two years because he mishandled three cases and lied to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Atty. Randil Rudloff, the association’s lawyer, recommended to the three-member panel in a Thursday hearing that none of the suspension time should be stayed.
However, Large’s lawyer, John B. Juhasz, disagreed with that recommendation, saying Large made restitution for legal fees his clients had paid in advance, which were not actually spent.
“These three cases are as a result of, candidly, poor office-management practices,” Juhasz told the panel, which will issue its findings at a later date.
“We think that there are things far short of an actual suspension that will accomplish what needs to be accomplished,” Juhasz said.
In the first case, Christina Ward of Eastlake paid Large a $2,000 retainer fee on June 19, 2008, for him to handle her divorce complaint.
In early July, Ward said one of Large’s office assistants told her that her complaint had been filed in court.
However, her complaint actually wasn’t filed until Sept. 23, the day after she faxed Large a letter, in which she fired him as her lawyer and demanded her money back.
Ward didn’t get her money back until late February 2009, minus $255 in court costs and $647.50 in lawyer fees, the bar association said.
Under questioning by Rudloff, Large said he filed Ward’s divorce complaint without knowing that she had fired him the day before.
“Were you exercising any oversight over what was going on in your office?,” Rudloff asked Large.
“Well, I thought I was,” Large replied.
In the second case, Jennifer A. Natali of Boardman paid Large a $1,400 fee to file her bankruptcy petition, but Large failed to file it and failed to notify her of his May 6, 2009, suspension from law practice by the Ohio Supreme Court, the bar association said.
The state’s top court suspended Large’s law license for one year after he pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts of failing to file federal income-tax returns and was put on four years’ probation.
In the third case, Robert J. Burk of Girard paid Large $475 on Jan. 15, 2009, to file a motion to terminate a child support order.
Large filed the motion on March 16, 2009, and notified Burk about a June 2009 court hearing, but failed to tell Burk about his suspension from law practice, the bar association said.
The bar association alleges Large falsely told the top court in his reinstatement application that he had notified his clients of his suspension and refunded their money within 30 days.
The association also alleges Large told the top court that no new discipline was pending against him despite his having been notified that the association was probing the Ward, Natali and Burk complaints against him.