Fund repays customer of former Hubbard attorney $27,000

Staff report

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Board of Commissioners of the Clients’ Security Fund has voted to reimburse a former client of former Hubbard attorney Richard J. LaCivita $27,000 as a result of his failure to account for client funds deposited with him.

The board voted at its quarterly meeting Sept. 5 to award a total of $78,248 to 41 victims of attorney theft.

LaCivita’s client received by far the highest reimbursement of the quarter.

LaCivita resigned in 2012 from the practice of law in Ohio with discipline pending.

The reimbursement stems from title work he did relating to a Hubbard home in 2013 despite no longer being licensed to do title work, according to the Supreme Court.

The customer discovered that LaCivita failed to deposit $27,000 of the $61,180 entrusted to him, and he told the customer he could not pay it back, the documents say.

The Ohio Supreme Court ordered LaCivita to pay the $27,000 earlier this year, but he failed to do so, the Supreme Court said.

LaCivita, admitted to the bar in 1975, lists a home address on Tippecanoe Place in Canfield and has had law offices on Youngstown-Hubbard Road in Hubbard and West Liberty Street in Hubbard.