Hanni disciplinary hearing set

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Atty. Heidi A. Hanni of Boardman will face a disciplinary hearing at 10 a.m. Aug. 24 at the Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center in Columbus concerning a Mahoning County Bar Association complaint against her.

The bar association alleges Hanni failed to appear four times for scheduled office appointments in 2013-14 and twice for scheduled 2014 court hearings in a Columbiana County child-custody dispute, without providing good reasons for not showing up in court.

Hanni refunded $500 of the $2,968 paid to her by the couple, who had hired her to represent them, the complaint said.

The couple went on to represent themselves and won their case, the complaint added.

Hanni “met with the clients on several occasions,” according to a response prepared by Hanni’s lawyer, John B. Juhasz.

“If an appointment was scheduled, and respondent was tied up in court longer than expected, she would contact her office and have her office attempt to contact the clients to reschedule,” Juhasz wrote.

Hanni informed the court and its clerk “that she was ill and had been fighting a bronchial infection since early March,” Juhasz wrote in defense of Hanni’s nonappearance at a March 18, 2014, court hearing.

In another matter unrelated to the bar association complaint, Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, fined Hanni $1,000 on June 1, 2015, after finding her in contempt of court for failing to appear for a pretrial hearing in a rape case.

Hanni told the judge she was in Las Vegas when the judge’s secretary notified her law office of the hearing, but the judge said the hearing had been set far in advance.