Top court disbars one lawyer, suspends another

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Ohio Supreme Court has permanently disbarred a Lisbon lawyer based on a Columbiana County Bar Association complaint, and it suspended a Canfield lawyer based on an Ohio Office of Disciplinary Counsel complaint.

The state’s top court unanimously disbarred Virginia M. Barborak of Lisbon at its meeting in Columbus.

It suspended Atty. Benjamin Joltin of Canfield for two years, with the second year stayed on conditions.

Barborak and Joltin could not be reached to comment Monday.

The bar association charged Barborak with rules infractions based on her actions in four probate matters, in which she served as a court-appointed fiduciary or counsel for a court-appointed fiduciary.

The association’s complaint alleged that Barborak failed to hold funds belonging to the probate estates in an interest-bearing trust account separate from her own property, failed to maintain required records documenting the funds entrusted to her, and falsified bank statements and probate accountings to conceal her misappropriation of client funds.

Barborak admitted that, at one point, her client trust account balance was about $12,000 when the account should have held more than $170,000, the top court said.

In the complaint against Joltin, the rule violations arose largely from the financial mismanagement of his practice related to three client matters and his trust account records.

He represented clients in a complex divorce case, a personal-injury case and an eviction case. Two of the clients fired him.

The complaint said Joltin commingled personal and client funds, misappropriated client funds, misled a client about the reason he failed to promptly deliver the client’s funds, and failed to maintain any records regarding his client trust account for several years.

The top court imposed a two-year suspension on Joltin, with the second year stayed on conditions.

The court ordered Joltin to serve one year of monitored probation, complete three hours of continuing legal education addressing trust-account maintenance in addition to certain other CLE requirements, remain in full compliance with his Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program contract, follow all of OLAP’s treatment recommendations and commit no further misconduct.