NOTICE OF REPRIMAND (By Consent)
Case No. 00-134-GA Notice Issued: July 2, 2001 Joseph C. McMillen, P-28358, Waterford, Michigan, by Attorney Discipline Board Tri-County Hearing Panel #66.
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Reprimand;
Effective June 30, 2001.
The respondent and the Grievance Administrator filed a stipulation for a consent order of discipline in accordance with MCR 9.115(f)(5) which was approved by the Attorney Grievance Commission and accepted by the hearing panel. Respondent pled no contest to the allegations of professional misconduct contained in Formal Complaint 00-134-GA, specifically: In a probate matter, respondent failed to timely prepare a closing statement on his client's behalf which resulted in the conversion of the estate from an unsupervised estate to a supervised estate; and, after conversion to a supervised estate, respondent failed to timely prepare and file an inventory and accounting of estate assets, resulting in the suspension of his client's fiduciary powers. Further, respondent failed to maintain reasonable communication with his client or to respond to her numerous inquiries concerning her legal matter. Respondent's conduct was in violation of MCR 9.104(1)-(4); and Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct 1.1(c); 1.2(a); 1.3; 1.4; 1.16(d); 3.2; and 8.4(a) and (c). The parties agreed that Formal Complaint 00-151-FA may be dismissed and that an order of reprimand may be entered.
The hearing panel ordered that respondent be reprimanded. Costs were assessed in the amount of $417.04.