Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Paul Arthur Silich

872 N.W.2d 181, 2015 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 97, 2015 WL 7890032
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 4, 2015
Docket15–1227
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 872 N.W.2d 181 (Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Paul Arthur Silich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Paul Arthur Silich, 872 N.W.2d 181, 2015 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 97, 2015 WL 7890032 (iowa 2015).

Opinion

WATERMAN, Justice.

The Iowa Supreme Court Attorney,Disciplinary Board brought a complaint against Paul Silich, charging him with violating Iowa attorney disciplinary rules in connection with his representation on one case and his failure to cooperate with the Board. A division, of the Grievance- Commission of the Supreme Court of Iowa found he violated several rules and court orders during his protracted handling of a Medicare lien and in responding to the Board. The commission recommended a sixty-day suspension. Silich admits the factual basis for the complaint, but argues his client was not harmed and the thirty-three months it took to resolve the lien was beyond his control. On our de novo review, we find Silich violated several rules and suspend his license to practice law for thirty days.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

Paul Silich is an attorney who practiced in Dubuque County, Iowa. Silich was admitted to the bar in 2003. ■ In 2011, he was publicly reprimanded for neglect, inadequate client communication, and failure to expedite litigation.-..Today’s case arose from Silich’s handling of a Medicare lien on a tort settlement as he was winding up his law practice.

A. The Sanderson Representation. In 2008,..Nancy Sanderson, fell out of her motorized wheelchair and broke her femur while home alone. Silich agreed to represent her in a personal injury action against the wheelchair manufacturer and retailer. Silich filed a civil action on August 31, 2010, against those parties seeking damages for Sanderson’s injuries and for her sixteen-year-old son’s loss of consortium. The defendants denied liability and alleged Sanderson caused her injuries by failing to -wear the wheelchair’s seat belt. Sanderson claimed she had been wearing the seat belt at the time of her accident. Silich proceeded with discovery and had scheduled depositions when Sand- *184 erson died unexpectedly on January 17, 2011. Her testimony had not been perpetuated by deposition. Silich thus no longer had a witness to rebut the defense theory that the accident resulted from Sander-son’s failure to use the seát belt.

On March 9, Clinton National Bank (the bank) opened Sanderson’s estate and was appointed administrator of the estate. 1 On August 9, Silich filed a motion in the personal injury action to substitute parties. The motion sought to replace Sanderson personally with the bank as administrator for Sanderson’s estate and add her son’s conservator as plaintiffs. The district court allowed the amendment. Silich regarded the estate administered by the bank and the son’s conservator as his clients.

In December, Silich contacted Jerry Van Scoy, the bank’s attorney, to discuss settling the personal injury case. Silich noted the case would be difficult to win without Sanderson’s testimony. On December 27, the bank authorized Silich to settle the case for $25,000. Within ten days, Silich reached a settlement with the defendants who agreed to pay $25,000 conditioned on resolving any Medicare lien. Silich did not get that lien resolved until September 2014 — two years and nine months later. He kept his clients in the dark as to his progress or lack thereof during much of that period despite contempt hearings and court orders to provide information. Silich allowed over seven months to transpire before responding to one request from the lienholder and delayed up to six months responding to other requests for information from his client or the lienholder. The timeline of his activity was undisputed and chronicled by the commission.

On January 6, 2012, Silich wrote to the Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Contractor (MSPRC) to report the settlement and to request “a final itemization of any claimed amounts as soon as possible.” Si-lich asked the MSPRC to provide a release of any Medicare lien that arose from paying Sanderson’s medical bills. On January 23, Silich updated Van Scoy and the attorney for the conservatorship. Silich told them he believed the MSPRC would be willing to waive its lien in light of the “significant compromise” reached in the settlement. Sanderson had been the only witness to the accident, and her death created proof problems justifying the low-dollar recovery.

On February 28, the probate court approved the settlement subject to release of any Medicare lien. The settlement proceeds were allocated sixty percent to the son and forty percent to the estate. The parties agreed that Silich would negotiate with Medicare to seek a reduction and release of its lien. On March 19, the MSPRC asked Silich to provide documentation of the administration of the estate and confirm Silich’s authority to receive information on behalf of the estate. On April 5, Silich provided this information to the MSPRC by letter and asked “for an itemization of any conditional payments that Medicare claims are related to the [Sanderson] claim.”

On May 28, the MSPRC sent a conditional payment letter to the bank to give notice that there may be a lien on any settlement proceeds from the personal injury action. The letter identified $48,687 in medical expenses paid by Medicare that MSPRC attributed to Sanderson’s accident. Van Scoy forwarded the letter to Silich who replied to the MSPRC on July *185 23. Silich told the MSPRC to communicate with him directly and argued it should waive any lien. Silich’s letter showed a “cc” to Van Scoy, but Van Scoy denied receiving it.

On August 28, the bank filed its first interlocutory report -in the probate case. The report indicated that all of the remaining work was contingent on Silich resolving the Medicare lien. The estimated time to complete was listed as “unknown.”

On October 3, Silich updated Van Scoy on the status of the Medicare lien.. He wrote that he had spoken with an MSPRC representative who said the file would be reviewed by a regional official. Silich did not have a timeline for when the matter would be resolved,. but he promised to provide updates as the matter progressed. On November 5, Silich received a letter from the MSPRC indicating it could not correspond with him without proper proof of representation.

Van Scoy requested updates on- .the Medicare lien on November 27 and January 10, 2013. Silich failed to reply to either request. On March 4, Van Scoy filed a motion in the probate proceeding for a scheduling status report because he had not had any contact with Silich for five months. The court set a status hearing for March 29, with an order directing Si-lich to provide a detailed status report. Silich, who had changed addresses, apparently never received the order setting hearing and did not attend.

On March 29, Van Scoy moved for Silich to be held in contempt .of court. The conservatorship joined in the contempt motion. The court ordered a hearing to show cause for April 24. Silich appeared at that hearing. The hearing was the first contact Silich had with his clients in nearly seven months. Van Scoy expressed frustration at Silich’s handling of the Medicare lien. Van Scoy said he was unable to tell what Silich was doing to resolve the lien, despite repeated requests for updates. Si-lich admitted that he “probably could have kept ¡Van Scoy] in the loop a little better.” Silich reported he was in the process of winding up his practice, and this was his last paper file. Silich said that he had been speaking with the MSPRC about the lien.

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Bluebook (online)
872 N.W.2d 181, 2015 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 97, 2015 WL 7890032, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/iowa-supreme-court-attorney-disciplinary-board-v-paul-arthur-silich-iowa-2015.