The recession has driven an increasing number of California lawyers to cheat and steal, say State Bar officials, who expect to discipline or expel hundreds of them in coming months.
Financial pressures are behind the increase in lawyer wrongdoing, they say. Complaints are coming from clients who say their lawyers illegally withheld settlement money or charged them for work they didn’t do — especially those who promised help modifying mortgages.
This recession has been especially hard on lawyers, said Carol Langford, a San Francisco lawyer who defends lawyers before the California State Bar Court in disbarment cases.
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This entire mess is the fault of the lenders who refuse to work with borrowers AND their lawyers in modifying home loans as they promised they would do when they took all of the bailout money. I have tried to modify several loans without success and I am an attorney — the lenders ignore my calls and requests just as much as they ignore the homeowner’s calls and requests. The Attorney Generals of the states need to band together and sue the lender for not adhering to the home modification programs.