Disciplinary Proceedings Against Mutschler
2011 WI 74, 336 Wis.2d 241, 804 N.W.2d 680 (2011)
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ATTORNEY disciplinary
proceeding. Attorney's license
revoked.
¶1 PER CURIAM. We review the petition
of Attorney Christopher A. Mutschler for the
consensual revocation of his license to
practice law in Wisconsin. See SCR
22.19.
¶2 Attorney Mutschler was admitted to
the practice of law in Wisconsin in 1991.
He most recently practiced law in Fond du
Lac.
¶3 Attorney Mutschler has not
previously been the subject of professional
discipline. His license to practice law in
Wisconsin, however, has been temporarily
suspended since March 2010 due to his
willful failure to cooperate with the Office
of Lawyer Regulation's (OLR) grievance
investigations concerning his conduct.
See SCR 22.03(4). His license remains
suspended as of the date of this opinion.
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¶4 The petition for consensual
revocation and the OLR's summary of the
misconduct allegations against Attorney
Mutschler state that there are 59 separate
investigations pending against him. The
OLR's summary indicates that for each
investigation there appear to be violations
of multiple rules. Thus, if a formal
complaint were to be filed against Attorney
Mutschler, there could apparently be scores
or even hundreds of counts of professional
misconduct. In addition to the underlying
misconduct at issue in these grievance
investigations, Attorney Mutschler would
also be subject to multiple additional
counts related to his failure to cooperate
with the OLR's separate grievance
investigations.
¶5 Nearly all of the grievances against
Attorney Mutschler appear to follow a
similar pattern. In general, Attorney
Mutschler would obtain payment of an advance
fee, which was often a flat fee, to
represent a client in a traffic, OWI, or
criminal case. In OWI and traffic cases,
Attorney Mutschler would then often advise
the client to enter a no contest plea and
promise that he would win the case on
appeal. In some cases, Attorney Mutschler
would never notify the client of the
scheduled hearing on the pending charge or
citation, leading to the client failing to
appear. In some cases, Attorney Mutschler
himself would fail to appear at the
scheduled hearing. The failure to appear by
the client or Attorney Mutschler would often
lead the judge presiding over the citation
or charge to enter a default judgment
against the client. In other cases, the
client would, in fact, enter a guilty or no
contest plea, but Attorney Mutschler would
then either fail to file an appeal or would
fail to prosecute the appeal properly, which
would lead to the dismissal of the appeal.
¶6 In a large majority of the cases,
the grievance alleges that Attorney
Mutschler failed to communicate adequately
with his client. In some cases, the clients
made dozens of telephone calls (up to 100
calls in some instances), but Attorney
Mutschler never returned them. In many
cases, Attorney Mutschler simply stopped
communicating at all with the clients,
requiring them either to hire new counsel or
to proceed on their own without counsel.
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¶7 Some examples of the numbers of
possible violations may provide some context
for the scope of Attorney Mutschler's
professional misconduct. In 57 of the 59
investigations, the OLR alleges a possible
violation of SCR 20:1.3, which requires a
lawyer to act with reasonable diligence and
promptness. In 53 of the investigations,
there are possible failures to communicate
properly with clients, in violation of SCR
20:1.4. In 54 of the grievance
investigations, there is an allegation that
Attorney Mutschler failed to hold unearned
fees and advance payments received from
clients in trust until earned, in violation
of SCR 20:1.15(b)(4). In 52 of the
investigations, there is an allegation that
Attorney Mutschler failed to take reasonable
steps to protect his clients' interests upon
the termination of the representation,
including returning unearned advance
payments, in violation of SCR 20:1.16(d).
Finally, the OLR indicates that in 26 of the
investigations there may be a possible
violation of SCR 20:8.4(c), which prohibits
attorneys from engaging in conduct involving
dishonesty, fraud, deceit or
misrepresentation.
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¶8 In addition to misconduct related to
representations of clients, the OLR's
summary of misconduct also indicates that
Attorney Mutschler engaged in criminal
conduct. In 2008, pursuant to a plea
agreement, Attorney Mutschler pled no
contest to a charge of uttering a forgery, a
felony, and to a charge of possession of an
illegally obtained prescription medication,
a misdemeanor. The forgery count was
subject to a deferred prosecution agreement
and was later dismissed on the prosecutor's
motion. According to the OLR's summary of
misconduct, these charges stemmed from
Attorney Mutschler being caught in the act
of forging prescription forms and using such
forms to obtain pain medication on March 26,
2007. The police later discovered that
Attorney Mutschler had also successfully
used a forged prescription form to obtain
pain medication on March 5, 2007.
¶9 Attorney Mutschler's petition for
consensual revocation acknowledges that he
cannot successfully defend himself against
the professional misconduct allegations
described in the OLR's misconduct summary.
In addition, in the petition Attorney
Mutschler avows that his filing of the
petition is being done freely, voluntarily,
and knowingly. He acknowledges that he has
the right to contest the charges against him
and the right to retain counsel to advise
and assist him in these matters, and states
that he is giving up these rights. Attorney
Mutschler further acknowledges that if the
court grants his petition and revokes his
license, he will be subject to the
provisions of SCRs 22.26-22.33.
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¶10 We must also address the issue of
restitution in connection with Attorney
Mutschler's petition for revocation. In the
petition Attorney Mutschler states that he
cannot successfully defend against the
restitution orders sought by the OLR. The
OLR's misconduct summary included a
statement for each investigation as to
whether restitution was sought. Those
restitution statements were summarized in a
chart attached to the OLR's recommendation
in support of the petition for revocation by
consent. The restitution chart showed that
the OLR requested restitution awards in 45
of the 59 investigations it was conducting.
Thus, Attorney Mutschler's statement in his
petition indicates that he did not and does
not contest a restitution award to some
person or entity in those matters. In a
number of cases, however, there remained
some uncertainty over to whom a restitution
award was owed because there was still a
claim for reimbursement pending before the
Wisconsin Lawyers' Fund for Client
Protection (the Fund). Thus, it was not
clear whether the restitution award should
be granted in favor of the client or the
Fund. The Fund has subsequently decided a
number of those claims, clarifying the
proper recipient of any restitution to be
paid by Attorney Mutschler. The OLR has
submitted updated restitution
recommendations based on the decisions made
by the Fund. Attorney Mutschler has not
disputed those updated restitution
recommendations, and we award restitution
accordingly.
¶11 In one matter, client G.V. and his
mother T.S. asked this court to award
restitution to them in the amount of the
$13,500 that they had paid to Attorney
Mutschler, although the OLR had not
requested a restitution award in their
matter. They asserted that they had
demonstrated to the OLR that Attorney
Mutschler had engaged in dishonesty and
other ethical violations. This court
ordered the OLR to file a response to their
restitution request.
¶12 The OLR's response stated its policy
is to seek restitution when (1) the rights
of the grievant or the respondent attorney
in a collateral proceeding will not likely
be prejudiced, (2) the funds to be restored
do not constitute incidental or
consequential damages, (3) the funds to be
restored were in the respondent lawyer's
direct control, and (4) the amount of any
restitution award can be reasonably
ascertained.
¶13 The OLR explained that it did not
seek restitution for G.V. and T.S. because
Attorney Mutschler had performed a
substantial amount of work in that matter.
Pursuant to a representation agreement, G.V.
and T.S. paid Attorney Mutschler a $13,500
flat fee to represent G.V. in a criminal
proceeding at the trial level. Attorney
Mutschler performed a substantial amount of
work in moving the circuit court to allow
G.V. to withdraw his guilty plea, although
the motion was unsuccessful. Moreover,
although the agreement obligated Attorney
Mutschler to perform services only in the
trial court, he also agreed to handle G.V.'s
appeal at no additional charge. Further,
Attorney Mutschler did file a subsequent
motion for additional sentence credit, which
the circuit court granted, resulting in a
benefit to G.V. Thus, unlike many of the
matters being investigated, Attorney
Mutschler did perform a substantial amount
of work on behalf of G.V., which meant that
the amount of any restitution award was
unclear and could not be easily and
reasonably ascertained.
¶14 T.S. and G.V. filed a reply to the
OLR's response along with a number of
supporting documents. They claimed that
Attorney Mutschler had not really done that
much work for G.V. and that other members of
his firm had made appearances instead of
Attorney Mutschler. They asserted, among
other things, that Attorney Mutschler failed
to respond to their telephone calls and
letters, that much of the work done by
Attorney Mutschler and his firm was not
satisfactory, and that Attorney Mutschler
had been dishonest with them. They also
disagreed that Attorney Mutschler had been
responsible for obtaining sentence credit
for G.V. They did note that they had filed
a claim with the Fund, but their claim
materials had been returned with an
explanation from a Fund representative that
their claim did not meet the Fund's criteria
for restitution.
¶15 With respect to our disposition of
the petition, it is clear under the facts of
this matter that the petition for consensual
revocation should be granted. The
descriptions of the 59 pending
investigations show a disturbing pattern of
Attorney Mutschler taking an individual's
money and then doing little or no legal work
to earn that money. Attorney Mutschler has
demonstrated that he does not appreciate the
obligations that apply to an individual who
has been granted the privilege to practice
law in this state.
¶16 With respect to restitution, we
impose the restitution requested in the
OLR's updated restitution request. The
amounts of restitution in the various client
matters and the person or entity to whom
restitution is owed are set forth in
Appendix A to this opinion, based on the
OLR's updated restitution request. See
SCR
22.29(4m) (a lawyer petitioning for
reinstatement must prove that he or she has
made restitution to or settled all claims of
persons harmed by the lawyer's misconduct,
or must explain his/her failure or inability
to do so).
¶17 With respect to the restitution
request of G.V. and T.S., we conclude that
restitution is not appropriate regarding
Attorney Mutschler's representation of G.V.
Although G.V. and T.S. may object to the
quality of the work, it is clear that
Attorney Mutschler and his firm did perform
a substantial amount of work on G.V.'s
behalf. Whether that work was appropriate
and fulfilled Attorney Mutschler's
contractual obligation to G.V. and T.S.
would require an extensive evidentiary
hearing or trial and extensive fact-finding,
which is not consistent with the focus of
disciplinary proceedings on whether an
attorney violated the rules of professional
conduct and should receive some form of
discipline. There are other venues for
resolving such monetary issues.
¶18 IT IS ORDERED that the petition for
consensual license revocation is granted.
¶19 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the
license of Christopher A. Mutschler to
practice law in Wisconsin is revoked,
effective as of the date of this order.
¶20 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within
180 days of the date of this order
Christopher A. Mutschler shall pay
restitution in the amounts and to the
individuals or entities set forth in
Appendix A to this opinion.
¶21 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that
Christopher A. Mutschler shall comply with
the provisions of SCR 22.26 concerning the
duties of a person whose license to practice
law in Wisconsin has been revoked.
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Individual or Entity to Whom Owed.........
Amount
Wisconsin Lawyers' Fund for Client
Protection (the Fund) (Grievance re: Client
Gary W.)....... $ 14,000
Client Patricia C. .... $ 2,250
Client Kurt D.. $ 4,500
Client Marcie S. ...... $ 2,500
Client Shauna S. ...... $ 4,000
Client Scott R. $ 5,000
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Joshua V.)
$ 2,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Clinton M.)
$ 10,000
Client Jason J. ....... $ 4,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Maureen D.)
$ 5,000
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Joseph L.)
$ 700
Client Jamie H. $ 4,500
Client Ricky B. $ 4,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Steve D.)
$ 4,250
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Allen B.)
$ 4,500
Client James R. $ 6,000
Client Sherry L. (or to the Fund if claim
paid)$ 8,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Sheila F.)
$ 5,500
Client John S. $ 4,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Severt J.)
$ 4,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Jason V.)
$ 5,000
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Jennifer L.)
$ 841
Client Matthew K. (or to the Fund if claim
paid) $ 4,500
Client Dave M. $ 5,653
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Vipul K.)
$ 14,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Glen H.)
$ 5,440
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Tanya W.)
$ 4,250
The Fund (Grievance re: Client John N.)
$ 7,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Jason H.)
$ 4,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client James K.)
$ 7,000
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Linda D.)
$ 4,000
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Melodie D.)
$ 4,439
Client William K. .... $ 6,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Scott C.)
$ 5,000
Client Ruben M. (or to the Fund if claim
paid) $ 5,000
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Jared C.)
$ 4,250
Client Tony M. (or to the Fund if claim paid)
$ 6,500
Client Eugene K. (or to the Fund if claim
paid) $ 2,000
Client Jason Z. $ 8,500
Constance D. (Grievance re: Client Kurt D.)
(or to the Fund if claim paid) $15,000
Client Terri G. $ 4,650
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Christopher
C.)$ 3,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Jason B.)
$ 4,500
The Fund (Grievance re: Client Mark S.)
$ 7,000
Client Sherill O. ..... $ 5,000
TOTAL: $246,723
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