Fraud Case Brings Jail Time For SoCal Attorney

July 27, 2015 By
Saying that Newport Beach attorney Gino Paul Pietro “had a bad week,’ the Courthouse News is reporting that the lawyer is being sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for two fraud schemes in Southern California – and that “It could have been worse…”
 
At issue is an attorney named Gino Paul Pietro, for Pietro, 54, who faced two fraud charges. One was for a tax scheme and another for representing solutions that were apparently untrue. The CN says U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego called Pietro a “disgrace to the entire legal profession,” and also ordered him to pay $18,000 in restitution. Meanwhile, his client in an Orange County tax case, Donald Goff, was sentenced to 78 months in prison.
 
Bad week indeed. Read the details here: Courthouse News Service
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‘Jerk Bill’ Takes Aim At Attorney Bad Behavior

September 24, 2014 By
A business-backed bill that takes aim at certain attorney behavior, typically tactics that show disrespect or are designed to delay the courts, has been signed into law by Gov. Brown, the Sacramento Business Journal is reporting. Backers of the bill argued that, along with giving judges a tool to regulate attorneys, the new law will conserve court resources.
 
The BizJ quotes the president of the Civil Justice Association of California, or CJAC, saying that “…prior to this bill, courts had tools to sanction lawyers who brought frivolous lawsuits but not sanctions if they behaved badly,” said . “Now, if the filing is legit, but the lawyer is behaving like a jerk, the court can smack them with the other side’s legal fees.”
 
Read the report here:
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