Opinion

Stark County Bar Ass'n v. Ake

  • 111 Ohio St. 3d 266
Court
Ohio Supreme Court
Filed
Nov 15, 2006
Status
Published
Author
Moyer
On the bench
Connor, Donnell, Lanzinger, Moyer, Pfeifer, Resnick, Stratton
Cited by
24 cases
Authority
More cited than 15.3%

The opinion

Moyer, C.J.,

dissenting.

{¶ 49} I respectfully dissent. “A lawyer shall not disregard * * * a ruling of a tribunal made in the course of a proceeding * * DR 7-106(A). The rule could not be more clear; a lawyer may not violate a court order. Ake not only acknowledged that he violated the order of the trial court, he brazenly acknowl *273 edged that he had supplanted the trial court’s judgment with his own: “I also believed that the Court order was not — wouldn’t have been upheld on appeal and I believe that to this day.”

John A. Murphy Jr. and Richard S. Milligan, for relator.

Charles J. Kettlewell, for respondent.

{¶ 50} We have previously held that a violation of a trial court’s order is a violation of DR 7-106(A). Ohio State Bar Assn. v. McCray, 109 Ohio St.3d 43 , 2006-Ohio-1828 , 845 N.E.2d 509 , ¶ 17-18. We have sanctioned more severely than the majority does here conduct similar to that of respondent. Stark Cty. Bar Assn. v. Osborne (1991), 62 Ohio St.3d 77 , 578 N.E.2d 455 (one-year suspension for violating court order).

{¶ 51} Our system of justice rests upon respect for judicial tribunals and then-orders. Lawyers may not choose which orders they will respect. I would suspend respondent from the practice of law for six months.

Lundberg Stratton and O’Connor, JJ., concur in the foregoing opinion.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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