Antonnette Haughton Cardenas

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The complainant left accident-claim documents with the attorney's office around 2000, when the six-year limitation period (expiring December 2001) was approaching. The attorney retained the documents but filed no suit, wrote no letter of demand, and did not return the documents, resulting in the claim becoming statute-barred. The Committee accepted the complainant as a witness of truth and found that, whether or not a formal lawyer-client contract existed, the attorney breached Canon IV(s) by acting with inexcusable and deplorable negligence. No express finding of dishonesty was made. The Committee deferred deciding on sanction until the attorney could address it on punishment, so no sanction was imposed in this decision.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court

Aggravating factors:

• A limitation period was fast approaching and the attorney was aware of it
• Complainant was deprived of a potential remedy by default

Mitigating factors:

• Attorney's office routinely received documents left by walk-in potential clients who often did not return, with administrative cost to mail documents back (treated as only partially mitigating)
• Complainant stated he had fully recovered from his injuries