Antonnette Haughton Cardenas
Allegation / charges
Deferred (Decision Pending Attorney Response) | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered April 01, 2008. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL COMPLAINT No. 167/2003 IN THE MATTER of a complaint by Joseph Terrelonge against Antoinette …
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:
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
Duties engaged
Other decisions involving this respondent
- 2 of 2006
- 63 of 2009
- 66 of 2009
- 3 of 2010
- 49 of 2008
- 63 of 2009
- 131 of 2007
- 41 of 2007
- 45 of 2008
- 82 of 2006
Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.
Documents
Source: https://www.generallegalcouncil.org/judgement/antonnette-haughton-cardenas-complaint-no-167-of-2003/