Addiction Help Weighed in Discipline Cases

New Jersey’s lawyer discipline body is recommending three-month suspended suspensions for two lawyers who were caught with drugs and attended addiction counseling sessions.

But it refused to follow the state supreme court’s lead and impose a lesser sentence, distinguishing the present cases from a May ruling by the court, the New Jersey Law Journal reports.

One lawyer was caught with Ecstasy and another with three vials of cocaine she was carrying for a friend. In both instances the lawyers said they were addicted to alcohol rather than drugs, and they got help for their drinking problems.

The New Jersey Disciplinary Review Board refused to recommend a lesser punishment of censure, even though the state supreme court imposed it in a similar case. The DRB said that case involved special circumstances. The censured lawyer not only attended counseling, he also established a lawyer addiction-assistance program and served as a role model.