Georgia Lawyer's Old Case Files End Up in Recycling Bin at Newspaper Offices
A woman who pulled up her car and unloaded old case files in a recycling bin behind the offices of the Gainesville Times in Georgia last week told a curious circulation manager that the courthouse had ordered her to unload the papers there.
But the documents were old case files of Ashley Bell, and the clerk of the Hall County courthouse denied that his office issued any such order, the Gainesville Times reports. Most of the files stemmed from Bell’s previous work as an indigent defense lawyer. The documents included Social Security numbers of former clients and information about abuse of juveniles, the story says. Many of the documents included pages marked “privileged” and “confidential.”
The newspaper placed the documents in locked file drawers.
Bell is a well-known lawyer who is a member of the Hall County Board of Commissioners. After investigating, he told the newspaper a college intern failed to follow orders to shred the documents.
Bell said he was ill and out of the office much of last week. “You can’t watch your employees every day,” he told the Gainesville Times. “You hope you can go on autopilot, but I guess sometimes the plane crashes.”
