Legal Ethics
N.J. Lawyer to Accept Reprimand for Keeping Late-Filed Appeals Secret
Posted Jul 17, 2008, 08:45 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A New Jersey disciplinary board says a lawyer should be reprimanded for missing deadlines to file appellate briefs in two cases and then failing to tell his clients about it.
The lawyer, Clifford Van Syoc of Cherry Hill, N.J., had claimed that he had a heavy caseload and was suffering from chest pains at the time of the blown deadlines, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. He also contended that neither appeal had merit.
But the New Jersey Supreme Court Disciplinary Review Board accepted the findings of a special master that Van Syoc was at fault for gross neglect, lack of diligence and failure to communicate, the story says. The board noted that Van Syoc had been admonished for a similar offense in 2003.
Van Syoc's lawyer, Steven Kudatzky, said his client will accept the reprimand and he has addressed the problems that caused him to miss the deadlines. "He had a rough period in his life, professionally and personally,” he told the New Jersey Law Journal. “He is completely back in the saddle."
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