The Justice Firm

Here are some important things you should know about attorney Bryan T. Adamson, who owns The Justice Firm:



PUBLIC REPRIMAND:

On February 28, 2012, the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah Supreme Court entered an Order of Discipline: Public Reprimand against Bryan T. Adamson, for violation of Rules 1.4(a) (Communication), 1.5(b) (Fees), 1.15(d) (Safekeeping Property), 7.1 (Communications Concerning a Lawyer’s Services), 7.2(c) (Advertising), and 8.4(a) (Misconduct) of the Utah Rules of Professional Conduct.



In summary:

Mr. Adamson and his client entered into a contingency fee agreement wherein Mr. Adamson agreed to represent the client in a medical malpractice case. The client paid Mr. Adamson an advance to cover filing costs. The client later sent Mr. Adamson an email terminating the representation and requesting a return of the filing costs. Mr. Adamson responded that he would not refund any money because he had spent significant hours on the case. Mr. Adamson further told the client that he would place a lien on the case if she took the case to a new attorney. Mr. Adamson told the client her case was not worth pursuing. The client sent three follow up requests for Mr. Adamson to provide an itemization of his fees. Mr. Adamson refused to provide an itemization of his fees. The client again requested that Mr. Adamson document his lien claim so that she could make a decision about whether to proceed with her case. Mr. Adamson did not respond to this request. Mr. Adamson had not done the amount of work on the case to justify the figure he used when threatening to place the lien. Mr. Adamson’s yellow page advertising included a guarantee that he would pay a client $1000 if they did not win their case. Mr. Adamson’s firm website did not contain his name. Mr. Adamson was informed by the OPC that the website did not contain his name, but he failed to take steps to correct it.



PUBLIC REPRIMAND:

On April 9, 2012, the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah Supreme Court entered an Order of Discipline: Public Reprimand against Bryan T. Adamson, for violation of Rules 1.4(a) (Communication), 1.4(b) (Communication), 1.5(b) (Fees), 1.16(b) (Declining or Terminating Representation), 1.16(d) (Declining or Terminating Representation), and 8.4(a) (Misconduct) of the Utah Rules of Professional Conduct.



In summary:

Mr. Adamson was retained to represent a client in a divorce. The fee agreement was signed by the client’s mother, who also paid the fee. The fee agreement was entitled “Stipulated Divorce Flat Fee Retainer Agreement.” The fee agreement provided that the case would be handled on a flat fee basis, but in the event of trial, the client would pay an hourly rate. Mr. Adamson filed the Petition for Divorce and later sent the client an invoice for an amount over and above the flat fee already paid. Prior to sending the bill, Mr. Adamson did not communicate to the client that he had converted the case from a flat fee to an hourly rate. Later Mr. Adamson told the client he would not complete the case until the fees were paid. Mr. Adamson eventually withdrew from the case. Mr. Adamson admitted that when he withdrew from the case there was only about thirty minutes of work left to do on the case to get the divorce finalized.



This information was copied directly from http://www.utahbar.org/category/utah-bar-journal/bar-discipline/