Recently in Ethics Category

It seems that Thomas Liotti was pretty peeved after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals admonished him in December for five different charges of attorney misconduct.

Some attorneys might have picked up a pint of ice cream, curled up in pajamas, and watched some reality TV to cope with appellate admonishment.

Liotti, on the other hand, filed a petition of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to benchslap the Fourth Circuit for benchslapping him.

On January 4, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a Notice of Special Procedures for Reviewing Attorney Compensation Requests in Death Penalty Cases.

The Judicial Council of the Fourth Circuit adopted certain amendments to the existing procedures for reviewing attorney compensation requests in federal capital prosecutions. Specifically, they added that requests for compensation in amounts over $100,000 per attorney would be presumed excessive at the district court level, if made in connection with a federal capital prosecution. Similarly, amounts in excess of $50,000 at the appellate level are presumed excessive.

If you think that a court will be hesitant to issue sanctions against court-appointed attorneys with stellar records, think again.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals admonished court-appointed attorney Thomas Liotti on Friday for five different charges of attorney misconduct, most relating to factual misrepresentations. Liotti conceded the misrepresentations, but argued that he should not be publicly disciplined because they were unintentional. The court was not persuaded.