Leading a client to believe lawsuits had been filed when they hadn’t and acting as if a tumultuous month as a Broward public defender hadn’t happened led to a 180-day suspension of a Miami attorney by the state Supreme Court.
The court followed the recommendation of the case referee, 11th Circuit Judge Peter Lopez, concerning discipline for Willishia Plant. Lopez ruled that Plant ran afoul of professional ethics in diligence and communication, and committed “misconduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.”
Plant’s suspension started Sept. 7.
According to Lopez’s referee’s report, Plant’s side argued for a 30-day suspension. Lopez recommended a suspension six times longer in part because he felt 30 days was too light after Plant showed a “lack of remorse evidenced by her evasive and inconsistent testimony and the lack of candor to the court in her testimony…”
Part of Plant’s “lack of candor” concerned the month between Plant’s hiring and her firing at the Broward Public Defender’s Office in 2020. The rest concerned a pair of cases she took on later that year for someone she’d known since her middle school years.