The Iowa Judicial Building. (Photo and seal courtesy of the Iowa Judicial Branch)
An Iowa-licensed attorney is facing a potential suspension of his law license due to sanctions imposed in the state of Arizona.
Earlier this year, the presiding disciplinary judge of the Arizona Supreme Court Attorney suspended for six months the Arizona law license of attorney David Joseph Martin of Lakeside, Arizona. Martin’s license was then placed on probation for two years.
According to court records, Martin represented a teenager who was injured when a struck by vehicle while crossing a street within the crosswalk. With Martin as her attorney, she sued the driver of the car.
According to the subsequent findings of the presiding disciplinary judge, after he was hired to represent the girl, Martin “displayed a pattern of neglect” by failing to respond to the driver’s attorney, failing to comply with discovery and disclosures rules, failing to respond to the opposing counsel’s motion to dismiss the case, which resulted in the case being dismissed by the court, and then by misleading his client into believing the case was still active.