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.
As part of the sanctions imposed by the presiding disciplinary judge, Martin will also have to pay the cost of his client’s medical treatment at a hospital, estimated at $5,781.
Because of the sanctions imposed in Arizona, Martin’s Iowa law license is now subject to a possible six-month suspension, although he does have the opportunity to argue that such a penalty is unwarranted.
Iowa Supreme Court records indicate Martin was first licensed to practice law in Iowa in 1983. In 2002, his Arizona license was placed on probation for one year and Martin was censured, although the reasons for that disciplinary action are not disclosed in Iowa court records.