The State Bar of California has announced the disbarment of 23 attorneys in the third quarter of 2023, including one from La Jolla found to have forged clients’ signatures.
Along with the disbarred attorneys, 40 other attorneys were put on probation with stayed or actual suspensions following Notices of Disciplinary Charges or stipulations to discipline filed by the Office of Chief Trial Counsel.
While California law requires the State Bar to report discipline statistics to the legislature on a fiscal year basis (see the Annual Discipline Report for more), the State Bar also reports calendar year statistics for the public’s benefit.
Raymond David Mortier of La Jolla was disbarred after being found culpable in 44 acts of misconduct involving at least seven clients.
His ethics violations include a case where a client hired Mortier in a bankruptcy matter. The client sold his home and entrusted $161,000 from that sale to Mortier to oversee.
Though Mortier periodically disbursed the funds at the client’s request, he grossly misrepresented the balance remaining, including telling his client in February 2019 that he had more than $77,000 left in the trust, when the balance was $410. Mortier also dismissed and evaded his client’s in-person demand that Mortier pay him his outstanding balance.
Other misconduct included forging the signatures of two separate clients without their permission or knowledge on settlement checks totaling $67,000.
Mortier also failed to keep multiple clients reasonably informed, including one who hired him to avoid a home foreclosure. The attorney didn’t share with his client the expiration of a required eviction date until 24 hours prior, despite Mortier having almost six months advance notice of the date.
As part of his disbarment, Mortier was ordered to pay more than $51,000 plus 10% annual interest to the client in the bankruptcy matter. His disbarment went into effect on July 29.
