We have witnessed over the years various schemes that nibble around the edges of the unauthorized practice of law, and even those that stray over the line, but rarely something as brazen as this:
After a 2008 “cease and desist” warning from the Ohio Supreme Court, this defendant (not a licensed attorney) and his company continued to “file collection actions on behalf of his clients in municipal and common pleas courts,” including personally signing the Complaints.
That’s not nibbling around the edges, that’s thumbing your nose at the law and then poking a stick in the eye of the Court on top of it– 118 times.
The result? A fine from the Court in the amount of $280,000. That’s a lot of unauthorized legal fees.
Read about it here on the Legal Ethics blog of Kegler, Hill, Ritter + Brown.