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When you're on the verge of settling a client's claim, the last thing you need is any new development that might upset the apple cart.
The death of the client is one event that should stop settlement discussions cold since it extinguishes the attorney-client relationship.
But one Minnesota attorney, hoping to consummate a $19,000 consumer settlement, mistakenly figured he could be coy about his client kicking the bucket.
That miscalculation has resulted in his indefinite suspension from the practice of law.
Isn't it ironic?
Thomas Lyons, Jr. was engaged in the practice of law at a law firm known as the Consumer Justice Center, P.A., in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota.
In 2006, Lyons was retained by a Montana man who, ironically enough, had been erroneously reported to be dead by credit reporting agency Trans Union.
After arranging for Montana attorney, Sean Frampton, to serve as local counsel, Lyons filed a complaint against Trans Union under the Fair Credit Reporting Act in Montana federal court.
In September 2007, Lyons and counsel for Trans Union engaged in a settlement conference, but no settlement was reached.
In early October the client was hospitalized and on October 7, Frampton sent Lyons an email that said the client "is ill and in critical condition. Please keep him in your prayers."
Prayers didn't help and on October 9 Frampton emailed Lyons to inform him that the client was being pulled off life support and that he wasn't "going to make it."
Frampton also told Lyons in the email that the client's wife had...