Fund awards victim of disbarred lawyer

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The Indiana State Bar Association’s Clients’ Financial Assistance Fund Committee has awarded a woman $14,973 for losses she suffered due to the dishonest acts of disbarred South Bend attorney Rod Sniadecki.

Disbarred in April 2010, the solo practitioner who’d been admitted to the bar in 1992 violated the terms of a previous suspension imposed for having a sexual relationship with a client and then lying about it, as well as hiring a suspended attorney to perform various legal duties. The Supreme Court found that Sniadecki didn’t notify all of his active clients of the October 2007 suspension and that he’d accepted new clients and represented them during his suspension. The justices also found he took on conflicting roles as counsel for a divorcing wife while representing both her and the husband in a joint bankruptcy case.

This payment is one of many requested payouts from Sniadecki’s victims, but the ISBA committee has not yet decided on all of those cases. The ISBA has approved $34,113 to former Sniadecki clients and the requests continue coming in, with 48 completed applications submitted as of IL deadline. That is a record high for any one attorney since the fund was created in 1962, committee leaders say.

Rehearing "In case of dishonest lawyers" IL Nov. 24-Dec. 7, 2010

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