Association disbars Spokane attorney
Spokane attorney Carlos Valero has been disbarred for continuing to practice law badly while his license was suspended for misconduct.
Valero was admitted to the Washington bar in July 1999 and was in trouble just a year later. He filed an adversary proceeding in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in July 2000, naming three defendants without any factual basis, according to Washington State Bar Association records.
A bankruptcy judge fined Valero and his clients $32,500 and restricted their ability to file additional pleadings. Valero ignored the fine and the restrictions, the bar association reported. When he filed more pleadings in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that court fined him again.
In another case in 2000, Valero won a judgment for a client, but refused to file a required acknowledgement when the judgment was paid. For that, he and his client were fined $2,909 – but Valero failed to pay, according to the bar association.
As a result of his misconduct in those two cases, the state Supreme Court suspended Valero’s license for six months, effective Dec. 1, 2003. But he ignored that, too.
A bar association investigation that led to Valero’s disbarment on March 30 says he mishandled four cases while his license was suspended. He filed a lawsuit without his clients’ permission, asked a client to lie in a court document and attempted to tamper with witnesses by soliciting false testimony.
In one case, Valero caused a client to be fined $955 because he sued the wrong people.
In all four cases for which he was disbarred, the bar association said, Valero never told any of his clients that his license was suspended or was about to be suspended when they hired him. Nor did he share that information with other lawyers and court officials in those cases.
Not only did Valero practice law in Washington with a suspended license, he took a case in Idaho where he didn’t have a license in the first place. Then he made misrepresentations to the judge, opposing counsel and a mediator, according to the bar association investigation.
The investigation also concluded that Valero charged an “unreasonable” $10,000 fee, failed to put the money in a trust account as required and failed to refund the money after lying to his clients and bungling their case.