Suspended Lawyer Wins Debt Discharge Appeal Over Nevada Bar

Disciplinary fees assessed against a Nevada attorney who was suspended from practicing law were discharged in bankruptcy and therefore don’t need to be paid as a condition of reinstatement, a federal appeals court said.

Attorney Terry L. Wike’s roughly $21,000 debt stemming from state bar disciplinary proceedings and suspension should be viewed as “compensation allocable to the cost of his attorney discipline hearings and not for a fine or penalty,” the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in a ruling Thursday, upholding a lower court’s ruling for Wike over the State Bar of Nevada.

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