Ga. Lawyer Disbarred After Not Replying to Notice of Disbarment

A Georgia lawyer who was under interim suspension for not responding to a state bar investigation has been disbarred by the state’s highest court for failing to respond to another disciplinary hearing seeking disbarment.

Christopher John Thompson violated four professional conduct rules when he agreed to represent a client in 2014 in an automobile-related injury case and then abandoned him, the Supreme Court of Georgia said in a per curiam opinion.

And because he didn’t respond to the state bar, the court said he’s in default and is deemed to have admitted to all the facts alleged in the notice of discipline.

Thompson’s ethical breaches cited in the opinion include violations of the lawyer-client relationship and rules around diligent representation. These are sanctionable by disbarment, and have resulted in such in cases similar to this one, “especially when coupled with a failure to respond to disciplinary authorities,” the court said.

It didn’t find, as the state bar committee did, that Thompson had violated the prohibition on fraud and dishonesty. The bar did allege facts to support the claim of abandonment, but this doesn’t necessarily amount to deceitful conduct, which the bar’s claims failed to support, the court said.

The case is In re Thompson, 2019 BL 307438, Ga., No. S19Y0873, 8/19/19.