Indiana Lawyer Suspended After Neglecting Clients

An Indiana attorney who failed to act on behalf of two clients, missing filing deadlines for one of them, has been placed on a stayed suspension by the state’s highest court.

Cody P. Cogswell was suspended for 60 days by the Indiana Supreme Court beginning on April 7, but the court stayed the suspension “subject to completion of at least 12 months of probation,” which will remain in effect until Cogswell files a petition to terminate it.

The Fishers, Ind., attorney’s suspension was related to his handling of a divorce and a workplace sexual harassment matter.

Cogswell failed to prepare certain documents for his client in the wake of a settlement of her divorce, the court said. And when his client’s former husband failed to make several monthly payments, Cogswell said he’d file a motion for contempt but never did, forcing the client to file a pro se petition, it said.

In the workplace matter, Cogswell “turned over primary handling of the matter to his paralegal,” the court said. When the client asked the paralegal whether a case had been filed after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a notice of right to sue, the paralegal said yes, which was a lie, the court said.

Cogswell failed to file a lawsuit in the matter until after the deadlines for the claims had passed, resulting in their eventual dismissal as untimely, it said.

His conduct in both matters violates professional ethics rules including those prohibiting failure to act promptly and failure to keep a client reasonably informed, the court said. Cogswell also neglected his duty to supervise the paralegal, it said.

In mitigation, he has no prior discipline, according to the court, he fired the paralegal, and paid $15,000 in damages to the workplace matter client through his malpractice insurance carrier.

As part of Cogswell’s probation, the court ordered him to read the Fundamentals of Law Office Management: Systems, Procedures and Ethics, 5th Ed., and provide a chapter-by-chapter summary to the court’s disciplinary commission.

The case is In re Cogswell, 2020 BL 129316, Ind., No. 19S-DI-135, 4/7/20.