Wisconsin Lawyer With History of Not Communicating Suspended

A Wisconsin lawyer whose poor client communication skills led to default judgments and delayed court proceedings was suspended for 60 days.

This isn’t the first time Benjamin J. Harris has been sanctioned for violating ethics rules on communications, the Wisconsin Supreme Court said April 6, quoting the referee overseeing his case as saying “Here we go again.”

Harris represented one client in two small claims cases between 2017 and 2018. He failed to make court appearances, resulting in default judgments against the clients, the court said.

Although Harris was able to reopen the cases and they ultimately settled, “the clients ...