Lawyer gets 4-year suspension for 'serial neglect' of indigent clients in Erie courts

A local lawyer's failure to meet with clients and otherwise represent them means he will have no clients for the foreseeable future.

The lawyer has been suspended for four years for his chronic failure to properly represent indigent criminal defendants as their court-appointed counsel in the Erie County Court of Common Pleas.

The lawyer, James P. Miller, engaged in "serial neglect" of his Erie County cases from 2019 to 2021, according to a disciplinary report that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted in issuing the license suspension on Monday. Miller is now based in Allegheny County.

In one Erie County case, according to the report, Miller failed to communicate with a 15-year-old defendant for 13 months as the defendant was prosecuted as an adult.

In another case, Miller met with a 17-year-old defendant only once over a year as the defendant was prosecuted as an adult.

And in another case, according to the report, Miller did no work on behalf of a client for 14 months — except to ask that the case get postponed.

The complaints about Miller became so voluminous that Erie County Judge John J. Mead removed him from 50 criminal cases in May 2021, and ordered him to turn over the case files to the lawyers who had been newly assigned his cases.

Miller turned over the files only after Mead threatened to have him arrested for contempt of court and jailed for 15 days, according to the report that the Supreme Court adopted. The other lawyers resolved Miller's cases, the report said.

Miller violated the state's rules for lawyers "by his repeated failure to properly serve his clients, in particular through his complete abdication of the duty to communicate with clients, failure to act with diligence and promptness to move matters to their conclusion, failure to follow deadlines and failure to follow court orders," according to the report.

The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania sent its 43-page report and recommendation on Miller to the Supreme Court on Sept. 7. The board suggested that the Supreme Court suspend Miller for four years — a recommendation the court adopted in full.

In a sign of how seriously the board viewed the case, its recommendation of a four-year suspension came after the board's hearing panel on the case recommended a suspension of two years. The board in its report said a four-year rather than a two-year ban was appropriate because Miller "is not fit to practice law" under the circumstances that led to his discipline.

"The serious and troubling misconduct ... compels a lengthy suspension in order to protect the public, preserve the integrity of the profession and the courts and deter other practitioners from engaging in similar misconduct," according to the board's report.

The board called Miller's "grievous neglect" of the two juvenile clients "a particularly appalling example of his professional derelictions," given the two defendants' age and incarceration at the Erie County Prison. "As juveniles," according to the board's report, "they were part of a more vulnerable segment of the population and deserved far better representation."

Miller was under contract as a 'conflicts counsel'

Miller worked for the Erie County Court of Common Pleas under contract for what are known as "outside conflicts counsel." Those lawyers are appointed to represent indigent clients when conflicts of interest prevent the Public Defender's Office from representing them.

The county pays the conflicts counsel $2,900 a month per annual contract and has 24 lawyers under contract, according to the local courts.

At the same time Miller worked under contract in Erie County, he maintained a private practice with offices in Erie and Smethport, McKean County, according to his LinkedIn account. He also served as an assistant public defender in McKean County in 1995-97 and as district judge in Smethport from June 2004 to December 2005, according to the Pennsylvania Bar Association, on whose board of governors he sat from 2008-11.

Miller graduated from the law school at the University of Pittsburgh in 1992 and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in November 1992. The Disciplinary Board of the state Supreme Court states that his current mailing address is in White Oak, southeast of Pittsburgh and just east of McKeesport. Miller is originally from McKeesport, according to his LinkedIn account.

Miller could not be reached for comment for this story. A recording on his phone said he could not take messages because his phone's mailbox for messages was full.

Miller can petition for reinstatement after his suspension ends.

Board said Miller offered no proof of medical issues

Miller repeatedly failed to respond to the disciplinary charges against him, but he also blamed health problems for the issues with his representation, according to the Disciplinary Board's report. The board said its Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed a petition for discipline against him April 2022, and that he did not file an answer.

The hearing panel in his case held a disciplinary hearing in October 2022, but Miller, who represented himself, offered no exhibits, according to the Disciplinary Board. The board said the hearing panel recommended a two-year suspension for Miller in a report on May 10, and that the board met on the report on July 25. The board then submitted its recommendation of a four-year suspension to the state Supreme Court.

Miller said he was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, and that he contracted COVID-19 in April 2021, according to the Disciplinary Board's report. But the board found that Miller "did not provide evidence at the disciplinary hearing that as a result of any of these claimed health issues, he filed a request to reduce his caseload or withdraw from cases," according to the report.

The report stated that Judge Mead testified at the disciplinary hearing that Miller never submitted evidence to him that medical issues were a problem, and the board said Miller never provided any evidence about his "claimed health issues" at the disciplinary hearing.

The board's report cited nine individual cases in which Miller neglected clients. The board in the report also said Miller "accepted responsibility for his misconduct" and had no prior discipline.

Removal from cases seen as best option for courts

Mead monitored Miller's cases as the Erie County Court of Common Pleas' administrative judge for criminal cases. The board said Mead got involved after Bob Catalde, the district court administrator for the county, fielded complaints about Miller's representation and worked with Mead and other court officials to try to resolve the situation and ensure that the court system provided "appropriate representation" for Miller's clients.

Catalde described the situation with Miller as highly unusual, according to the Disciplinary Board's report.

At the disciplinary hearing, according to the report, Catalde testified that Miller's representation of the 15-year-old defendant was so poor that a counselor at the Erie County Prison, where the 15-year-old was incarcerated, contacted Catalde. The defendant's mother had contacted the prison about her son's lack of representation, according to the report.

"Catalde described this contact from the prison as 'unprecedented,' as he never had a prison counselor reach out with respect to an attorney's lack of attention to an incarcerated defendant, but because the individual was a juvenile and because there was no communication, the prison felt it was appropriate to contact Mr. Catalde," according to the report.

Catalde also testified at the disciplinary hearing that, in his experience as district court administrator, "it was an 'unprecedented' situation to have to remove outside conflicts counsel and seek other counsel," according to the report.

Mead, like Catalde, said his primary concern was to ensure that Miller's clients got proper representation.

Mead testified at the disciplinary hearing "that the court system had tried to work with" Miller, "but it was not working out, and he decided they had to do 'something fairly quickly' because 'people needed representation and they needed it quickly,'" according to the report.

Mead, according to the report, decided "the best strategy was to hire new attorneys" and reassign Miller's cases.

Pending disciplinary case: Erie lawyer admits attending a hearing while high on cocaine. Panel is reviewing sanctions

Another case: Erie lawyer gets public reprimand over handling of $6,000 fee in criminal case

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Lawyer suspended for 4 years for 'serial neglect' of Erie clients