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State Bar Takes Over Practice of Nonlawyer
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The State Bar of California announced yesterday that it has seized the practice of a West Hollywood man who continued engaging in the practice of law without a license despite receipt of a cease and desist notice, insisting that he was doing nothing wrong in helping pro per litigants preparing pleadings and discovery responses and that Superior Court judges had assured him his activities were lawful.
In one of three complaints against the nonlawyer, Chad Padilla, it was alleged by a litigant that he had a contingency fee agreement with Padilla who provided advice and assumed the identity of the supposed client in emailing the opposing party’s attorney.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge last Wednesday issued an interim order allowing the State Bar to assume jurisdiction of Padilla’s practiice and to seize the files in his Fountain Avenue apartment. It took possession of six boxes of files and a laptop,
State Bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said yesterday:
“Unauthorized practice of law puts its victims at huge risk that their unwitting hiring of unlicensed and unqualified individuals will prejudice their cases, sometimes with life-altering consequences. Meanwhile, those who engage in the unauthorized practice of law take their fees and move on even when they fail to deliver what they promised.”
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