Ohio Supreme Court suspends Lorain County attorney's license

The Ohio Supreme Court suspended the license of Lorain County attorney Jeffrey Weir II indefinitely last week. Weir was accused of neglecting clients and not cooperating with disciplinary proceedings against him, and has entered the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program to address mental health issues, according to the state Supreme Court. If he completes the program, makes restitution of $250 to former client Sunseraray Gilmore, is under the treatment of a licensed health professional and receives "an opinion from a qualified health care professional that he is capable of returning to the competent, ethical, and professional practice of law," Weir's license may be reinstated, justices wrote. An attorney since 1997, Weir previously had his license suspended for one year in June 2019, with six months stayed, for losing a client's settlement check, "failing to reasonably communicate with the client," failing to cooperate with investigators in a disciplinary hearing and "failing to provide competent representation" to a different client. He also was found in contempt by the Supreme Court because he did not comply with their disciplinary order in a timely manner. Aggravating factors found by the justices included that Weir was subject to prior discipline, committed multiple offenses and failed to cooperate with investigators. In the latest decision, justices wrote that Weir had a discipline case before the state high court in December 2018 when the Lorain County Bar Association charged him with three incidents of professional misconduct. When he failed to answer those complaints, his license was suspended in March 2019. More allegations came up in August, and Weir and five of his accusers testified at a hearing of a three-member panel of the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct. That resulted in a further suspension, without credit for time served, and Weir was ordered to pay restitution to a former client, justices wrote. The decision also outlined how Weir failed to reply to Gilmore, who hired him in late 2017 and paid $500 for him to file documents while handling her grandmother's estate, then further failed to reply for several months when she asked for help with her grandmother's will. Weir also failed to notify Gilmore that his license had been suspended as of March 1, 2019. He further failed to attend a client's hearing in an estate case, failed to communicate with that client before the hearing and failed to return their phone calls; failed to file an important document in a bankruptcy case and did not or would not return that client's calls; and failed to "reasonably communicate" with clients in a separate civil case, while not properly explaining their rights to them and failing to return their files. Further aggravating the charges against Weir were his actions two months after his initial suspension, when he sent a letter to the owners of a vacant property in Lorain saying he represented a client interested in purchasing the property. The Supreme Court found that behavior to be "engaging in the unauthorized practice of law."