Bangor lawyer suspended from practice for 2 months

A Bangor lawyer has been suspended from the practice of law for mishandling a woman’s lawsuit against the Bangor Housing Authority.

Justice Jon Levy of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ordered on Aug. 23 that Laurie Anne Miller be suspended for six months with all but two months suspended. She will be barred from practicing law in the state from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 and will be monitored by a Bangor lawyer for one year after the suspension.

Katherine A. Violette of Hancock filed the complaint against Miller in December 2003 with the Board of Overseers of the Bar. She was injured on Jan. 7, 1997, on a Bangor Housing Authority sidewalk and suffered multiple injuries, according to Levy’s order, which was posted last week on the high court’s Web page.

Violette hired Downeast Law Associates in Orrington to handle her case. The lawsuit originally was being handled by Julio DeSanctis. Miller took over the case and filed the complaint on Jan. 7, 1999, two years after Violette was injured.

DeSanctis moved to New Jersey two years ago, and Miller moved her practice to Bangor.

Miller failed to take further action in the case, according to Levy. Violette’s lawsuit was dismissed on Oct. 25, 2001, by Maine Superior Court Justice Jeffrey Hjelm after Miller failed to follow up on the case.

Miller also misled Violette by telling her that the case had been filed earlier than it had been and that the case was still pending after it had been dismissed, according to the order. The lawyer also did not tell Violette the case had been dismissed or that she had moved her law office.

By failing to pursue Violette’s personal injury case and by her further failure to respond to Hjelm’s order, according to Levy, Miller violated the rules of the Maine Bar that govern attorneys practicing law in Maine.

“The court is particularly concerned that Miller further engaged in flagrant misrepresentations to Violette well after a year from the date the matter had been dismissed … by stating that the case was still on the court’s docket,” Levy wrote. “Standing alone, such egregious deceit of this client concerning Miller’s own failure to properly pursue the litigation, and her failure to take steps to prevent the court’s dismissal of the litigation for lack of prosecution, is serious misconduct warranting significant disciplinary sanction.”

Miller was publicly reprimanded in 1998 by the Board of Overseers of the Bar for similar conduct, according to the board.

She is the second Bangor lawyer to be suspended this year. Philip L. Ingeneri was suspended for July 1 through Sept. 30 for mishandling the case of a former Ellsworth businessman.