Attorney will serve two 60-day suspensions concurrently

Listen to this article

Tim Osicka was the subject of two Office of Lawyer Regulation investigations. One had to do with allegations he did not perform services for a client after being paid, and the other had to do with him not cooperating with an Office of Lawyer Regulation investigation into the first matter.

He has been suspended since 2012 for not paying his bar dues, not maintaining his continuing legal education credits and not cooperating with the OLR investigation. Osicka closed his law office in 2011, according to the opinion.

The court ruled that Osicka should be suspended 60 days for each complaint filed by the OLR. However, it ordered his suspensions should run concurrent.

It also ordered Osicka to pay $750 in restitution to a client, and $2,700.01 for the costs of both proceedings.

Osicka could not immediately be reached for comment.

In the first case, a client paid him $750 to represent her juvenile daughter in a marijuana case, and Osicka did not put the money into a trust account, according to the court’s opinion.

A hearing was set for the case, but Osicka did not show up because he found out his license was suspended for failing to pay his bar dues and court assessments, according to the opinion.

His license was reinstated, but not before the client got another lawyer. Osicka did not refund the money the client had paid, according to the opinion.

The other case pertained to Osicka not cooperating with the OLR during its investigation.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradley did not participate in either of the decisions. Justice David Prosser dissented from both opinions.

In his dissents, Prosser noted that Osicka stopped practicing law before these cases were filed. He also wrote that Osicka “understands from experience that, unless he prevails on every allegation of misconduct against him, he will be required to pay all or substantially all costs of the OLR prosecution.” Prosser said he wondered why the OLR filed two cases when it could have just filed one. He said it would be fairer to have Osicka’s suspension run concurrent with the temporary suspension he is currently under, since he hasn’t been able to practice law in some time.

“Looking at this case, it is obvious that only criminals are entitled to ‘sentence credit,’” Prosser wrote.

Osicka was publicly reprimanded in 2002, 2009 and 2010. He graduated from John Marshall Law School in Chicago in 1976 and was admitted to the Wisconsin State Bar in 1986.