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Justices suspend attorney after sanctions pile up

By: Eric Heisig//August 21, 2014//

Justices suspend attorney after sanctions pile up

By: Eric Heisig//August 21, 2014//

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A Whitewater attorney with a long history of misconduct has been suspended for 90 days for failing to file a docketing statement for a client’s appeal.

John Dade filed a notice of appeal for his client “R.K.” following a Walworth County judge’s January 2007 decision in a real estate dispute, according to the state Supreme Court’s per curiam decision.

On May 31, 2007, the Court of Appeals found that Dade had not filed a docketing statement. They told him that if it wasn’t filed within five days, it would be dismissed or he would be sanctioned.

Dade did not file the docketing statement, according to the decision. In a June 27, 2007, order, the appellate court said if it wasn’t filed by July 9, 2007, he would be sanctioned $25 a day for each day it was not filed.

It still was not filed by July 9, 2007, and Dade subsequently was suspended for 60 days as discipline in another case. On July 11, 2007, Dade’s law partner, Charles Penwell, took over R.K.’s case, though the docketing statement still was not filed, according to the decision.

Finally, on Aug. 7, 2007, with sanctions adding up to $700, the Court of Appeals again ordered Dade to file the docketing statement, this time by Aug. 17, 2007, conditioned upon Dade paying a $50 penalty. Penwell filed the docketing statement Aug. 16.

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According to Thursday’s decision, Dade also failed to file a brief in the case in front of the circuit judge.

R.K. filed a complaint in 2012, and the OLR filed its case the following year. Referee Hannah Dugan recommended a 90-day suspension, and the court agreed. As a condition of Dade’s license being reinstated, the court ordered him to attend six hours of continuing legal education credits for law office management.

According to the State Bar’s website, Dade works at Dade & Penwell Law Office LLC. However, records from the state Department of Financial Institutions show the company was dissolved in August 2013.

Dade graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1983. He did not immediately return a phone call Thursday.

Dade’s license also was suspended in 2013. He was privately reprimanded in 1991 and publicly reprimanded in 2007 and 2012.

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