Suspended Rhinelander attorney faces additional OLR complaint

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A suspended Rhinelander attorney faces another Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint for allegedly failing to properly file paperwork in two bankruptcy cases in 2013.

Richard Voss, of Voss Law Office, had clients pay him $306 toward a filing fee for bankruptcy petitions, according to an OLR complaint filed Sept. 5. In both cases, Voss filed for a waiver of a petition fee and told his client that he would refund the money if the waiver was granted.

However, Voss or his staff did not disclose the money he had in his account on the waiver forms, according to the complaint. One of the waiver petitions was denied, and Voss took more than a month to pay the fee and did not notify his client.

According to the OLR, Voss’ client trust account was not set up as an Interest on Lawyer Trust Account despite the fact he was punished for it in the past.

The OLR filed six charges against Voss. It is asking the state Supreme Court to suspend Voss for six months.

Voss graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1976. He did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday afternoon.

He was suspended for 18 months in July for mishandling thousands of dollars while he was a court-appointed guardian for a person referred to as J.K.

Between 1990 and when J.K. died in 2008, Voss received J.K.’s social security checks, and would disburse money for J.K. to use. However, Voss did not disburse all of the social security payments, yet told the court multiple times that he had less than $1,000 in the account.

Voss was subsequently removed as J.K.’s guardian, and it was later determined that Voss had used $46,103.88 of J.K.’s money to pay for other client and business expenses. He later admitted that he would often put client money in a general account and then pay money out J.K.’s trust account. Follow @eheisigWLJ