Milwaukee attorney faces 60-day license suspension

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A Milwaukee attorney is facing the suspension of his law license over allegations he mishandled client fees and failed to return money for work he did not do.

According to an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed Jan. 15, James Toran committed three counts of misconduct while representing an inmate.

Toran was hired in 2012, and the inmate’s mother paid Toran $1,000 in advanced fees, according to the complaint. She made $1,500 in additional payments. Five hundred dollars were paid to Toran to file a writ of certiorari for her son.

However, according to the OLR, Toran required $1,000 to be paid before he filed it, so he did not work on the writ. Toran, the OLR alleges, never returned the $500, nor did he deposit any of the money the mother had given him into his trust account.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to suspend Toran’s license for 60 days and order him to pay $500 in restitution.

He could not be immediately reached Wednesday.

This is not Toran’s first encounter with the OLR. The Supreme Court publicly reprimanded him in 1991 and 2012. The justices also privately reprimanded him in 2007, and his license was suspended for six months in 1989.

Toran graduated in 1982 from the University of Wisconsin Law School. His license is in good standing, according to the State Bar of Wisconsin website. Follow @erikastrebel