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Milwaukee attorney faces 60-day suspension

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//March 30, 2016//

Milwaukee attorney faces 60-day suspension

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//March 30, 2016//

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A Milwaukee attorney faces a 60-day suspension over alleged misconduct involving public-defender cases she handled.

According to an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed March 24, Diane Caspari committed six counts of misconduct involving four public-defender appointments. Caspari failed to file post-conviction motions and appeals in a timely manner on the behalf of two clients and failed to inform a client that she had blown the deadline for those motions, according to the complaint.

While representing a client who was eventually convicted of four felony charges and sentenced to 23 years in prison, Caspari failed to deliver a case file to counsel that the State Public Defender had appointed to take over the case and billed the SPD for work she did not perform, according to the OLR.

Caspari also lied in court, telling a judge that she had subpoenaed a witness but that the witness had left the state without her knowledge, according to the complaint. The witness had not been subpoenaed, and Caspari knew ahead of time that the witness intended to leave the state, the OLR alleges.

Caspari, reached Wednesday, declined to comment.

The OLR is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to suspend Caspari’s license for 60 days.

Caspari graduated from Marquette University Law School in 2003 and has been licensed to practice law since 2004. The Supreme Court privately reprimanded her in 2015 for misconduct including failing to file writ of certiorari for an inmate, failing to communicate with a client about the status of his case and for charging legal fees to a client but not refunding the fees when the client fired her before she did any work.

Caspari is an active member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, and her license is in good standing, according to the State Bar and OLR websites.

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