Federal court says ex-lawyer waited too long to appeal order to pay OLR

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A federal appeals court has ruled that a district court judge got it right when he refused to let a former La Crosse lawyer appeal a bankruptcy judge’s order to pay for his disciplinary hearing.

The costs stem from a disciplinary proceeding that ended when the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided in 2014 to suspend Randy Netzer’s license for 90 days for harassing his ex-girlfriend.

Netzer filed for bankruptcy several months later and received a general discharge of his debts from the U.S Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. The justices also ordered him to pay $9,222.21 for the cost of the disciplinary proceeding.

However, after the bankruptcy case was closed in January, the Office of Lawyer regulation contacted Netzer about the costs from the disciplinary case, telling Netzer that the debt was still owed.

Netzer, however, contended that the costs had been discharged. He reopened the bankruptcy, asking the court to declare the costs in the disciplinary case to have been discharged and to order that no third party, including the state Department of Administration, could collect the amount.

However, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Furay, in a memorandum decision last year, denied his request, finding that the money owed to the OLR could not be wiped away because it was intended as punishment, not just a reimbursement of the OLR’s costs.

Netzer had 14 days to appeal, but took 41, saying he did not know about Furay’s decision. District court judge William Conley dismissed the appeal as untimely, noting that he lacked the authority to extend the time.

A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found on Monday that Conley properly dismissed Netzer’s appeal of a bankruptcy court ruling because Netzer waited too long to file the appeal.

Netzer’s license, according to the State Bar and Office of Lawyer Regulation websites, remains suspended. Follow @erikastrebel