Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Joseph Lombardo v. United States of America

Case No.: 15-2860

Officials: BAUER and POSNER, Circuit Judges, and DEGUILIO, District Judge

Focus: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Joseph Lombardo is serving a life sentence on his convictions for racketeering, murder, and obstruction of justice. After we affirmed his convictions and sentence on direct appeal, he retained a new attorney to argue that his convictions were the product of his trial counsel’s in- effectiveness. However, his new attorney misunderstood when the one-year limitations period for motions under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 began running, and thus filed Lombardo’s motion too late.

The question in this appeal is whether an attorney’s miscalculation of a statute of limitations justifies equitably tolling the limitations period for a motion under § 2255. Following longstanding precedent, we hold that it does not, even if the result is to bar a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. We therefore affirm the district court’s dismissal of Lombardo’s untimely motion.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.