Referee: Plymouth attorney should get second chance to challenge misconduct charges

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A lawyer from Plymouth could get another chance to challenge allegations that he broke 21 attorney-ethics rules.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation last year filed a complaint charging Daniel Rostollan with misconduct, which involved three clients and included allegations that Rostollan had failed to hold money in his trust account. He was also accused of appearing in bankruptcy court twice even though his license had been temporarily suspended for failing to cooperate with investigations of grievances that had been filed against him.

The OLR had sought a two-year suspension of Rostollan’s license to practice law. He filed an answer to the complaint but failed to respond to the OLR’s discovery request and motion for default judgment. He also failed to respond to a phone call from the referee in the case, John Goodman, who had tried to reach him for a telephone conference with the OLR.

Goodman issued a report in July recommending that Rostollan’s license be suspended for two years, that he pay the full cost of the proceeding and pay restitution to one of his clients.

Rostollan did not challenge those findings. However, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order in November instructing Goodman to weigh in on other questions, including whether Rostollan should be found in default and whether he had previously been disciplined.

Goodman filed those findings on Dec. 8, following an additional evidentiary hearing that took place on Dec. 5. At that hearing, Goodman learned from the OLR that Rostollan had been subject to no previous disciplinary actions.

Rostollan also testified that although he had received the OLR’s motion for default judgment, he was with his ill father in Michigan at the time and had been in the midst of a divorce. Because of those findings, Goodman concluded that Rostollan, since his conduct was neither egregious nor the result of bad faith, should not be found in default and that the answer he filed should not be stricken from the record.

Goodman also recommended that the court refrain from deciding on disciplinary actions and remand the matter back to him for a full hearing on the OLR’s complaint. Follow @erikastrebel