High court suspends Oshkosh lawyer’s license

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court has suspended the license of an Oshkosh attorney charged with breaking trust-account rules and mishandling cases.

Wednesday’s discipline stems from an Office of Lawyer Regulation complaint filed July 15 charging the lawyer Melinda Alfredson with 16 counts of misconduct. Among other things, Alfredson is alleged to have mishandled cases and broken various trust-account rules.

The OLR had asked in its complaint that the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspend her license for 60 days and that she pay $1,809.71 in restitution.

Alfredson, who has been licensed in Wisconsin since 2009 and practices in Oshkosh, later reached a stipulation with the OLR, admitting to all the charges and agreeing to the OLR’s request for discipline.

The court granted the OLR’s request on Wednesday, suspended Alfredson’s license for 60 days starting March 15 and ordered her to pay $1,500 in restitution to a client and $309.71 to the bank where she had a trust account.

The court noted in its per curiam decision Wednesday that the discipline it was imposing was modest. It went on to say that if the court had previously disciplined Alfredson, the result Wednesday would have been more severe.

“We remind Attorney Alfredson that the court may impose progressively severe sanctions when an attorney engages in repeated misconduct. We impose the sanction to which the parties stipulated with the expectation that Attorney Alfredson will not commit future misconduct subjecting her to additional discipline.”

Justice Shirley Abrahamson wrote a concurrence, stating that she thought Wednesday’s decision follows the courts’ pattern of imposing light discipline after the OLR and attorneys have entered into a stipulation. She said that stipulations have become plea bargains, which the court’s rules prohibit the OLR from relying on in disciplinary matters.