Cops Bag Disbarred South Florida P.I. Lawyer In Vegas; Charged With Stealing Clients' Settlement Money; One Victim Left Facing Foreclosure

In Broward County, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• They hired Patrick Joseph Dooley to help when auto accidents left them injured and in pain. Instead, the personal injury lawyer stole his clients' insurance settlement money, gave them the runaround and then disappeared, his alleged victims and the Broward Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. Detectives caught up with Dooley in Las Vegas Monday and arrested him on charges that he stole $253,166 from at least seven clients, one of them the father of [the NBA's Miami] Heat forward Udonis Haslem. They brought him to Broward County Tuesday to face charges of grand theft, scheme to defraud and uttering forged instruments.

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• William Bennett, 58, another former client, said Dooley's actions left him angry and, worse, about to lose his home since his injuries prevented him from working. "Talk about insult to injury," Bennett said. "There it is."

For more, see BSO says lawyer stole $250,000 from clients.

See also, The Miami Herald: Lawyer jailed on charges he stole from clients (A Broward County attorney accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients was caught in Las Vegas -- broke) (if link expired, try here):

• Of the seven known victims, most have filed petitions with the Florida Bar to recoup some of the owed money. The Bar will pay as much as $50,000 if it can be shown that a wayward lawyer has stolen settlement money from a client, but there are no guarantees. The process can take from six to 18 months, according to the Florida Bar website.