Ft. Myers Lawyer Hoses Couple Seeking Loan Mod Help; Accused Of Going AWOL w/ Clients' Trust Acct Cash; State Bar Obtains Emergency License Suspension

In Fort Myers, Florida, The News Press reports:

• Last summer, it became clear to Brett and Nancy Pezzella they could no longer make the $1,900 mortgage payments on their Lehigh Acres home. Nancy had lost her job. They just couldn't afford it. After getting a referral from another law firm, Brett contacted Fort Myers attorney Joseph Troiano.

• Troiano said that for a $3,000 fee, which Pezzella paid over three months, he could get the bank to modify the Pezzellas' mortgage. He started working on their case last June but didn't make much progress. "It seemed like (Troiano was) always losing our paperwork," Brett Pezzella said. Then the situation got worse. Troiano wouldn't respond to calls or e-mails. When the Pezzellas decided to pay Troiano an unannounced visit last week, they found the office closed and an eviction notice tacked to the door.

***

• On Jan. 19, the Supreme Court of Florida suspended Joseph Anthony Troiano from the practice of law until further notice. A week earlier, the Florida Bar filed a petition for emergency suspension stating the facts "establish clearly and convincingly that (Troiano) appears to be causing great public harm by the misappropriation of client trust funds."

• The Florida Bar presented two affidavits in support of its petition. One was from a client in Texas who said a $10,000 check Troiano wrote him Dec. 31, 2009, bounced. The account was supposed to have about $450,000 in it left over from the $1.1 million the client had entrusted to Troiano for various real estate investments. The second affidavit was from Troiano's office manager, Judith Carson. According to Carson's affidavit, the bank had returned checks totaling $197,432 for a trust account with insufficient funds. And five checks totaling $6,222 from the firm's operating account also had bounced.(1)(2)

For more, see Fort Myers lawyer goes missing, and so does money in his care.

(1) In addition to the legal trouble with the Florida Bar, Citimortgage filed foreclosure lawsuits last summer against Troiano and other co-owners of three units a high-rise luxury condominium in downtown Fort Myers, the story states.

(2) The Florida Bar's Clients' Security Fund compensates people who have been victims of of misappropriation or embezzlement of cash or property by a Florida-licensed attorney. For those ripped off by dishonest attorneys in other states and Canada, see:

• United States: Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• United States: Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Canada: Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.