Another Lawyer Gets Bar Ticket Yanked For (Among Other Antics) Allegedly Fleecing Client In Connection w/ Foreclosure Matter; Attorney Pocketed Approx. $15K Intended To Resolve Litigation Involving Client's Deceased Mom's Home

In Chicago, Illinois, the Cook County Record reports:

• A lawyer who allegedly took $15,000 from a client for his own use, was charged with criminal trespass for attempts to enter the Kane County Jail without proper attorney credentials, and then allegedly repeatedly threatened judges and other Kane County justice officials, accusing them of engaging in a racist conspiracy against him, was among five lawyers disbarred by the Illinois Supreme Court.
  
  The state high court announced it had signed off on the recommendation from the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission to disbar attorney David A. Bertha, of Chicago, one of five attorney disbarments ordered by the court in a Jan. 21 release.
  
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  According to information included in documents related to disciplinary proceedings before the ARDC, Bertha, since 2010, had allegedly appropriated to himself and his father about $15,000 in various payments submitted to him by a client who had agreed to represent in certain Chicago real estate and foreclosure matters following the death of the client’s mother.
  
  For instance, in 2010 and 2012, the ARDC reports indicated the client paid Bertha a total of $13,000, presuming Bertha would deposit the funds in an escrow account, as demanded by Bank of America, with whom the client was embroiled at the time in foreclosure proceedings over her late mother’s home.
  
  Instead, the ARDC reports indicated Bertha allegedly either cashed the checks or deposited them into his father’s personal checking accounts. The client later demanded repayment of the money, a written request Bertha has allegedly not yet fulfilled.(1)
  
  The ARDC reports also alleged Bertha told his client he had initiated certain probate and collections actions on her behalf, when he had not.

Source: IL Supreme Court disbars 5 lawyers, including one who threatened Kane County judges; suspends 14 others.

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(1) The Client Protection Program of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) was established by the Supreme Court of Illinois to provide reimbursement to clients who have lost money or property because of dishonest conduct by lawyers admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois. The Program reimburses clients who cannot get reimbursement from the lawyers who caused their losses, or from other sources such as insurance. (But see Stolen Inheritances: I-Team lawyer warning, in which one Illinois victim said of the program, "Their rules are vague, ambiguous and they are applied at their own discretion, and you can't get a straight answer[.]")

For similar "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that sometimes help cover the financial mess created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in other states and Canada, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (now includes Canadian recovery funds, courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

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

See generally:

• N.Y. fund for cheated clients wants thieving lawyers disbarred, a July, 2015 Associated Press story on this Fund reporting that the Fund's executive director, among other things, is calling for prompt referral to the local district attorney when the disciplinary committee has uncontested evidence of theft by a lawyer injuring a client or an admission of culpability;
  
  When Lawyers Steal the Escrow, a June, 2005 New York Times story describing some cases of client reimbursements ("With real estate business surging and down-payment amounts rising with home prices, the temptation for a lawyer to filch money from a bulging escrow account and later repay it with other clients' money has never been greater, said lawyers who monitor the thefts."),
  
  Thieving Lawyers Draining Client Security Funds, a December, 1991 New York Times story that gives some-real life examples of how client security funds deal with claims and the pressures the administrators of those funds may feel when left insufficiently financed as a result of the misconduct of a handful of lawyer/scoundrels.