Another Attorney Loses Bar Ticket For 'Renting' His Law License To Scammer Who Then Fleeced Homeowners Through Loan Modification Foreclosure Rescue Ripoffs; Agrees To Reimburse Bar's Client Security Fund For Any Victim Payouts Due To His Handiwork

In Englewood, Florida, WFTV-TV Channel 9 reports:

• Englewood attorney John Charles Archer essentially was disbarred for five years by the Florida Bar Association in January amid several allegations he defrauded clients through foreclosure scams.
  
  According to court documents, Archer, 48, who practiced at 1408 S. McCall Road, Suite 4F, has pending charges against him, including failing to properly supervise nonlawyer employees, sharing fees, false advertising, mishandling of client funds, failure to properly maintain trust account records and accepting certain prohibited upfront legal fees.
  
  Court records show in 2010, Archer was associated with Jim Richman, who was doing business under the name Bradford Law Firm and ModifyMyMortgage. The Bradford Law Firm name was misleading because Richman was the only employee at the firm.
  
  The business allegedly engaged in foreclosure-related rescue services, which generated substantial income through collection of illegal fees to represent homeowners from across the U.S. in loan modifications, court records show.
  
  Clients Nancy Taylor and Trent Speakman, who paid the Bradford Law Firm for loan modifications, complained that no meaningful services were provided to them.
  
  The business induced clients to pay an initial fee to be held in trust until the bank or lender confirmed receipt of the clients’ loan-modification application, followed by a monthly maintenance fee to be paid while their loan modification was being processed.
  
  Archer didn’t hold the initial fee in trust. He also failed to supervise Richman, who had almost exclusive contacts with the clients, court documents show.
  
  Archer shared legal fees with Richman and allowed him to exercise exclusive control over the business, websites, and fee agreements and documents. Richman also shared unverified loan-modification statistics with clients. He told clients the Bradford Law Firm had "licensed attorneys" in offices in all 50 states.
  
  Bank of America submitted two insufficient fund notices proving Archer commingled his funds with client funds, improperly disbursed client funds, made personal disbursements from the account and failed to properly maintain trust account records, according to court records.
  
  Archer, who had been practicing since 1991, agreed to reimburse the Client Security Fund for any claims resulting [from] his misconduct.(1)
  
  Archer applied for disciplinary revocation, which is equivalent to disbarment, according to the Bar. Like disbarment, disciplinary revocation terminates Archer’s license and privilege to practice law. Archer can reapply to the Florida Bar in five years. He also has to repay the Florida Bar for the costs incurred in his disciplinary case.

Source: Local attorney 'disbarred,’ has pending charges.

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(1) The Clients' Security Fund was created by The Florida Bar to help compensate persons who have suffered a loss of money or property due to misappropriation or embezzlement by a Florida-licensed attorney.

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.