Disbarred Lawyer's Failure To Cough Up $28K+ To State's Client Protection Fund As Reimbursement For Amount Shelled Out To Ripped Off Clients Cited As Strong Reason To Nix License Reinstatement Request

In Albany, New York, the Albany Times Union reports:

• A Saratoga Springs lawyer who was disbarred in 2008 after he failed to reimburse $28,845 to clients will not get his law license back, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruled Thursday [February 16].
  
  The Appellate Division's Attorney Grievance Committee opposed Matthew S. Hogan's request for reinstatement. Hogan made the request in November.
  
  The Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection(1) also opposed the application and, according to the ruling, noted that between 2009 and 2011 it paid $28,845 to Hogan's former clients but Hogan failed to make any reimbursement.
  
  The justices ruled against reinstating Hogan after considering his failure to repay his clients and other evidence that they ruled showed he didn't possess the "requisite character and fitness to resume the practice of law or that his reinstatement would be in the public interest."

Source: Appellate justices reject lawyer's bid to get license back (Matthew S. Hogan practiced in Saratoga Springs until 2008 disbarment for failure to reimburse clients).

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(1) The Lawyers' Fund For Client Protection of the State of New York exists to (at least partially) compensate clients harmed by a fraudulent or dishonest act involving client money by a New York lawyer.

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 (February 2017) (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.