Sniffing Out Lousy Lawyers : Crusader’s ‘Skunk’ Awards Aimed at Reforming Bar

From Howard Bennett’s perspective, attorney A. Thomas Hunt is every client’s nightmare.

Hunt probably wishes Bennett had never walked through his doorway, either. But that’s speculation, because Hunt is not talking.

Bennett, meanwhile, is talking. He is a retired high school English teacher and veteran gadfly--among other things, he founded the environmental group now known as Heal the Bay--who wants the world to know how Hunt bungled what Bennett says was a slam-dunk civil rights and wrongful discharge suit against his former employer, the Culver City Unified School District.

And so it was on Monday that Bennett and a small group of friends calling themselves the Hunt Club gathered in front of the State Bar of California offices in Downtown Los Angeles to call for reforms in the state system of disciplining lawyers. They came to present Hunt--in absentia--with the Legal Skunk Hall of Fame award, which Bennett described as the first of a series of Skunk of the Month awards the group plans to award to lawyers who wrong their clients.

Repeated efforts by The Times to reach Hunt for comment were unsuccessful.

“We’re disappointed” by Hunt’s absence, said Bennett, holding a formal-looking plaque bearing the dishonorable title. “He was, as he has been, a no-show.”

Hunt’s mistakes, according to Bennett and court records of his case, included numerous procedural errors, repeated failures to show up in court and a failure to return retainer fees when he did not perform the work he said he would. As a result, Bennett’s suit was dismissed in March.

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Bennett and more than a dozen other clients with similar accusations complained to the State Bar of California. On Nov. 5--10 days before a scheduled disciplinary hearing--Hunt resigned from the Bar.

“The case we had against him was very strong and we asked for his disbarring,” said State Bar Deputy Trial Counsel David C. Carr, the examiner in the case. “He never denied the charges. A resignation in charges pending is considered a discipline.”

Hunt can apply for readmittance to the Bar in five years, Carr said.

Bennett dismissed the punishment as a slap on the wrist.

“My case is deep-sixed because of this,” Bennett said. “He took $6,000 from me, and that’s a lot of money for a retired schoolteacher. (Hunt) was time and again summoned by a federal judge over weeks and months (to explain why he did not show up for earlier court dates), but he didn’t show. I didn’t get my legal recourse against the school district because of him. The case was so blatant that every lawyer that examined my case after all this said it was sound. I can’t refile.”

In addition to stricter and quicker punishment of errant lawyers, the members of the Hunt Club are calling for the Bar to issue cards to lawyers with their Bar membership number encoded magnetically. Courts could instantly determine whether a lawyer is properly licensed, is practicing while suspended (one of the charges against Hunt) or has pending disciplinary matters. Bennett said he also would like to see an interstate computer system for tracking lawyers, to make it possible for consumers to keep better track of unscrupulous lawyers.

Carr said the Bar has a public hot line, (800) 843-9053, that discloses public charges, non-payment of dues and any disciplinary action taken against lawyers. Incomplete investigations and those in which charges have not been filed are not made public, he said.

Bennett said he wishes he had known about that. The Bar, he said, should make public service advertisements publicizing the toll-free consumer protection lines.

Carr said the Bar also has a Client Security Fund, supported by lawyers’ dues, that reimburses clients who have lost money or property due to theft or dishonest acts committed by lawyers. Clients can recover up to $50,000, and the process can take an average of a year to be completed, a Bar spokeswoman said.

Bennett hired Hunt two years ago when the school district removed him from his teaching position of 20 years and put him in a non-teaching job. Bennett said he interpreted this as punishment for his efforts to organize teachers in a class-action age-discrimination suit.

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Hunt, 53, had built a reputation as a successful civil rights attorney with experience in class-action suits. At the time Bennett hired him, however, Hunt had been suspended from the Bar for non-payment of dues; Bennett says Hunt did not disclose this.

According to Bennett, Hunt proceeded to turn down a $75,000 settlement offer from the school district, did not follow proper legal procedures, never subpoenaed school records and neglected to inform him in early 1992 when a judge issued the final ruling on Bennett’s effort to return to the classroom, rejecting his request.

When the wrongful discharge suit was finally filed, the school district removed it to federal court and asked for its dismissal in February. The case came before U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts in March, but Hunt failed to appear in court and failed to file papers in opposition to the dismissal.

Papers filed by Hunt’s lawyer in State Bar Court late last year in response to the complaints from the clients attributed Hunt’s performance to “extreme emotional difficulties” and other extenuating circumstances. Among other things, the documents said, Hunt was “an alcoholic in the throes of his disease” at the time of the alleged misconduct, and was caring for his wife, who was seriously ill.

Buoyed by the initial response this week when a radio station and a legal newspaper reported on Bennett’s protest, he has rented a mailbox for the Hunt Club. The address is 8121 Manchester Ave., Box 683, Playa del Rey 90293.