Wednesday, June 23, 2010

News update Supreme Court suspends Lozano, daughter

Just a little over one month after Chief Justice Renato C. Corona took the helm at the Supreme Court (SC), three lawyers and a retired judge were among the first casualties of a crackdown he launched against erring "officers of the court."

The casualties include Marcos loyalist lawyer Oliver Lozano and his daughter, Evangeline Lozano-Endriano, who were suspended indefinitely from practicing law.

According to the office of Court Administrator and SC Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, said the suspension order against the Lozanos was part of Corona's "no-nonsense approach in cracking the judicial whip to weed out the Bench and Bar, as well as the entire Judiciary, of misfits." Corona assumed the top judicial post last May 17 when then Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno retired from the judiciary.
Former high court justice gets suspension High court disciplines lawyer in fee dispute.(Courts)(Edward Fadeley misused fees in a divorce case, the state ... from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
In a resolution, the SC en banc imposed an indefinite suspension against the law licenses of the Lozanos for grave professional misconduct when they filed a defective graft complaint against retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. and former Associate Justice Alicia Austria-Martinez before the Office of the Ombudsman last year.
Disciplinary actions.(suspension of lawyers): An article from: Florida Bar News
The graft complaint was in connection with the alleged unjust ruling of the two retired magistrates in a land dispute case in 2003.

The High Court found the Lozanos to have misquoted and misused constitutional provisions and showed "a reckless lack of respect and disregard for our system of justice" for accusing the retired SC justices without legal and factual basis.

It held the father and daughter "unfit to continue to be entrusted with the duties and responsibilities belonging to the office of an attorney."

The SC said the suspension order against the Lozanos takes effect immediately, as it warned that any proven violation of the order would result in their outright disbarment.

The suspension order was an offshoot of the March 2, 2010 decision of the SC dismissing the graft complaint against the two retired magistrates.

Last March 2, the SC dismissed the graft complaint filed by the Lozanos against Davide and Austria-Martinez and ordered the Lozanos to explain in writing why they should not be sanctioned.
Rules deal with emergency suspensions and allow incapacitated lawyers to be put on the inactive list.: An article from: Florida Bar News

STATE SUPREME COURT DEFERS LOCAL ATTORNEY'S SUSPENSION.(Local News): An article from: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM)
Suspension and debarment of soldiers: can we do it? Yes, we can.: An article from: Army Lawyer