Lancaster city District Judge Kelly Ballentine suspended from practicing as an attorney

Lancaster city District Judge Kelly Ballentine suspended from practicing as an attorney

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Embattled Lancaster city District Judge Kelly Ballentine suspended for a year

Kelly Ballentine

 

Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 11:48 am | Updated: 7:19 am, Thu Jun 19, 2014.

Lancaster city District Judge Kelly Ballentine suspended from practicing as an attorney By BRETT HAMBRIGHT | Staff Writer TownNews.com

Lancaster city District Judge Kelly Ballentine has been suspended from practicing as an attorney for a year, according to the Disciplinary Board of the state Supreme Court. Ballentine’s suspension goes into effect July 16, according to the board. Ballentine, district judge over a section of Lancaster city since 2006, is in the midst of her second six-year term.
She will continue to serve as district judge, according to Lancaster County President Judge Joseph Madenspacher.
"There is no requirement that a (district judge) be an attorney," Madenspacher said Wednesday afternoon.
Last year, the state Court of Judicial Discipline retroactively suspended Ballentine for 16 months — from 2012 to 2013 — for dismissing her own traffic violations.
She returned to the bench in June 2013, on “probation” through the end of 2014.
Ballentine operated a private legal practice for 19 years, according to the Supreme Court order.

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Brett Hambright is a Lancaster Newspapers staff writer who covers crime and the Lancaster County court system. He can be reached at bhambright@lnpnews.com or (717) 481-6026. You can also follow @BrettHambright on Twitter.

Pepper Pike lawyer faces suspension, fights claim before Supreme Court

Editor's note: Multiple billings by professionals in the Estate of Alice R. Gore, a disabled 99 year old ward of the Probate Court of Cook County were the norm. Yet, no Supreme Court outrage.  Why?  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com

 

Pepper Pike lawyer faces suspension, fights claim before Supreme Court

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By Robert Higgs, Northeast Ohio Media Group The Plain Dealer
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on June 17, 2014 at 3:58 PM

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The state's Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline recommended lawyer Scott C. Smith of Pepper Pike be suspended indefinitely. Smith disputes their findings that he engaged in unethical billing practices. PD File 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A lawyer from Pepper Pike faces an indefinite suspension from practicing law based on claims he padded bills to three clients, each a long-term care company.
The lawyer, Scott C. Smith, disputes the claim. And his lawyer argued before the Ohio Supreme Court that Smith was effectively denied due process because he was not allowed access to certain evidence that could help exonerate him.
The case is one of several recently heard by the Supreme Court. No ruling is imminent. It can take weeks, or even months after the justices hear oral arguments before the court issues its rulings.
The state Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline recommended Smith's suspension. The board determined that Smith's billing descriptions didn't reflect work he performed and that he billed clients for work that was not in their case files. The board also found he billed multiple clients for the same amounts on the same day even though the cases were at different stages of litigation.
Attorney Stacy Solochek Beckman, who represented the discipline board before the court, said Smith was a managing partner at the Cleveland firm of Weston Hurd. He headed up the firm's business with long-term care clients, and as such, was charged with reviewing the bills, she said.
Weston Hurd sued Smith over the case. It is pending in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. The firm repaid $350,000 to the three clients for 88 separate cases the firm handled. The discipline board recommended Smith make restitution, if there is any as a result of the suit, before the court considers lifting any suspension it hands out.
Smith's lawyer, Ken Donchatz, told justices that Smith denies the charges. And because he was not allowed access to certain data involved in the billing of insurance companies representing the long-term care clients, he was effectively denied process.
He asked the court to either dismiss the case outright or to remand it, with instructions that Smith have access to the records he needs to prepare his defense.
Smith has not actively practiced law during the last seven years. He has no prior disciplinary record, according to the Supreme Court.

Suspended district judge must pay back part of her salary

Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era

Updated May 29, 2013 15:19

Lancaster city

• Kelly Ballentine

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Originally Published May 29, 2013 12:49

By BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Staff Writer
bhambright@lnpnews.com

Suspended District Judge Kelly Ballentine must surrender her past 3 1/2-months' pay while she awaits a final disciplinary decision from a state board.

On Tuesday, the state Court of Judicial Discipline suspended Ballentine without pay, retroactive to Feb. 11. She pleaded guilty to fixing her own parking tickets Feb. 1 and a petition was filed for her suspension 10 days later.

The Court of Judicial Discipline will make a final ruling on Ballentine's standing as judge at a later date. For now, she is suspended without pay, according to the order filed Tuesday.

That means she must pay back what amounts to 27 percent of her annual salary: approximately $22,500. She also must repay retirement and Social Security funds accrued since Feb. 11, the order shows.

The repayment total is to be determined by June 7. Ballentine has until that date to work out a payment plan.

Her medical benefits, however, aren't affected by the latest ruling; she'll continue receiving those.

Ballentine has the option of appealing to the state Supreme Court.

She had been suspended with pay since February 2012, when the state attorney general filed criminal charges regarding her dismissal of three of her parking tickets in 2010 and 2011.

Since then, Ballentine had received pay and medical benefits while retired Senior District Judge Richard Simms presides over cases at her Locust Street office. That office handles dockets for Wards 3 and 7 of the city. Ballentine had presided over those areas since January 2006.

As of now, Ballentine is allowed to keep salary and other benefits received from February 2012 to February 2013 — when she wasn't on the bench. That could change with the discipline board's final ruling.

At criminal sentencing in March, a Chester County judge fined her $1,500 on three charges to which she pleaded guilty.

Judge Charles B. Smith spared Ballentine from prison or probation, he said, "because it's out of the realm of possibility that you will do anything like this again."

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/855232_Suspended-district-judge-must-pay-back-part-of-her-salary.html#ixzz2VWpcVTLv