Charges Dismissed Against Ex-Trial Lawyer Assn. Head

Former California Trial Lawyers Assn. President R. Browne Greene was cleared Thursday of charges that he had collected an excessive fee in a medical malpractice case and had failed to “maintain” disputed funds in a proper manner, State Bar officials said.

Retired Inglewood Municipal Judge Thomas Foy, the hearing officer in the case before the California State Bar, issued “a tentative decision from the bench,” dismissing the charges against Greene after a three-day hearing in Los Angeles, said Bar spokeswoman Anne Charles.

The decision will not be final until Foy files it in the State Bar office, she said, adding that State Bar prosecutors intend to seek a review of the decision. Foy has 30 days to file his decision.

‘Above the Standards’

“They can seek all the reviews they want,” said Greene’s attorney, Don Caffray. “The hearing officer not only said Greene was not culpable he said he performed above the standards of practice.”

“A lawyer’s reputation is the most important thing he can have,” a jubilant Greene said after the decision. “Without your reputation, you have nothing. To be cleared makes this a very happy day, to say the least.”

He emphasized that Foy had ruled “that I did not violate any canon of professional ethics or any rule of the State Bar.”

The charges against Greene, 51, were filed in June after a State Bar examiner found “reasonable cause” to examine allegations that the prominent downtown Los Angeles trial lawyer had charged a fee in excess of that allowed by state law. The examiner also char1734698016disputed funds in a trust account until the issue was settled.

The case grew out of malpractice suit Greene filed in 1982 for Judith and Richard Shepherd, a San Fernando Valley couple, against Kaiser Permanente Health Plan.

Judith Shepherd was treated with an aspirin after complaining of a headache at Kaiser Permanente in Panorama City in 1982. She later lapsed into a coma and was found to have suffered a brain aneurysm that had burst. In 1984, Kaiser settled the Shepherds’ malpractice suit for $650,000.

Greene said Thursday that he accepted the Shepherds’ case only after the couple agreed that he would receive 40% of any settlement. After the settlement, however, the Shepherds contested the fee, saying it was about $153,000 higher than permitted by the state Business and Professions Code.

The law limits contingency fees to 40% of the first $50,000 recovered in a medical malpractice case, 33 1/2% of the next $50,000, 25% of the next $100,000 and 10% of any recovery in excess of $200,000.

‘Inappropriate Action’

Legal observers pointed out that when Greene took the Shepherds’ case, the law had not been adjudicated, and contingency fees of 40% were quite common. Moreover, Greene said the Shepherds had agreed, on the advice of another attorney, to waive their rights to the fee limit.

The Shepherds settled the dispute last year when Greene was ordered to pay them $157,000.

Greene said Thursday that he had contended “all along that (the State Bar charges) were a totally inappropriate action being brought against me. There was no issue of money being owed.”

He added that Foy ruled that “the fee was legal and proper. He further found that (the Shepherds) waived provision of (the state law limiting contingency fees.)

“We maintained the money in a proper way, and they got the money they were owed. Judge Foy found that our firm went beyond the usual practices in maintaining clients’ funds.”