Lawyer Impersonation and Fraud Is Charged

A Diamond Bar man has been charged with pretending to be a lawyer and defrauding clients by taking money for services he couldn’t perform, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Joseph Robert Lopez, 68, is accused of illegally practicing law from February to May 2005. Authorities believe he altered a paralegal degree obtained through a correspondence course to look like a law degree, which he displayed in a Santa Ana office.

Most of his clients, prosecutors said, were Mexican nationals with limited English skills.

If convicted, Lopez, who completed the paralegal degree while behind bars on a theft conviction, could get more than five years in prison.