THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512090296
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
Because of a lawyer's mistake, Theresa M. Albin became an accidental bigamist.
On Dec. 3, 1993, Albin married a Navy man at City Hall, then threw a party for 30 friends and relatives at Bennigan's. She didn't know that her lawyer, Hilton Oliver of Virginia Beach, had never finalized her 1987 divorce.
She found out a few months later when she and her mother searched Norfolk courthouse records for her divorce decree. She needed a copy for the Navy.
To her embarrassment, it wasn't there.
As a result, the Virginia State Bar has slapped Oliver with the mildest punishment a lawyer can receive, a private reprimand, and ordered him to attend six hours of classes on ethics and law office management.
But last week, Oliver defied the bar. In an angry letter to the bar, Oliver blasted the handling of his case as ``insulting and demeaning.''
He refuses to take the mandatory classes and says the bar overreacted to an innocent error he made eight years ago.
In effect, he said, the bar sent him to sit in a corner and write ``I will not be a bad boy'' 100 times on the blackboard.
``They are slamming the door on my hand for an inadvertent mistake. No one has ever claimed it was more than that,'' Oliver said Thursday.
Albin is angry, too - at Oliver.
``He thinks he was judged unfairly. He was not the victim. My family and I were the victims,'' said Albin, a 39-year-old Norfolk homemaker. She said Oliver's mistake cost her about $4,000 in Navy housing allowances and $500 to redo her divorce.
So who was wronged: the lawyer or the newlywed?
It's a very unusual situation. Lawyers who are punished by the bar almost never refuse to comply with the punishment. ``I bet I could count the number of times it's happened on the fingers of one hand,'' said Michael L. Rigsby, chief bar counsel.
If Oliver continues to defy the bar, the most severe penalty he can get is a public reprimand, which remains on his permanent record.
The case began in 1987 when Albin hired Oliver to get a divorce, paying a fee of $250 or $140. The exact amount is in dispute.
Oliver, 39, has a solo law practice on Haygood Road, specializing in uncontested divorces for a flat fee of $200.
Oliver filed Albin's divorce papers and scheduled a commissioner's hearing, then canceled the hearing and never rescheduled a new one. On this, Oliver and Albin agree.
Oliver said it was a simple oversight: ``There was never any allegation of willful misconduct.'' Albin said she just assumed the divorce was final.
Years passed.
In 1993, Albin met a man and they became engaged. A month before the wedding, Albin called Oliver to make sure her divorce was final. ``He told me it was,'' Albin recalled.
Oliver said he doesn't remember the conversation precisely, but believes he gave a vague answer. ``I said, `If it was back then, it would probably be final,' '' Oliver recalled.
Albin married, then discovered the error a few months later.
``It just slammed me against the wall,'' Albin said. ``I didn't know about commissioners and court papers. . . . If I knew I had to be there (at a commissioner's hearing), I would have been there.''
She complained to the State Bar, which regulates all Virginia lawyers.
That angered Oliver. ``She filed the complaint without ever contacting me at all. She turned the dogs on me right away,'' Oliver said.
The bar investigated, then scheduled a hearing before the local district committee of nine lawyers and two laymen. The hearing was closed to the public. Only serious cases, handled by a statewide board in Richmond, are open.
At the hearing, Oliver said, committee members went after him with a vengeance. ``They asked questions in a very rough, accusatory tone,'' Oliver said.
The meeting went on for four hours in the Virginia Beach City Council chamber.
It didn't matter, Oliver said, that he had practiced law for 14 years, had handled about 8,000 divorces and never had a complaint. He accused the committee members of bias because he isn't part of the local legal establishment. He advertises in newspapers, has a high-volume practice and charges low, fixed fees.
He called the committee meeting a ``star chamber.''
``You can have problems with the (bar's) discipline system without ever doing anything wrong, without ever doing anything dishonest,'' Oliver said. ``I feel I was treated like a criminal.''
On Oct. 25, the committee found that Oliver had violated two minor professional rules, including lack of communication. It issued a private reprimand and ordered him to take six hours of legal courses: two on ethics, four on law office management.
Oliver was furious. He dashed off a $140 refund check to Albin and an angry letter to committee chairman Stephen G. Test, a Virginia Beach lawyer.
``I find it insulting and demeaning that your committee pursued a complaint from 1987 which, by all accounts, alleged only inadvertent error on my part. .
``I am most disturbed by the arrogance and hostility which the members of the committee demonstrated toward me. . . I consider the Virginia State Bar disciplinary procedure a complete sham. I refuse to dignify your decision with my compliance.''
Had he stolen the money from the woman's purse, Oliver said, he could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations would have run out.
Test declined to comment, citing the bar's confidentiality rule. Next, Rigsby said, the committee will meet again to decide if Oliver should receive a public reprimand.
Oliver remains defiant.
``I don't think I'm the issue on this. I'm concerned about what goes on in the future. . . ,'' he said. ``I think they (members of the discipline committee) have far too much power. I don't think they're worthy to pass judgment on anyone at all.''
Albin is furious over Oliver's defiance.
``He's bickering and fighting about this and it's ridiculous. He knows he was at fault. He knows he was wrong,'' Albin said. ``I was a victim and my family was a victim in this whole mess, not Mr. Oliver.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Hilton Oliver
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA STATE BAR by CNB