Ruth Price

December 29, 2001

RUTH E. PRICE [97824], 61, of San Diego was suspended for 12 months, stayed, placed on 24 months of probation and was ordered to make restitution and take the MPRE within one year. The order took effect Dec. 29, 2001. Price stipulated to misconduct in four consolidated matters. Price represented her husband as conservator of an estate in 1991. In 1994, the law changed to prohibit compensation for a spouse or business partner of a conservator who provides legal services for the conservator unless the court approves. In 1994, Price's husband was removed as conservator after the court found him incompetent. Price represented him in the proceedings. When the husband filed a final accounting of the estate, he claimed fees for himself and $13,000 in attorney fees for Price. The court ruled she could not claim any fees due to her continuing business relationship with her husband and because the court had not approved her right to compensation, as required by law. After appeal, the court awarded Price the fees she earned prior to 1994 and released remaining funds to a third party who had filed a claim seeking partial satisfaction of an earlier judgment he won against Price's husband. Price asserted that her lien preceded that of the other party, but the probate court did not believe her and found that it was part of a sophisticated effort to preclude the other party's lawful attempt to collect funds that were due him. Price filed a second appeal "without good cause and for purposes of delaying" her husband's debt to the other party, according to the stipulation. The appellate court rejected her arguments. The probate court also found that a retainer agreement between Price and her husband that she had submitted as part of her appeal was falsified. Price stipulated that she pursued an appeal that was not legal or just, committed an act of moral turpitude by submitting to the court a falsified document, and she failed to cooperate with a bar investigation. In a marital dissolution for which the client paid Price $1,785 as advanced fees, Price never filed the dissolution papers and did little or no work on the case. She did not refund unearned fees or return the client's phone calls. In two other matters, she appeared in court while not entitled to practice. In one of the cases, she did not respond to her client's written or telephonic requests for status updates. In mitigation, Price practiced for 20 years without any discipline record, and in 1998 she was diagnosed with neurotic depression, subsequent to treatment for breast cancer.