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Trying To Make The Past Disappear

Lawsuit claims online disciplinary records are ruining lawyer’s practice

By DOUGLAS S. MALAN

For many people, instantaneous access to information online is a wonderful asset. For Greenwich attorney Barbara Shea, it’s grounds for a lawsuit.

Shea, an elder law attorney who also handles divorces, says that the Statewide Grievance Committee web site contains several disciplinary decisions rendered against her, including one that resulted in a four-month suspension. Her lawsuit claims the decisions should no longer be posted because they are all at least six years old, and public access to them has caused “irreparable harm” to her ability to practice law.

She contends that Internet search engines give top priority to grievance decisions whenever people search her name online. As a result, potential clients steer clear of her, and existing clients have dropped her because they see Shea’s name listed as a defendant in a legal proceeding, according to her complaint. “[It] makes you look like a corrupt attorney,” Shea told the Law Tribune.

Shea retaliated by filing a federal lawsuit in Bridgeport this month against the Statewide Grievance Committee, the New York State disciplinary committee and the District of Columbia bar. The latter two parties also investigated a 1999 complaint that started in Connecticut and posted their own findings because Shea is licensed in those jurisdictions. Also named in the suit are Statewide Bar Counsel Michael P. Bowler and his predecessor, Daniel B. Horwitch.

Among her allegations are violations of free-speech rights, invasion of privacy, unfair trade practices, defamation, and “tortuous interference with ability to contract.” Shea, who is representing herself, is seeking injunctive relief and damages of more than $100,000.

Dwindling Clients

As a result of the postings, Shea said her client base has shrunk from several hundred in 2002 to “very few” today. And she complains that she has been unable to effectively place ads on Google for her law-related side businesses because searches continually produce her disciplinary history. “I feel like I’m handcuffed,” she said.

In her lawsuit, Shea stated that she has no problem with the state posting grievance decisions online “for a limited time,” but says they should have a “limited shelf-life” governed by a statute of limitations. Once that time passes, members of the public could file written requests for information, Shea suggested in the complaint.

But considering the movement toward judicial openness, “it is a hard sell to argue that [grievance decisions] should be removed” from the Web, Bowler said. “Public information is public for a reason. If the job of the system is to protect the public, then you serve the public by providing that information.”

Bowler said it’s possible that the Attorney General’s office will end up defending the lawsuit.

The most damaging online information concerns a four-month suspension Shea received in 2002 that resulted from a 1999 divorce case. Shea was found to have violated several Rules of Professional Conduct by accepting, in lieu of legal fees, some personal property from her client, including a dessert set valued at $50,000. Shea went on to sell some pieces of the property that, it turns out, were supposed to go to the opposing counsel’s client.

Other online records reveal three reprimands issued between 1997 and 2001. One case involved a dispute over retainer fees; the other sanctions were over a failure to return client files.

Shea said her clients, who tend toward the older set, only recently have become familiar with search engines. Since then, the impact of the grievance postings has become evident. “One woman [client] came in and took her papers back all huffy,” Shea said.

A prominent businessman heard Shea discussing some ideas for launching a side business, but he grew concerned after searching the Web. “He said, ‘No one is going to invest in your business when they search you online,’” said Shea, who put those business plans on hold.

Shea continues to operate her legal consulting business, Court Coach, which she created in 1994. But her declining practice has forced her to take another job as a Realtor in Greenwich. “I certainly hope this [lawsuit] has an impact on the law,” Shea said, referring to grievance records on the Internet. “We’ve unleashed a powerful engine without understanding the consequences of its use.”•