Orlando attorney Nicholas Randall Jones has been suspended until further order following an Oct. 12 Florida Supreme Court order after he was found in contempt for not complying with a previous suspension over failing to respond to an official Florida State Bar inquiry.
Allegations against Jones arose from two client matters, one of which cost Jones' client tens of thousands of dollars to prevent foreclosure of his home after Jones failed to appear for a scheduled court date, according to the consent judgment filed with the court's most recent order. The consent judgment also includes Jones' conditional guilty plea.
Jones' suspension had an effective date of 30 days from a Sept. 28 court order, according to the high court's most recent two-page order. The September order was handed down following a petition for contempt filed by the state bar. The supreme court, in its most recent order, also directed Jones to pay about $1,793 in costs.
The Florida State Bar announced the discipline and the state supreme court's order on Oct. 30. In Florida, court orders are not final until time to file a rehearing motion expires. Filing such a motion would not alter the effective date of the Jones' suspension.
Jones was admitted to the bar in Florida on Sept. 22, 2010, according to his profile at the state bar website.
Jones allegedly failed to communicate with his clients in the separate matters or to respond to their requests for status updates, according to the consent judgment. In one of the matters, a client hired Jones in 2014 to represent the client in a dispute with a Polk County homeowner's association, according to the consent judgment.
The homeowner's association alleged Jones' client owed $37,000 in dues while the client said the amount actually was $4,000, according to the consent judgment. Jones allegedly failed to communicate with his client, to notify the client about pending court dates and didn't show up to represent the client in a December 2014 court date, according to the consent judgment. The judge in the case ruled in favor of the homeowner's association, and Jones' client had to pay $37,000 to prevent a foreclosure sale of his home, according to the consent judgment.