TALLAHASSEE—Port Orange attorney Timothy Allen Traster has been voluntarily disbarred following a Jan. 4 Florida Supreme Court order pending disciplinary matters that he misappropriated $5,000 in client funds and failed to properly maintain his trust account, according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.
The state Supreme Court issued its two-page order of disciplinary revocation, tantamount to disbarment, granted Traster's uncontested petition, gave him leave to seek readmission after five years and ordered him to pay almost $3,250 in costs. The state bar announced the discipline and the Supreme Court's order on Jan. 29.
In Florida, court orders are not final until after the deadline to file a rehearing motion expires. Attorneys disbarred in the state who re-apply for admission pass through an extensive process that includes a rigorous background check and retaking the bar exam.
Traster was admitted to the bar in Florida on March 30, 1992, according to his profile at the state bar website. He has had no other discipline before the state bar, according to his profile and his petition for disciplinary revocation.
Traster was accused of misappropriating his client's settlement funds and using them for his own benefit, according to the petition. Traster also allegedly failed to properly maintain his trust account, and did not maintain a receipts and disbursements journal, ledger cards, and monthly comparisons, according to the petition.
Traster did provide one monthly reconciliation in response to an audit period exceeding four years, the petition stated.
"This revocation will not adversely affect the public interest, the purity of the courts, nor hinder the administration of justice nor the confidence of the public in the legal profession," Traster said in his petition.
Traster also agreed in his petition to reimburse the state bar's clients' security fund "for any and all payments imposed as a result of his defalcations," to permit a state bar audit of his trust accounts and to notify the state bar of any change of address over a two-year period.