TALLAHASSEE (Florida Record) — St. Petersburg attorney Brandon Lee Kolb has been suspended for 30 days following a March 22 Florida Supreme Court order over allegations stemming from an alleged "frivolous claim", according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.
"Kolb failed to competently represent a client by pursuing a frivolous claim in defense of an eviction while continuing to occupy the property as permitted by his client to the detriment of the owners," the state bar said in its April 30 announcement of the discipline and the Supreme Court's order. "Kolb also failed to diligently handle a tenant eviction, failed to adequately communicate with his clients, charged an excessive fee, and refused to refund the clients' retainer."
Kolb's suspension was effective 30 days from the date of the court's order allow him time to close his practice and protect his existing clients' interests, according to the high court's order. Kolb's suspension will be followed by a year of probation, He was ordered to attend the state bar's ethics school, pay $750 in restitution to his clients and pay a little more than $1,379 in costs.
In Florida court orders are not final until time to file a rehearing motion expires. Filing such a motion would no t alter the effective date of the Kolb's suspension. Kolb was admitted to the bar in Florida on July 25, 2002, according to his profile at the state bar website.
Factors taken into mitigation in the discipline included a lack of dishonest or selfish motive, cooperation with the disciplinary board, remorse and Kolb's diagnosis of multiple sclerosis around the time of his alleged misconduct, according to the consent judgment filed with the court. The consent judgment also includes Kolb's conditional guilty plea.
In a previous discipline, Kolb was publicly reprimanded and placed on a year of probation following a November 2014 Supreme Court order. The order was handed down after Kolb allegedly failed to represent his client in a child support modification case in which be was of a court's direction to prepare in income deduction order, that the court had directed him to prepare an income deduction order, according to a consent judgment filed at the time, which included his conditional guilty plea.