TALLAHASSEE (Florida Record) – North Miami attorney Liana Martinez faces suspension following an Aug. 23 Florida Supreme Court order over allegations involving her trust account, according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.
"Martinez was negligent in managing her trust account and supervising a nonlawyer employee," the state bar said in its Aug. 31 announcement of the discipline and the Supreme Court's order. "As a result, proper trust account records were not maintained."
Martinez's 60-day suspension, followed by three year's probation, will be effective 30 days from the date of the court's order to allow her time to close out her practice and protect her existing clients' interests, according to the Supreme Court's two-page order.
The high court also ordered Martinez to pay $6,250 in costs.
Florida court orders are not final until time to file a rehearing motion expires. Filing such a motion does not alter the effective date of Martinez's suspension.
Martinez, a sole practitioner, was admitted to the bar in Florida on April 27, 1988, according to her profile at the state bar website. No prior discipline before the state bar is listed on Martinez's state bar profile.
Martinez waived her right to be heard before a grievance committee and stipulated to probable cause in the matter, according to the consent judgment filed with the court. The consent judgment also includes Martinez's conditional guilty plea.
A bookkeeper hired by Martinez had not been experienced with Florida attorney trust accounts and she did not properly maintain an account records, according to the consent judgment.
"(Martinez) herself was unfamiliar with these requirements and so was not able to properly supervise her bookkeeper," the consent judgment said. "Accordingly, incoming funds were not properly assigned to particular client files, and distributed funds were not properly recorded in the client files. As a direct result of the poor record and book keeping, there are several shortage in some client files. However, all such shortages are de minimus (trivial or minor)."