TALLAHASSEE — Longtime Coral Springs attorney Mark Howard Klein faces a 30-day suspension following a March 14 Florida Supreme Court order over allegations he failed to keep a client informed during a foreclosure case, according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.
"Klein failed to inform his client that the opposing party (lender) in a foreclosure case filed a motion for summary judgment or that the trial court granted the opposing party's motion for summary judgment," the state bar said in its March 29 announcement of the discipline and the Supreme Court's order.
In its two-page order, the high court approved the uncontested referee's report filed in the matter before reprimanding Klein, and ordered him to pay almost $2,600 in costs.
Klein's suspension was effective 30 days from the date of the court's order to allow him time to close his practice and protect his existing clients' interests, according to the state high court's order.
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 Klein's suspension.
Klein was admitted to the bar in Florida on Oct. 29, 1986, according to his profile at the state bar website. His profile lists suspensions in 2015, 2013 and 2012 and a public reprimand in 2011.
The foreclosure case had been pending in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court when, in November 2015, the lender filed for summary judgment, according to the referee 's report. Klein's office received a notice of hearing for the following January but staff "inadvertently" failed to place the hearing on the calendar, the report said.
As a result Klein did not appear for the hearing and later learned the court entered final summary judgment. It "was the most adverse ruling" the client could have received in the case, the referee's report said.
The staff member who didn't place the hearing on the calendar eventually was fired. Klein subsequently was allowed to hire his own secretary in charge of his scheduling but Klein "inexplicably" did not inform his client of the adverse ruling, the referee's report said, adding, "Nor did he immediately file a motion to vacate the order or ask for a rehearing of the motion."