So says the Second DCA on Friday in William H. Winters v. Richard Mulholland v. Marc E. Yonker (Villanti, Casanueva, and Fulmer).
A 15-year associate plotted his move from a law firm to solo practice and reportedly (1) removed and copied at least one client filed, (2) kept client files with him and returned the files with some documents missing, and (3) knew of his girlfriend and former paralegal “hacking into the firm’s system to obscure client contact information.
The case went to trial and resulted in a $1.47 million judgment based upon a civil theft claim. The appellate court acknowledged that the plaintiff law firm had successfully proven civil theft — but not causation. In short, the copying of the file; the holding of the files; the missing documents; and the hacking were never proven to proximately cause the loss of the clients.
UPDATED || The Florida Bar reports that all of these lawyers above possess active Florida law licenses.