In THE MATTER OF BRIAN JOEL APLIN (Two Cases)

Brian Joel Aplin, a Georgia lawyer, took money from two clients and then failed them. One client paid him $1,500 to handle a court appeal but he did nothing for months, missed filing deadlines, and never gave the refund he claimed to have sent. Another client paid $2,500 for help with a child custody case; Aplin abandoned the case, never told the client about discovery requests or a sanctions motion, and the client ended up hit with about $8,000 in court sanctions without knowing why. The State Bar of Georgia issued formal Notices of Discipline seeking disbarment, and Aplin never responded, putting him in default and admitting the facts against him. The Supreme Court of Georgia reviewed the record and had to decide what discipline fit this pattern of client abandonment and dishonesty. The court agreed disbarment was appropriate, citing similar past cases involving lawyers who abandoned clients and ignored the Bar.

The court held that disbarment is the appropriate sanction because Aplin, by default, admitted violating rules requiring diligence, client communication, and honesty, and his knowing abandonment of two clients caused serious injury, including $8,000 in court sanctions against one client.

The ruling removes a lawyer from practice in Georgia, protecting future clients from similar abandonment. It also signals to Georgia attorneys that failing to communicate with clients, keep them informed, or respond to Bar investigations can result in permanent loss of a law license.

Disbarred

1. Because Aplin failed to timely respond to either Notice of Discipline, he was in default, meaning all the factual allegations against him were deemed admitted and he lost any right to an evidentiary hearing.
2. The court applied the American Bar Association's Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions, which direct courts to weigh the duty violated, the lawyer's mental state, the injury caused, and any aggravating or mitigating factors.
3. Applying that framework, the court found Aplin knowingly violated his duties of diligence and communication by ignoring both clients for months, failing to file documents on time, and failing to respond to discovery requests and sanctions motions.
4. The court found serious actual injury, including one client being saddled with roughly $8,000 in court-imposed sanctions and both clients losing fees they had paid, plus harm to the legal profession's reputation.
5. Weighing aggravating factors like a dishonest motive, a pattern of multiple offenses, and indifference to making restitution against the single mitigating factor of no prior discipline, the court concluded disbarment matched the presumptive sanction under the ABA standards and prior similar Georgia cases.

• attorney disbarment
• State Bar of Georgia
• client abandonment
• legal malpractice
• default discipline