In the Matter of Joseph Roger Davis

A woman hired Joseph Roger Davis, a Georgia lawyer, to investigate whether arrest warrants had been issued against her and to help her turn herself in if so, so she would not be treated as a fugitive. Davis took her money but never properly investigated, falsely telling her repeatedly that no warrants existed. She was arrested on those very warrants in December 2018 and spent about seven weeks in jail partly because prosecutors cited her failure to surrender as a reason to deny release. Davis ignored her calls, her family's calls, her later letter demanding an accounting and a refund, and the grievance she filed with the State Bar. Because Davis never answered the State Bar's formal complaint, the facts were treated as admitted. A special master recommended disbarment, and the Supreme Court of Georgia agreed, finding multiple rule violations and aggravating factors including prior discipline and a pattern of misconduct.

The court held that disbarment is warranted where an attorney intentionally lied to a client about the existence of arrest warrants, abandoned her during a criminal matter causing her prolonged incarceration, and then failed to respond to State Bar disciplinary proceedings against him.

The ruling removes a lawyer from practice who left a criminal client in jail through deception and neglect, reinforcing that Georgia attorneys who abandon clients in criminal cases and ignore Bar investigations face the harshest possible sanction, disbarment.

Disbarred

1. Because Davis failed to answer the State Bar's formal complaint or respond to its motion for default, the special master properly deemed the alleged facts and rule violations admitted under Bar Rule 4-212 (a).
2. The admitted facts showed Davis violated several Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, including rules on scope of representation, diligence, communication, fees, and misconduct involving deceit, with the most serious violations carrying disbarment as the maximum possible sanction.
3. The court applied the ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions, a framework courts use to weigh factors that make discipline more or less severe, and found aggravating factors including a dishonest motive, a pattern of misconduct, refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing, extensive legal experience, and a prior disciplinary record.
4. Comparing this case to similar past disbarments of attorneys who abandoned criminal clients and ignored Bar investigations, the court concluded that Davis's intentional lies and abandonment of a client facing criminal charges, combined with his silence toward disciplinary authorities, matched the pattern warranting disbarment.

• attorney disbarment
• State Bar of Georgia
• client abandonment
• criminal defense misconduct
• default in disciplinary case