In the Matter of Paul Jason York

An Atlanta-area lawyer represented a woman charged with misdemeanor family violence who was required to wear an ankle monitor and pay a monthly fee. Under pressure from the client and her family, the lawyer forged a judge's and an assistant district attorney's signatures on a fake court order to get the monitor removed. He was charged with felony forgery and entered a pretrial diversion agreement instead of prosecution, and he voluntarily stopped practicing law. After the State Bar filed a formal complaint, the lawyer admitted the misconduct and asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to accept a three-year suspension, backdated to when he stopped practicing, with conditions tied to his recovery from substance abuse and mental health treatment. A special master recommended accepting that deal. The court agreed the lawyer had shown real rehabilitation, but it rejected the petition because his diversion agreement, and the possibility of prosecution, will not end until at least August 2025, meaning he could resume practicing law before his criminal case was fully resolved.

The court held that a lawyer's petition for voluntary discipline must be rejected when it would allow him to become eligible for reinstatement to practice law before his pending felony charges, even ones being resolved through a pretrial diversion agreement, are fully resolved.

The decision signals that Georgia lawyers facing unresolved felony charges, even under pretrial diversion agreements, cannot expect to resume practicing law until those charges are fully resolved, reinforcing public confidence in attorney discipline and protecting clients from lawyers whose criminal matters remain open.

Petition for voluntary discipline rejected

1. The court applied the ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions, a framework considering the duty violated, the lawyer's mental state, the injury caused, and aggravating and mitigating factors, and found the presumptive sanction for intentionally forging documents to deceive a court is disbarment.
2. The court accepted that the lawyer showed significant mitigating factors, including no prior discipline, cooperation, remorse, and a documented recovery from drug addiction and mental health problems that had impaired his judgment when he committed the forgery.
3. The court explained that a pretrial diversion agreement, an alternative arrangement where prosecution is paused while a defendant meets certain conditions instead of facing trial (O.C.G.A. § 15-18-80), still leaves the underlying criminal prosecution open until the agreement's conditions are completed.
4. Because the lawyer's diversion agreement would not expire until at least August 2025, allowing his suspension to run retroactively to when he stopped practicing would make him eligible to resume practicing law before his felony forgery charges were resolved.
5. Relying on prior cases holding that the public loses respect for the legal system when attorneys resume practicing while criminal matters, including probation, remain open, the court concluded that the same concern applies to unresolved felony charges under a diversion agreement.
6. The court therefore found the proposed three-year suspension nunc pro tunc insufficient to protect the public and rejected the petition rather than crafting a different sanction itself.

• attorney discipline
• forgery
• pretrial diversion agreement
• State Bar of Georgia
• voluntary discipline petition