State court sanctions councilman
Menard didn't properly repay funds in lawsuit

Claire Taylor
 

Lafayette attorney and City-Parish Councilman Randy Menard was publicly reprimanded by the Louisiana Supreme Court for failing to remit funds to a third party.
"That is the lowest discipline you can get," said Homer Ed Barousse, a Crowley attorney and previous chairman of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board.
 
Menard received his law degree from LSU Law School in 1991. He has served on the City-Parish Council since consolidation of the city and parish governments in 1996 and is serving his final term due to term limits.

A legal notice published on Page 10F in Sunday's Daily Advertiser states that the state Supreme Court issued the public reprimand of Menard on Sept. 15.
The reprimand is "the result of his misconduct involving a failure to timely notify a third party of his receipt of funds and failure to properly remit funds which the third party was entitled to receive," the ad states.

The action stemmed from a case he tried around 1999 that has been under investigation for about three years, Menard said Wednesday.

Menard said he collected on a judgment and was ready to disburse the funds but his client's health insurance carrier had paid some of his client's benefits.

At the time, ethics rules did not require him to pay the third party, in this case the insurer, unless the third party had a perfected lien or had intervened in the case, Menard said. They had done neither, he said.

Menard said he advised his client that he did not have to pay the insurer but that the client morally owed it and the insurer could come after him for the money.

"He told me not to pay it," Menard said.

The client received the money and did not pay the insurer. The insurer later contacted Menard for the money, who in turn contacted the client, but he had declared bankruptcy and could not pay, he said.

"They filed a complaint on me because I didn't pay it," he said.

Menard said he reimbursed the insurance company and the attorney's disciplinary board reprimanded him.

It was his first reprimand in 15 years of legal practice, he said.

The Supreme Court also ordered Menard to attend an ethics school program.

An attorney's top allegiance is to his client, but when a third party is involved, he is supposed to protect that third party, too, Barousse said. That doesn't mean he must turn over the money to the third party, but should probably keep it in a trust fund until the disbursement issues are resolved, he said.

"I wouldn't say (a public reprimand) is common, because that would be an admission that we've got a real problem," Barousse said. "But like Tom Jones would say, it's not unusual."

The published legal notice referred inquiries to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel in Baton Rouge. They declined to answer questions on the phone, instructing reporters and interested citizens to inquire in writing.

Menard, a former council chairman, filed a police report against Councilman Chris Williams for writing "Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Drive!" on the council dais before a July 5 meeting.

Williams pleaded no contest to three misdemeanors and was fined $1,500, but is appealing.

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