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In August 2019, Frank Moya agreed to represent a client in a federal criminal matter and related state cases. The client paid Moya $15,000 on the day he hired Moya, $5,000 in September 2019, and $5,000 in October 2019. According to the disciplinary opinion, Moya never sent the client a written fee agreement and didn’t place any of the client’s funds in a trust account. For a time, Moya kept the funds, which the client had paid in cash, in a desk drawer. Moya performed work on his client’s cases but didn’t track the time he spent on the matters. In July 2020, the client pleaded guilty to a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Moya withdrew from the matter the following month.
In another matter, Moya accepted $10,000 in December 2020 to represent a client in two criminal cases. According to the opinion, Moya charged the $10,000 as a flat fee but didn’t provide the client or the client’s mother — who paid the fee — written benchmarks describing how he would earn the funds or any other terms of the flat fee agreement, except that Moya would earn the fee if his client’s case resolved without trial or within 60 days, whichever occurred first. Moya didn’t deposit the fee into a trust account. Nor did he track the hours he worked on the cases or keep a contemporaneous written accounting of his time before the client terminated the representation in July 2021.
In a third matter, a client hired Moya to represent him in a criminal case, paying Moya $6,000 in October 2021 and an additional $14,000 in installments between November 2021 and April 2022. Moya didn’t deposit any of the client’s money in a trust account nor provide his client with a written fee agreement. In November 2021, Moya received and reviewed discovery, and he moved for a bond reduction and to change the conditions of bond that month. During the case, the client became dissatisfied with Moya’s representation, and Moya returned the client’s file and refunded the client’s fee in full.
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved Moya’s stipulation to discipline and suspended him for one year and one day, all to be stayed upon Moya’s successful completion of a two-year conditional probation, effective June 25.