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Firm loses battle to prevent judgment creditor of client from obtaining trust-account info

A Florida law firm has lost a court battle to prevent a judgment creditor from obtaining information about a debtor’s funds in the law firm’s trust account.

A lawyer for Sweetapple, Broeker & Varkas argued that being required to turn over the information would undermine the attorney-client relationship, and said the debtor should be required to attempt to obtain the information elsewhere in a less intrusive manner, the Daily Business Review (sub. req.) reports.

But the Third District Court of Appeal did not agree.

“The issue presented is whether the trust account wire receipts are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Because this financial information is not privileged in the hands of the client, it is not privileged in the hands of the attorney,” Judge Thomas Logue wrote in the court’s Oct. 29 opinion.

Attorney Douglas Broeker represented the law firm and said it is considering whether to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, the legal publication reports.

At issue in the underlying case was long-standing litigation between Philip J. Scutieri Jr. and his former employee and ex-fiancée, Jacqueline M. Simmons. She filed suit in 1994 and won a judgment requiring that she be paid 15 percent of the proceeds from a real estate sale, the article explains.

When the property sold in 2004, however, Scutieri didn’t pay Simmons her share. She went back to court, winning a judgment for $373,449 in damages and another $1.2 million in attorney fees, costs and interest, which she is attempting to collect.