04 September 2015

A Tennessee lawyer has been suspended after billing a client US$5,000 for research that turned out to be the watching of true crime programmes.

Ms Sallee even billed the client twice for watching an episode of 48 Hours a second time Goran Bogicevic

Yarboro Sallee was hired by parents who suspected the death of their daughter may have been caused by their son-in-law and motivated by an insurance payout. Her ‘research’ involved watching episodes of a true crime television show on spousal homicides.

‘Doggedly unrepentant’

Ms Sallee’s former clients filed an application with the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility; she responded with a US$140,000 bill containing the TV watching entries, insisting that she had done nothing wrong. ‘At every turn in these proceedings, faced with findings at every level that her conduct breached numerous ethical rules, attorney Sallee has been doggedly unrepentant. Indeed, her consistent response has bordered on righteous indignation,’ the Supreme Court of Tennessee said in the judgement of the case. ‘Under all of these circumstances, we find ample support for the one-year suspension in this case.’ Source: Australasian Lawyer