Interview with Chief Justice Stuart Rabner

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner is seen in this file photo.

((Alex Remnick/The Star-Ledger))

TRENTON -- The state Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a stern rebuke to a Hasbrouck Heights attorney who violated ethics rules while borrowing money from an elderly client.

The court found William J. Torre caused "substantial" financial and psychological harm to the 86-year old woman, identified in the decision as "M.D.," by borrowing more than 70 percent of her life savings when he ran into financial trouble.

Citing the "serious and growing problem of elder abuse" in New Jersey, the state's highest court imposed a one-year suspension on Torre, a greater sanction than an ethics panel had recommended.

"The discipline imposed today is meant to provide notice to attorneys that serious consequences will result from this form of misconduct," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote in the decision.

A message left at Torre's office was not immediately returned Wednesday

AN UNSECURED LOAN

According to the facts spelled out in the 16-page decision, Torre had represented M.D., a family friend, since the early 1990s, helping her and her husband draft wills and providing general legal assistance. By 2008, M.D. was widowed and legally blind, though "mentally alert," the decision said, and Torre and his legal office staff assisted her with paying bills and running errands.

In June of 2008, the woman drafted a new will naming Torre executor of her estate and giving him power of attorney.

Days later, she also loaned him nearly $90,000. Torre later told an ethics panel he had mentioned money trouble and M.D. volunteered to help, and the note spelling out the terms of the loan said he would pay it back with 10 percent interest within three months.

While Torre claimed during disciplinary proceedings that he intended to pay the money back on time, he made just two payments totaling $10,000. M.D. later hired another attorney to collect what Torre owed in Superior Court, records show.

M.D. also filed a grievance against Torre in November 2009.

She died a month later.

While several ethics panels found no evidence proving Torre deliberately misled the woman, they did determine he had not adequately informed her of the risk she faced.

The court found the terms of the loan were sketchy, Torre offered up no collateral to back it and failed to advise M.D. in writing to seek independent legal advice about the deal in accordance to legal ethics rules.

"It is hard to imagine that any lawyer would have advised M.D. to place her life savings at risk and lend her lawyer a substantial amount of money with no security or collateral to protect her," Rabner wrote in the decision.

GUARDIANSHIP ON THE RISE IN N.J.

The court ordered Torre to provide quarterly updates on his payments to M.D.'s estate, which are scheduled to continue until the end of 2017.

In the decision, Rabner warned that New Jersey's "steadily aging" population has given rise to more seniors who need financial assistance their family members may not be able to provide. Those "guardians" can be appointed by a court or, in M.D.'s case, sought out privately.

Rabner wrote in his decision that the majority of these guardians "perform honorably and act in a manner consistent with the highest ethical standards."

"But regrettably, as more seniors have needed help to manage their affairs, allegations of physical and financial abuse have also increased," he added.

In 2013, New Jersey instituted a watchdog program to monitor legal guardianships for signs of financial abuse. The volunteer-based program tracks cases in a statewide database.

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.