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Sarasota Lawyers Disciplined

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By Todd Ruger of The Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: December 7, 2007

The Florida Supreme Court has disciplined two Sarasota lawyers, including suspending one who landed on the state's 2005 list of Top 10 scam artists.

Florida Bar auditors reviewed trust account records of Peter W. Martin and found he still owed two clients a total of $29,990, state records show.

That total does not include Martin's $19,500 payment to one of those clients a year after his former employee blew the whistle on him, notifying the Florida Bar.

Martin said he did not know whether that client had received all his money from a $100,000 settlement.

Martin was placed on the state's scam artist list after he was arrested on an insurance fraud charge.

Investigators said he collected $131,557 in disability payments and was caught on video golfing and moving boxes out of his office.

The charge was dropped.

The Supreme Court suspended Martin on Nov. 21. He cannot practice law until September 2009. Martin already had been placed on the inactive lawyer list because of a physical disability.

The Supreme Court gave a public reprimand to Laureen Cameron and put her on two years of probation for failing to competently represent clients in two separate cases.

In the first case, Cameron took a retainer fee and told the client she had filed paperwork in the case, but she never did.

In the second case, client Lisa Khon said Cameron did not protect her from a $150,000 judgment that had been wrongly levied against her.

Khon hired another lawyer who got the judgment thrown out. She said she got a full refund.

Bar investigators also found problems with Cameron's trust account records.

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