Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine Attorney Deb Stoller’s “Fraud Upon the Court”

An effective judicial system depends on the honesty and integrity of the lawyers who appear before its tribunals. Matter of Mahlowitz, 1 Mass. Att’y Discipline Rep. 189, 194 (1979). See Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. v. Hartford-Empire Co., 322 U.S. 238, 246 (1944) (fraud on the court is “a wrong against the institutions set up to protect and safeguard the public, institutions in which fraud cannot complacently be tolerated consistently with the good order of society”). As “an officer of the court, an attorney . . . is bound to uphold the integrity of [our system of justice] by being truthful to the court and opposing counsel.” Neitlich, supra at 423. A violation of that obligation warrants and requires meaningful sanction. Absent substantial mitigating factors, none of which was present in this case, the minimum sanction for such conduct is a one-year suspension from the practice of law. Neitlich, supra at 423.

Fraud on the Court “Fraud on the court”  occurs when the judicial machinery itself has been tainted, such as when an attorney, who is an officer of the court, is involved in the perpetr…

Source: Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine Attorney Deb Stoller’s “Fraud on the Court”

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