Florida attorney ‘misappropriated’ $21,000 of client money. Now, she has no clients
A Fort Myers attorney got shifty with clients’ settlement funds, resulting in a bounced check and her disbarment, the Florida Bar said.
The common phrase for what Stephanie Brunner was accused of is “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” The legal term is “misappropriation of funds” and it led to another legal term “disbarment by consent.” That means Brunner took disbarment rather than fight the charges against her. The state Supreme Court accepted that on Nov. 21, which put Brunner out of the attorney business and onto the monthly Florida Bar discipline report, released Friday.
A Florida Bar audit sparked by the first bounced check allegedly turned up the following:
Brunner owed Client 1 $26,188.67, but her trust account check to Client 1 for $20,188.67 bounced on Nov. 14, 2018.
She put $10,000 of Client 2’s settlement money in her trust account on Nov. 30, 2018. Client 2 was owed $6,666.67.
Instead of sending Client 2 what she owed, on Dec. 7, 2018, Brunner wrote a check to herself for $11,000. That allowed her to get a $20,236.67 cashier’s check for Client 1. Client 1 got that money that day, but Client 2 had to wait until Jan. 4, 2019 to get any money.
When Brunner got Client 2’s settlement check on Nov. 30, she should’ve had enough money in the trust account to cover what she owed Client 1 and Client 2, a total of $32,855.34. What she had was $11,522.80, meaning she was light $21,332.54. Also her trust account records were spotty.
Brunner made deposits later to make up the account’s shortfall.
