People v. John Franklin Crone. 17PDJ026. April 25, 2017. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ conditional admission of misconduct and suspended John Franklin Crone (attorney registration number 42289) for ninety days, all stayed upon a two-year period of probation, effective April 25, 2017. His probation is conditioned on completing ethics school, counseling, practice monitoring, and continuing legal education.
Crone represented a close friend in a civil suit in 2015 concerning a contract dispute. The contract contained a binding arbitration clause. Crone and opposing counsel agreed to participate in mediation instead of arbitration to save time and expenses. Thereafter, Crone completed no further work on the case. He reported that his anxiety about how to manage the case rendered him unable to communicate with his client.
In January 2016, Crone told his client that the case had been set for mediation in late May, when it was not, and then met with the client for several hours to prepare for the mediation. After telling his client that the mediation was unexpectedly cancelled, his client hired another lawyer. Crone then told his client that he had misrepresented the status of the mediation, refunded all of his client’s attorney’s fees, and paid him additional compensation.
Crone violated Colo. RPC 1.3 (a lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness when representing a client) and Colo. RPC 8.4(c) (a lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation).