NEW ORLEANS (Louisiana Record) — Ponchatoula attorney Carol E. Parker faces possible suspension following a Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board (LADB) recommendation to the Louisiana Supreme Court over alleged misconduct committed nine years ago.
In its 16-page recommendation, the LADB recommended the Louisiana court suspend Parker for six months, with all but 30 days deferred, and order Parker to pay all costs and expenses in the matter.
The LADB's recommendation follows a hearing committee's legal conclusions and its own recommendation filed in August 2018 that Parker be suspended for three months, with all but 30 days deferred, and that she be ordered to pay all costs and expenses in the proceedings. The LADB adopted the hearing committee's factual findings and conclusions regarding rule violations.
Parker was admitted to the bar in Louisiana on Oct. 5, 1990, according to her profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. Parker had no prior discipline before the state bar, according to the hearing committee's and LADB's recommendations.
Allegations against Parker stem from a 2010 community property case in which she allegedly filed frivolous and baseless motions to recuse judges in the case to delay the trial. Parker told the hearing committee that she had not been prepared for trial and felt she had to file for recusal to delay the proceedings to 'buy time' for discovery.
Parker's alleged misconduct violated professional conduct rules, including those regarding not bringing or defending a frivolous proceeding and engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, according to the LADB's recommendation.
The office of disciplinary counsel filed formal charges against Parker in November 2017 and Parker, in her answer filed the following January, denied all of the alleged rule violations. In October 2018, Parker filed a brief in opposition to the hearing committee's report, according to the LADB's recommendation.
"In her brief, [Parker] sets forth a chronology of events and argues that the ODC failed to prove the allegations of misconduct by clear and convincing evidence," the LADB's recommendation said. "She also argues that the cases cited by the ODC involve more egregious circumstances than the misconduct alleged in this matter."