CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals annulled the law license of a Huntington attorney.
The Office of Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel filed formal charges against David R. Tyson regarding the alleged overbilling of the Public Defender Services Corporation as well as complaints from Tyson’s former clients, according to a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeals on Nov. 3.
"As a result of stipulations entered into in Case No. 20-1027, the parties agreed to certain proposed sanctions including a two (2) year suspension," Justice Tim Armstead wrote in the opinion. "The Hearing Panel Subcommittee adopted most of the recommended sanctions but increased the length of Mr. Tyson’s recommended suspension. The HPS recommended that Mr. Tyson’s law license be suspended for a period of three (3) years."
A few months following the issuance of the HPS’s recommendations in Case No. 20-1027, the Office of Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel filed a petition, Case No. 22-0342, requesting that this Court accept, with the voluntary consent of Tyson, the annulment of Tyson’s license to practice law in the State of West Virginia pursuant to Rule 3.25 of the Rules of Lawyer Disciplinary Procedure.
The Supreme Court granted the petition for disbarment and ordered Tyson's license be annulled by voluntary consent.
Formal charges were initially filed on Dec. 21, 2020, and on May 3, 2022, the petition for disbarment was filed.
The ODC informed Tyson in 2017 that it had opened a complaint against him based on a review of multiple billing vouchers he had submitted. He was asked to review and address 48 vouchers submitted between Aug. 17, 2015, and Feb. 24, 2017, and after reviewing them, Tyson noted that some container billing errors that were unintentional.
Tyson then sent correspondence to Dana Eddy, the executive director of the PDS, requesting information as to how to amend vouchers and the procedure to repay the PDS for errors in his vouchers.
"After receiving additional information from the PDS, ODC requested that Mr. Tyson explain nine additional vouchers submitted in 2017 and 2018," the opinion states. "Pursuant to the stipulations entered into with the ODC, Mr. Tyson admitted that by charging over 24 hours on each of four different days along with charging 15 hours or more each day on an additional eleven days, he violated Rule 1.5(a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct."
"Due to the gravity of the conduct involved in Case No. 20-1027, we wish to make it clear that our decision to annul Mr. Tyson's license to practice law in the State of West Virginia does not moot or nullify in any way the sanctions that we are imposing in Case No. 20-1027," the opinion states.
In the 2020 case, Tyson's law license was suspended for three years and he was to have $58,812.46 withheld from unpaid vouchers for restitution. In the 2022 case, his license was annulled by voluntary consent.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case numbers: 20-1027, 22-0342
