TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Jul 3, 2017
On June 30, Wayne County lawyer John Wilbur Castleman, Jr. was suspended from the practice of law for one year and one day. Castleman was administratively suspended on July 16, 2015, for noncompliance with the mandatory IOLTA reporting requirement and non-payment of the annual registration fee. In July 2015, Castleman was paid a $500 refundable retainer by a client, but he did not deposit the retainer to his trust account or refund the unearned fee to the client.  After learning of his suspension, Castleman met with the client in order to prepare for a hearing, but he did not notify his clients of his suspension. Instead, he wrote a number of his clients a misleading letter in an effort to explain his absence from the office without advising them of his suspension