***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 7, 2015

JUDGE FINDS SUSPENDED ATTORNEY JOSEPH C. LEHMAN GUILTY OF PRACTICING LAW WITHOUT A LICENSE

Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. (574) 296-1888

On February 19, 2014, the Indiana Supreme Court issued a Published Order Finding Misconduct and Imposing Discipline. In that order, Lehman was suspended from the practice of law for a period of not less than two years beginning April 3, 2014. Additionally, it was ordered that Lehman “shall not undertake any new legal matters between service of this order and the effective date of the suspension . . . .”

On September 28, 2015 a bench trial was held in Elkhart Superior Court 6. During the bench trial three individuals testified that Lehman continued and/or initiated representation after April 3, 2014. Specifically, two individuals testified that they sought Lehman’s counsel, one in October and one in November, 2014. Neither individual was notified by Lehman that he was suspended from practicing law, only that he “could not go to court.” Lehman suggested throughout the trial that he was only providing “general instruction” to these individuals, even though he took cash payments from at least two of them. At the conclusion of evidence presented by the State and Defense, the Court took the matter under advisement.

On October 5, 2015, Judge David C. Bonfiglio issued a written order finding Joseph C. Lehman guilty of all three counts of Practicing Law without a License, a Class B misdemeanor. The Court, in its order, states, “Defendant attempts to argue that because these processes are commonly known and one can attain instructions on how to do these legal matters on the internet, he was only providing instruction to them and that this somehow does not make this the practice of law. That is simply not the case in all three counts; all of the victims sought out an attorney they believed was an attorney in good standing.”

A Presentence Investigation is ordered and sentencing is set for November 19, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. This case was handled by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Leslie Shively.

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“Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”