People v. Weber.
No. 24PDJ087. 11/15/2024. Stipulation to Discipline.
December 10, 2024
The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ stipulation to discipline and suspended Peter Loyd Weber (attorney registration number 42669) for six months, all to be stayed upon Weber’s successful completion of a two-year period of probation, with conditions. Weber’s probation was effective on December 20, 2024.
In June 2023, Weber entered a fee agreement with a grandmother to represent her grandson in a criminal case involving a charge of a pattern of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust. Weber’s fee in the case was $1,200 per hour. Weber had never tried a case involving a charge of sexual assault on a child; although he had some experience with such cases, those matters reached a resolution or were dismissed before trial. The billing statements show that Weber charged the grandmother $1,000 for a one-hour consultation with the client before Weber was retained; that Weber collected $87,732 from the grandmother between June 2023 and April 2024; and that Weber asserted within the final billing statement that the grandmother owed $22,255. The hourly rate that Weber set forth in the fee agreement and the amount he charged the grandmother were unreasonable.
In another matter, Weber agreed in November 2020 to represent a client in the client’s driving under the influence case. The client paid Weber $3,500 as a retainer plus a $400 consultation fee. The representation spanned more than a year and ended when the client entered a plea in December 2021. But Weber did not send the client a billing statement for another five months. When he finally produced a statement, it reflected work and fees totaling $11,724. Weber asserted in the statement that the client owed another $7,824, after applying the client’s payments of $3,900 and a discount of $1,063.
Through this conduct, Weber violated Colo. RPC 1.4(a) (a lawyer must reasonably communicate with the client) and Colo. RPC 1.5(a) (a lawyer must not charge an unreasonable fee or an unreasonable amount for expenses).