SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — Longtime Colorado attorney Joseph Darrell Palmer faces disbarment by default following a California State Bar Court recommendation after he allegedly failed to comply with probation conditions.
Over about two years of probation, Palmer, of Montrose, Colorado, attempted to comply with quarterly report requirements but he failed to cure many defects in those report, despite repeated email exchanges with his probation office, the state bar court said in its Feb. 12 decision and order of involuntary inactive enrollment.
"[Palmer]'s moderate mitigation for stipulating to facts is far from compelling, and his repeated 2017 and 2018 probation violations do not fall within the same time frame as the misconduct underlying his prior discipline, which occurred in 1999 and 2010 through 2012," , the state bar court said in its 15-page decision and order.
Palmer was enrolled as inactive Feb. 15, according to a notification provided to the Northern California Record by the state bar.
The California Supreme Court is awaiting a petition to be filed.
Palmer was admitted to the bar in California on Dec. 15, 1986, according to his profile at the state bar website.
In August 2002, Palmer, then 45, was placed on interim suspension after he was convicted in Colorado for allegedly failing to pay taxes, according to information on his state bar profile. The interim suspension was terminated the following month and he was publicly reproved the following November.
In June 2016, Palmer received a stayed two-year suspension after he was found "grossly negligent" in making false statements in sworn affidavits filed in federal class actions, according to his profile and the decision and order. Palmer had sworn he had no history of discipline, despite the previous tax issue, according to his state bar profile.
"Palmer admitted he was aware of his prior discipline when he signed and filed false affidavits in separate class actions in Washington state," his profile says.
Palmer was placed on two years' conditional probation with 90 days of actual suspension.
In August 2017, Palmer, then 60 and living in Carlsbad, California, was suspended pending proof he passed the MPRE. By that date, Palmer also had encountered difficulties with his quarterly reports, some of which had been found to be noncompliant.