The Florida Supreme Court has disciplined three South Florida attorneys since Apr. 23, according to information released Thursday.

West Palm beach attorney David Andrew Jaynes of the Law Offices of David A. Jaynes was suspended for three years for allegedly failing to let clients, opposing counsel and tribunals know he was suspended from practicing.

It was the latest in a string of incidents in which the court has found Jaynes in contempt of earlier suspensions, and ordered him to pay $1,250 in costs to the Florida Bar.

In a 2014 discipline case, Jaynes admitted minor misconduct after being convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery in New Orleans. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1982.

Coral Gables attorney Madeline Palenzuela of Palenzuela Legal was also found in contempt for failing to inform clients and others about a prior suspension, which the court later extended to one year. She was also ordered to pay $1,250 in court costs to the Florida Bar.

Palenzuela, who was admitted to practice in 2003, specializes in family and criminal law. She was originally suspended in 2018 for failing to respond to a Florida Bar complaint over lapsed communications with a client. According to the bar's petition for contempt, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Scott M. Bernstein wrote to let them know in 2017 that one of Palenzuela's clients had discovered her attorney had been in a serious automobile accident and was “in an out of a coma.”

“I feel terrible for someone who has been injured in an automobile accident,” the letter said. “But I am concerned that Ms. Palenzuela may have other clients who do not know what is going on or may suffer prejudice due to the lawyer's unavailability.”

A third attorney, Fort Lauderdale bankruptcy and probate lawyer Frank Joseph Heston, 70, got a disciplinary revocation, allowing him to seek readmission to the bar in five years. Heston, who began practicing in 1973, was accused in two bar complaints of misappropriating client trust funds.

Florida Bar investigators found that in one case Heston had failed to inform a client of a real estate transaction on their behalf, and didn't forward the resulting $71,000 in sale proceeds, which had gone into his trust account. Heston has since sent the money to the client, according to his petition for disciplinary revocation.

It's not Heston's first brush with discipline. He was suspended for 20 days in 2009, publicly reprimanded in 2002 for allegedly neglecting clients, and reprimanded in 1987 over alleged trust account commingling.

More attorney discipline stories: