A federal judge has dismissed an attorney’s challenge to a lawyer disciplinary panel’s finding that he and members of his firm could not represent clients before a town court as long as the lawyer holds a seat on the town’s board. Northern District Judge Gary L. Sharpe noted in Redlich v. Ochs, 1:10-cv-570, that federal courts are, in general, prohibited from overruling state judiciary determinations under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. The rule bars federal court intervention in cases brought by “state-court losers complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments,” the judge said.
In attorney Warren Redlich’s case, Judge Sharpe ruled that the decision by the disciplinary panel in the Appellate Division, Third Department, falls within the doctrine. “It is clear in this Circuit that ‘disciplinary proceedings before the New York Appellate Division are judicial in nature,’” Judge Sharpe wrote, quoting Zimmerman v. Grievance Comm. of Fifth Judicial Dist., 726 F.2d 85 (2d Cir. 1984). He upheld the committee’s finding that Mr. Redlich’s firm cannot represent clients before the town court in the Albany suburb of Guilderland, where Mr. Redlich, who was the Libertarian Party candidate for governor last year, holds a seat on the board.
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