Two attorneys suspended from jobs as temp judges

CARSON CITY -- The state Judicial Discipline Commission has suspended two Las Vegas attorneys from sitting as temporary Las Vegas judges.

Lawyers Brian Morrison and Laura Ungaro failed to get their required annual continuing legal education, and the Nevada Supreme Court in January 1998 put them on inactive status, meaning they could not practice. But they never told anybody and continued to act as referees in the Las Vegas Justice Court and as alternate judges in the Las Vegas Municipal Court.

Morrison and Ungaro admitted the allegations to the discipline commission which, in its orders issued May 4, said their behavior "brought disrepute upon both yourself and each of those courts ..."

The commission said both violated the canons that require a judge to maintain high standards of conduct and comply with the law that "promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary."

Between the two, they sat on an estimated 20,000 cases in the courts. The county and city offered anyone who had a contested case before the two a chance for a new trial.

Donald Campbell, a Las Vegas attorney and a member of the discipline commission, suggested the punishment was too light. Campbell agreed with the reprimand but said the two lawyers should not be able to sit as temporary judges for one year, instead of the six months.

"The turmoil visited upon the judicial system as a result of the respondents' negligence was profound by any measure," Campbell said. "Judgments in hundreds of cases were jeopardized, requiring the immediate intervention of the Nevada Supreme Court."

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