Attorney Takes Advantage Of His Client Who Doesn’t Speak Dutch

This disciplinary complaint is against a Dutch attorney who in the context of distributing an inheritance —which included a home— committed multiple ethics violations against his client, a lady who doesn’t speak the Dutch language and who represents her minor daughter, the only heir. We’ll focus on two violations: his unlawful sale of the inherited home and his tactics to make the complainant sign an important agreement.

Without obtaining any professional real-estate advice or a valuation report, the attorney sold the home for a price, EUR 300,000, that was nearly half of the market value (¶ 3.8, b). He sold for that price, even though the tenant had already offered a higher price to buy the home. Shortly after the sale, though, the home was put up for sale again but this time for EUR 640,000. The Board finds (¶ 5.6) that the attorney sold the home without obtaining proper advice about the property’s value. For instance, the attorney did not seek advice from nor engage any real-estate agent, appraiser or similar independent expert —as is usually done in Netherlands real estate transactions— to determine the property’s sale price. The attorney thus failed to seek the best price to sell the home, thereby harming the estate liquidator’s interest, while additionally going against his client’s instructions. The attorney’s claim that he acted in his client’s interest by consenting to the private sale, is inapposite, because the attorney made his client sign a statement in which he consented to the sale for a price of EUR 300,000, knowing that someone else had offered a (much) higher price for the home, that she had a right of first refusal and while he knew or at least should have known that the purchase price of EUR 300,000 was much lower (approximately half) than the actual price of the home. By doing so the attorney severely harmed his (financial) interest of his client who was the legal representative of her daughter, a minor and the only heir. Accordingly, the Board finds for the complainant as to the complaint relative to the home.

The Board also finds for the complainant about the settlement agreement (¶ 5.9). The attorney made his client sign a settlement agreement which states that the parties wish to end their disputes, granting one another full acquittance and discharge, while relinquishing any disciplinary and civil complaints against one another. Because the attorney should have protected his client’s interests and thereby the estate’s interests, the attorney should have ascertained whether his client understood the settlement agreement’s text and consequences such that he understood what she was signing. The attorney has failed to refute, or at least refute sufficiently, that his client did not properly understand the Dutch language or that she didn’t understand what she was signing. Apart from that, the Board can’t see how signing the settlement agreement by his client would serve the estate’s or his client’s interests. The Board holds that signing the settlement agreement only served the interests of his firm’s fellow attorney and his other client, not the interests of his client.

The Board adds (¶ 6.2) that the attorney’s actions severely harmed his client’s interests, especially her financial interest. The harm the attorney caused his client and her daughter —the only heir— is severe. The Board highlights the importance of the fact that his client does not properly understand the Dutch language but even so the attorney made her sign multiple documents that have serious consequences for her and her daughter, without ascertaining whether his client understood their contents and consequences.

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