[excon]

Hello:

A guy pleads guilty to a minor drug offense.. Part of his sentence is to get a drug evaluation, and he DOES!

Years go by, and the guy is stopped for a traffic violation. A warrant appears and his a$$ is hauled off to jail. Come to find out, the court appointed drug counselor, who DID the evaluation, never wrote a report and nothing got submitted to the criminal court. That left the criminal case OPEN, and that's why the guy got busted. He spent the better part of a day in the slam before he got bailed out.

Does he have a case against the drug counselor??

excon

[AK lawyer]

Yes, I certainly think so.

I doubt if any sort of qualified immunity would apply.

Is this counselor a governmental employee?

[excon]

Hello lawyer:

Is this counselor a governmental employee?

Thanks for answering..

He's in private practice, and the defendant paid him out of his own pocket.

excon

PS> To be clear, he wasn't appointed, per se. He was CHOSEN from a list of court approved drug counselors, if that makes a difference..

[smearcase]

Ex,
The counselor will possibly claim that he sent the report in and the courts lost it or misfiled it.
And the counselor may be telling the truth.
Did he send his client a copy of the report when submitted?
If I were the counselor I would have sent certified and have a receipt that it was delivered.

[excon]

Hello smear:

The counselor will possibly claim that he sent the report

Thanks for your interest.

Nahhh... He already copped to not writing or sending the report. He's real sorry and all, and is scrambling around trying to fix it.

I just don't know if being sorry is ENOUGH..

excon

[smearcase]

No, sorry is certainly not enough to put someone in that position. Recovery of all costs maybe through small claims, at minimum? Or a lawyer willing to take it on contingency.
Good luck.