La Salle attorney recommended for discipline

A La Salle attorney faces possible discipline by the Illinois Supreme Court, but Louis Bertrand said Wednesday that the matter is moot since he retired Sept. 30.

According to a recent filing by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Bertrand is to be “suspended for one year and until further order of the court.”

“He neglected a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of a client when he made no effort to serve the complaint on the defendant, then did not appear in court for 10 status hearings in the case,” the ARDC wrote. “A suspension until further order of the court is an indefinite suspension, which requires the suspended lawyer to petition for reinstatement after the fixed period of suspension ends. Reinstatement is not automatic and must be allowed by the Supreme Court of Illinois following a hearing before the ARDC hearing board.”

The disposition is neither final nor binding. Discipline is handed down by the Illinois Supreme Court, and the ARDC only makes recommendations, but the state’s top court abides by the vast majority of ARDC recommendations.

“The order is actually an agreement reached by my attorney and the ARDC,” Bertrand said in a statement issued Wednesday. “Given the fact that I had retirement plans for the end of September of this year, for the last year, his recommendation was to simply consent to the short suspension rather than leaving the case open any further.

“It is unfortunate that this action appeared prior to my formal retirement announcement, as my attorney had told me that this action was not likely to have been approved by the Supreme Court prior to mid-November.”