December 2006

Topic:
Making material misrepresentations during the course of a disciplinary proceeding warrants disbarment.

Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board v. Dennis Bjorklund, 725 N.W.2d 1 (Iowa December 8, 2006). Bjorklund has a disciplinary history, having received two private admonitions and a public reprimand for violating Iowa advertising guidelines. This NOBC Case of the Month, had its genesis in the prior reprimand matter. See NOBC Current Developments (San Diego 2001). There, the Iowa ADB filed a complaint against Bjorklund because of an advertisement for his legal services that appeared in a publication entitled Movie Facts . Movie Facts is a pamphlet that contains information about recently released movies. It is distributed to movie patrons by 1200 theatres nationwide, including four movie houses in the Iowa City area. Bjorklund, a lawyer for approximately five years at the relevant time, wrote a book, breezily entitled: Drunk Driving Defense: How to Beat the Rap . The book was marketed in the advertisement that appeared in Movie Facts . The ad displayed Bjorklund’s name and occupation following the question “Have you been caught drinking and driving?” and the exclamation “I can help!” The ad did not offer the book for sale, but mainly referred to the book as a means to validate the ability of Bjorklund to help the consumer in the defense of any drunk driving proceeding. Bjorklund was eventually charged by Iowa attorney disciplinary officials with making self-laudatory claims concerning the quality of his work, not supplying an appropriate disclaimer required by state ethics rules, and announcing a limitation of practice that he was ineligible to advertise. He defended himself by arguing that his book publisher, Praetorian Publishing, placed the ad without his knowledge and that he was unaware of its contents. Interestingly enough, he was never able to produce any testimony from the publisher to support his version of events. Evidence was, however, submitted at the disciplinary hearing that the publisher had a telephone number that was, coincidentally, the same as Bjorklund’s office telephone, save for the last two digits. When the publisher’s number was dialed, the caller got four options: Press “1” to receive free literature, “2” for information on purchasing the book, “3” for a case evaluation, or “4” for other information. Notwithstanding this rather intriguing bit of evidence, the Iowa Supreme Court forged ahead and reprimanded him. The Court concluded that, because Bjorklund testified that he had marketing discussions with the publisher, and because Bjorklund came up with the idea to market the book in Movie Facts , he was personally accountable for the contents of the ad and thus subject to discipline. The ADB was convinced, however, that Bjorklund’s defense was constructed out of whole cloth. It initiated another investigation of him after receiving several complaints from persons who had received unsolicited advertising materials from Bjorklund bearing Praetorian Publishing’s logo. When Bjorklund was asked about these materials by the ADB, he responded as follows:

I have no knowledge of the mailing sent by Praetorian Publishing. I have no involvement with the company and have no contact with the organization's personnel. My only involvement was writing three drunk-driving books a few years ago. I have no business interest with Praetorian Publishing, no business ownership, nor any ties to the organization. Prior to this complaint, I have never witnessed this mailing.

Subsequent investigation revealed that the Praetorian post office box belonged to one Rochelle Theroux, who just happened to share a residence with Bjorklund and who jointly owned this residence with him since 1997. Rochelle also had a bank account in her name doing business as Praetorian Publishing. Records for Praetorian Publishing phone number showed that it was in Theroux’s name and the telephone service was with “Dennis.” At the earlier disciplinary proceeding, Bjorklund introduced written communications with Praetorian Publishing that contained a Wisconsin address for the company. During the ADB's 2003 investigation, the board learned that the address on these documents was for a house rented by one Darcie Baumgart, an individual identified by Bjorklund in the prior hearing as working for Praetorian Publishing. Later investigation revealed that Darcie was the long-time girlfriend of Bjorklund's brother. In addition to these revelations, the ADB discovered a two-page document confirming that Bjorklund was, contrary to his denial at the previous hearing, the contact with Movie Facts for the advertisement that was the subject of that hearing. Other documents show that Rochelle frequently corresponded with Morris Publishing (with whom she placed orders for Bjorklund's book) on Praetorian Publishing letterhead. The address used by Morris Publishing to correspond with Praetorian Publishing was often Bjorklund's law office address. Bjorklund was charged with lying in a prior disciplinary proceeding. He was also charged with making inappropriate representations on his website. They included such statements as: “[t]he [Bjorklund Law] Firm’s scholarly achievements are unmatched by any other law firm.” Because his misrepresentations at the earlier hearing were clearly established, the Iowa Supreme Court disbarred him. The Court also had an opportunity to address the difficulties encountered by the ADB in attempting to serve Bjorklund with process during the course of its investigations. ADB sent a notice to Bjorklund regarding the Praetorian Publishing matter. Notice was sent to Bjorklund's office by restricted certified mail. When this notice was returned unclaimed, the ADB hired ‘ASAP Process Servers’ to serve the notice on Bjorklund at his residence. The process server was at Bjorklund's residence when Bjorklund arrived home. When the process server attempted to serve the paper, Bjorklund denied his own identity and stated his name was “Jake.” Subsequently, the same process server, having obtained a photograph of Bjorklund, went to Bjorklund's office to serve the papers. Again, Bjorklund denied who he was, but the process server recognized him, dropped the papers, and announced that Bjorklund was served. Similar problems were encountered by the ADB when it attempted to serve Bjorklund with the complaint filed by an aggrieved client. The ADB again hired ASAP. The process server staked out Bjorklund's house, but when Bjorklund saw the server's car as he came out of his house, he went back inside. When the process server moved his car, Bjorklund quickly left his residence. The server was later informed that Bjorklund had been seen at his office, so the ASAP server waited outside Bjorklund's office until Bjorklund left. As Bjorklund exited the building, the server stepped toward him to hand him the papers, and Bjorklund broke into a run. Although the process server pursued him on foot, recovering one of Bjorklund's shoes that came off during the chase, Bjorklund again eluded service. The process server returned to Bjorklund's office, and after waiting thirty minutes for Bjorklund to return, finally secured the papers between the office door and the door jam.

As an aside, Bjorklund has written a total of at least three books about drunk driving and some of his published efforts are still available for purchase on popular internet retail websites. One of his efforts, Drunk Driving Laws: Rules of the Road When Crossing State Lines, 2nd Ed. (Praetorian Publishing, January 1, 2005) appears with the following ‘Five-Star’ consumer review at Amazon.com:

This is the most comprehensive book on the market to summarize the drunk driving laws of every state. No longer do I have to worry about the laws of each state when I am traveling…Everyone should keep a copy in their glove box. You never know when you might need it. I was amazed at how little I actually knew about my home state's drunk driving laws. It was an eye-opening experience to learn about the fines, length of driver's license suspension, and to know my legal rights…[D]on't leave home without it. This is the BEST drunk driving book on the shelf!