Client sues, gets judgment against lawyer

A client has won a $4,000 judgment against a Blacksburg lawyer who failed to return the client’s fee after his license was suspended.

The lawyer, Jonathan P. Fisher, has been disciplined twice this year by the Virginia State Bar. He was given a 60-day suspension in February and a public reprimand in March.

The client, Kimberly Ann Brock of Christiansburg, said Fisher failed to tell her that his license was suspended, then kept the $4,000 fee she had paid him, The Roanoke Times reported. Brock sued Fisher in Montgomery County General District Court.

On April 8, at a hearing that Fisher tried to delay, then did not appear for, a judge awarded Brock the $4,000, plus 6% interest from the date of the judgment, the paper reported.

Fisher, 45, did not reply April 23 when the paper sought comment.

Fisher has had more than a dozen contempt of court charges related to not showing up for hearings. All of the charges were eventually dismissed, but Fisher was suspended by the VSB for the months of February and March.

In 2019, he was fined $600 by a Floyd County judge after cursing at a prosecutor and threatening to sue the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.

Fisher has previously explained his problems as related to health difficulties and a too-busy schedule in too many courts.