Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 31, 1994                   TAG: 9501030058
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE BAR REPRIMANDS LAWYER

In a decision filed this week, the bar's Eighth District Subcommittee found that Daniel Crandall violated disciplinary rules that deal with lawyer competence and promptness, such as meeting deadlines and keeping clients informed.

The case involved an out-of-state lawsuit filed by two of Crandall's clients who were injured in an automobile accident.

Because Crandall was not licensed to practice law in Ohio, where the suit was to be brought, he was required to work with an Ohio lawyer in filing the suit. But after letting a young associate in his firm handle the matter, Crandall learned just two days before the statute of limitations was to expire that the suit had not been filed.

He then prepared a ``pro se'' lawsuit - one supposedly filed without the assistance of a lawyer - and signed his clients' names to it before mailing it to Ohio in time to beat the statute.

``I take full responsibility for what happened,'' said Crandall, who described the violation as a ``technical, procedural point.''

``It was either let the statute run or take some action,'' he said. ``It was a hard decision.''

Crandall, who has practiced law for 16 years in Roanoke, said the state bar does an ``excellent job'' investigating attorneys. ``It keeps the profession clean and keeps you diligent in all areas of your practice,'' he said.

Crandall's public reprimand was the first of its kind for a Roanoke Valley lawyer in the past few years, according to Patricia Rios, clerk of the bar's disciplinary system. Statewide, 23 public reprimands were issued against Virginia lawyers in the past fiscal year, Rios said.