The Florida Bar, Complainant v. Susan K.w. Erlenbach, Respondent

Summary

The Court approved the referee’s factual findings and recommendations of guilt that Respondent violated professional-conduct rules through repeated failures to file personal tax returns and failures to remit employee tax withholdings. It rejected the referee’s eighty-nine-day suspension as too lenient and imposed a one-year suspension followed by two years of probation, based on the duration and repeated nature of the misconduct while recognizing substantial mitigation. Justice Pariente, joined by Justice Perry, dissented and would have imposed the referee’s recommended discipline because the misconduct lacked selfish motive, involved no criminal conviction, and was substantially mitigated.