Florida Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Steals from Clients, Gets Disbarred Goes to Jail, and . . . Blames Others

Previously disbarred Miami plaintiffs’ attorney Guy Bailey is off to prison for 25 months, reports the Miami Herald.   After being convicted of grand theft in March of 2014, he received two years probation on the condition that he repay some $700,000 he’d stolen from clients. 

But Bailey ignored that obligation and spent the money on family trips instead.  And when Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch heard of this development earlier this week, he ordered that Bailey be hauled away to prison immediately.

Bailey was initially investigated and disbarred by The Florida Bar for using for his own benefit life insurance proceeds that were payable to clients. Bailey admitted that at least three checks he issued to his clients bounced. The bar’s investigation eventually led to his criminal conviction.

According to The Daily Business Review, Bailey blamed his clients for his misfortune. “They had cost me my license had made it extremely difficult for me to get the money from people who owed it to me to repay them, and the criminal thing just made it virtually impossible,” he said.