The Houston Press reports that the State Bar of Texas has suspended the law license of  former U.S. Representative Craig Washington for 18 months.  This is not former the Congressman’s first run-in with complaints about his law practice or the law.  He was previously sentenced to two years probation in a case where he shot at two teenagers who were looking for a parking spot in a midtown parking lot owned by Washington.  As for his current problem, the issues are much more prosaic, dealing with matters of client neglect.

“The case that ultimately got Washington suspended dates back to 2006. That year Michael Gobert hired Washington to represent him while he was fighting to keep his mother’s house from being transferred to her live-in boyfriend in a Montgomery County court. According to court records, Gobert paid Washington $10,000 for his services. In return, Washington failed to tell Gobert about a pre-trial hearing the week before his case was set to go to court. When the case was called, neither Gobert nor Washington showed up, and Gobert’s case was dismissed (Gobert’s had no luck on appeal).

Last month Washington’s disciplinary case, brought by the State Bar of Texas, went before a Bastrop County jury, which found that the former congressman had committed professional misconduct in Gobert’s case. The court also made Washington pay the state bar’s attorney’s fees, about $25,000.”