Attorney, Corey Ferraez is being pursued by law enforcement and has a warrant for his arrest for Civil Contempt. This is circulating the blogosphere in Hattiesburg and the Jackson area.

This all stemmed from a wrongful death matter and the corresponding estate matter. See Weatherford, Stephen Ray “Fuzzy” 56CH1:22-pr-00021-SM

Ferraez was the attorney for the estate and settled the wrongful death claim for $450,000.00. These sums were to be held in trust until the Court approved the settlement, attorney fees, disbursement and liens were handled.

Delays for various reasons caused the matter to drag on. Eventually the Court set a hearing and required Ferraez to attend. He did not.

Thereafter, the Court entered a Show Cause Order requiring Ferraez to attend, explain why he should not be held in contempt and to tender all of the $450,000.00 into the registry of the Court.

Ferraez did not attend this hearing and did not pay any sums by the date of the hearing.

In a surprising turn of events however, he did file a response with the Court, indicated he had been ill, and eventually tendered about $215,000.00 of the $450,000.00, claiming the difference in the value was due to attorneys fees and liens (or loans) that the client took out against the settlement. This was surprising because the attorney filed a response with the Court despite not appearing.

It also came to light that he had previously written a $25,000.00 check to the client that bounced for insufficient funds.

Regardless of anything else, this does not end well for Mr. Ferraez.

He will have to answer to the Court for the handling of the proceeds, the Mississippi Bar about concerns of unethical conduct and very likely criminal ramifications…Mr. Ferraez should turn himself in as time is not on his side.

*In criminal courts a defendant enjoys a presumption of innocence. Civil Courts have a differing standard. Refusal to appear, answer, cooperate can and will be used against you.

All lawyers that handle “unearned fees” are required to have Trust accounts with banks. These Trust account records are relatively easy to obtain and determine when monies came in, when they went out, where they went and what is left, if anything…

Matthew Thompson is a family law/civil law attorney in Mississippi and acknowledges unethical and illegal conduct when it needs to be; whether it’s a Judge, a party or a lawyer.