Australian Lawyers Weekly
Gregory John Ploetz, sole practitioner and principal of M.A. Kent & Associates, engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct between March and October 2020 by his failure to commence or advance proceedings and by ignoring his client’s requests for updates.
Justice Kerri Mellifont, president of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), handed Ploetz a public reprimand, a $4,000 penalty, and ordered he complete a legal ethics course.“A period of about seven months and 11 days had passed between the grant of legal aid for the parenting proceedings and the date that the respondent ceased to act for the client in the parenting proceedings.
“The respondent had not commenced the parenting proceedings … nor in that time had the respondent advanced the parenting proceedings in any substantial way (if at all),” Justice Mellifont said.
In an email to the firm on 29 July 2020, the client said he was anxious to know what was happening with his matter and had not “seen, spoken or heard anything” from Ploetz since a March conference.
