Dolores Pariñas vs Atty. Oscar Paguinto

A.C. No. 6297 – 478 Phil. 239 – 434 SCRA 179 – Legal Ethics – Duties of a lawyer; Lawyer must be diligent

In October 2001, Dolores Pariñas engaged the services of Atty. Oscar Paguinto for purposes of filing a petition for the annulment of her marriage in Manila. Atty. Paguinto collected Php10k as partial payment for his acceptance fee. She made several other payments thereafter. Atty. Paguinto later told Dolores that the petition was already filed. However, In July 2002, Dolores found out that no annulment case was filed. She then filed an administrative case against Atty. Paguinto. In his explanation, Atty. Paguinto apologized to Pariñas for his actuations claiming “himself solely to be blamed.” He further declared that he failed to timely prepare and file the petition for annulment because he spends his time mostly in Cavite where he practices law catering to those “clients who have less in life.”

ISSUE: Whether or not Atty. Paguinto should be disciplined.

HELD: Yes. A lawyer should give adequate attention, care and time to his case. Once he agrees to handle a case, he should undertake the task with dedication and care. If he fails in this duty, he is not true to his oath as a lawyer. Hence, a lawyer must accept only as much cases as he can efficiently handle, otherwise his clients’ interests will suffer. It is not enough that a lawyer possesses the qualification to handle the legal matter. He must also give adequate attention to his legal work. Atty. Paguinto was suspended for six months.

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