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Privy
Pit
Complaint to the Bar Against a Lawyer
Attempt 1
Karen Marie Kline
Santa Fe, New Mexico 98507
May 5, 2006
State Bar of New Mexico
PO Box 92860
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87199-2860
Dear State Bar of New Mexico,
I am writing to bring to your attention the fact that someone who is mentally
disabled is NOT incompetent.
I am shocked that the lawyer I hired, Tami Schneider, equated me being mentally disabled with
me being “incompetent”.
Certainly a lawyer, any lawyer and all lawyers, should know the difference. To write in a
pleading that I am incompetent is highly prejudicial. Incompetence, as you well know, can lead to
someone being appointed to administer someone’s affairs.
I am mentally disabled and I am supposed to be able to get accommodation in court, but have
been denied that right repeatedly. I can better understand how that is possible if lawyers are
ignorant of the difference between a disability and incompetence.
I am further shocked that the lawyer I spoke with about how Tami Schneider wrote that I was
incompetent, and then refused to answer my phone calls or emails about that for DAYS, began
to argue for Tami Schneider in a most vehement manner.
I was expecting help of a more neutral variety, I was not expecting to get browbeaten because
the Bar go-between takes the side of the lawyer and downplays how important that kind of
pejorative word is.
It is shocking to me that the Bar would not train its lawyers in such an important difference
between words – words that have such consequential meanings.
It was so frustrating to be barraged with arguments why Tami Schneider had done nothing wrong
and I needed to pay her for ALL her work, that I slammed the phone down. Before I had this
brain damage and disability I could have continued to present my side calmly, but I no longer
have that ability when I am being denied. My mind cannot hold two things at once and when I
am being attacked I react by severing the connection.
I certainly hope that you begin to train New Mexico lawyers on this crucial difference between a
disability and incompetence.
Sincerely,
Karen Marie Kline
