Trial of attorney postponed over cost of evaluation

Disbarred lawyer accused of inflammatory criticism of judge faces competency test

The contempt case against a divorce lawyer who was disbarred and jailed briefly after making inflammatory allegations about a judicial conspiracy has been delayed by questions about the cost of a competency evaluation.

Attorney Nickola Cunha, jailed for a weekend earlier this month for defying court orders, was released after agreeing to arrange a plan by Tuesday for an evaluation to determine whether, according to a court scheduling order, “she suffers from a psychological condition that the court could consider when determining whether she was able to obey the court’s orders regarding her clients’ records.”

Cunha, a divorce lawyer, was subjected to a civil arrest order and jailed for failing to follow Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher’s order to disclose client records and submit to a law firm financial audit after he disbarred her and effectively closed her law practice.

Cunha appeared Tuesday morning in Superior Court in Middletown and her lawyer, Norm Pattis, told Moukawsher that she is unable to pay the $15,000 price that he was told by professionals affiliated with Yale University such an evaluation would cost. Moukawsher gave Cunha another week to look for a way to reduce the cost to her.

Unlike procedure in criminal cases, there is no means in a civil proceeding such as Cunha’s for a court to order a competency evaluation and have the state pay for it.

The events leading to the disbarment began months earlier when Cunha accused a judge presiding over one of her clients’ divorce cases of involvement in a conspiracy that steered lucrative consulting work in divorce cases to friends and associates, and other claims.

Moukawsher took charge of the case and demanded that Cunha produce proof of her allegations. When she failed to, he disbarred her, accusing her, among other things, of making spurious claims in a self-serving effort to tie the judicial process in knots.

“She has systematically tried to use the justice system against itself in a bid to frustrate it. In a bid to discredit it,” Moukawsher wrote in his disbarment order. “In a bid that, if unchecked here and elsewhere, threatens to destroy it as a credible instrument of democracy. Indeed, Ms. Cunha and her client have lashed the system as broken and corrupt. But the case’s tortured history may be better explained by the system indulging Ms. Cunha and her client too much. In a quest to achieve fairness and give the benefit of every doubt, the system has allowed itself to be tied in knots.”

The state judicial branch office that disciplines lawyers wants Cunha’s client records to ensure that former clients with open cases are able to move to other attorneys. The disciplinary office also said a preliminary audit has raised questions about disbursements from a law firm trust account containing client funds.

In an order issued earlier this month, Moukawsher wrote: “The court reminds Ms. Cunha that none of this would be necessary, even at this late date, if she complies with the court’s January 28, 2022 order to provide client information to disciplinary counsel and purges herself of the contempt the court found on April 27, 2022.

Cunha has said she has disclosed all appropriate client records and denies any inappropriate withdrawals from client funds. She also claims her allegations can be substantiated.