Published: April 18, 2009 12:21 am      

Attorney says he'll shred documents from now on

Goshen attorney Joseph Lehman has been the center of a local controversy recently after a neighboring business owner reported finding some legal files in his company trash container.

Jason Oswald, owner of Constant Spring, 219 S. Main St., said that on a recent Saturday afternoon he noticed his trash container, which is emptied each Thursday, was full of paper files. He looked at the material and saw the files were of lawsuits of his neighbor on Main Street, attorney Joe Lehman.

Oswald said he called Lehman and complained that he used the Constant Spring trash container.

“I told him he owed me $40” to pay for emptying it, and Lehman told Oswald to send him the bill.

The papers were then disposed of in the next emptying cycle.

Lehman said he disposed of old files in the container as he was moving his office from South Main Street to a new location on Clinton Street. He said the files were old and he did not realize they may have contained personal information about clients.

Lehman said he used the trash container because he wanted the files placed in a landfill.

“I thought they were heading for a landfill,” Lehman said. “It was my interest to get it to the landfill. It was a weak link in the system.”

After the incident became known some clients have called Lehman and a few have picked up their existing files from him. He has moved from the 200 block of South Main Street to an office at 204 W. Clinton St.

“I apologized to clients who called me and they seem to be satisfied,” Lehman said. “If any client wants a file I will give it to them.”

Lehman called the situation “painful.”

Charles Kidd, an attorney with the Indiana Supreme Court disciplinary commission, said there is no complaint pending against Lehman and if there was he could not discuss it.

He said complaints of possible breach of confidential information are not common, but not unheard of. He indicated there was a recent complaint of this type in another area of the state.

Kidd explained that lawyers often have a retention and destruction schedule to keep files from piling up.

Elkhart attorney Michael Yoder said recently he had a shredding service visit his office and dispose of old material for him. The charge was about $100, Yoder said.

Shredding material is widely considered the best way of disposing of confidential files rather than just sending it to the landfill, Yoder said.

Lehman said that’s what he plans to do from now on.

“Every piece,” he said, “will be shredded in the future.”