Ohio Attorney Cedric Preston Collins Accused of Submitting Inaccurate Fee Applications

On Tuesday, October 8, 2024, the Disciplinary Counsel filed a complaint against attorney Cedric Preston Collins with the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct.

The case is entitled “Disciplinary Counsel v. Cedric Preston Collins, Esq.,” with case no. 2024-026.

The charges cited Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct 8.4(c). 

The complaint alleges that Collins submitted inaccurate fee application forms to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Licking County Probate-Juvenile Court, and Fairfield County Juvenile and Probate Court for work he did as a court-appointed attorney on juvenile cases. Around 90% of Collins’ practice in 2021 involved representing indigent juveniles as either defense counsel or guardian ad litem.

Collins was required to fill out standardized forms created by the Ohio Public Defender Commission to receive payment for his court-appointed work. These forms required him to certify the hours spent on each case, including dividing time spent in and out of court. However, the complaint states Collins did not properly track or record his time using the time-tracking features in his office management software. Instead, when filling out forms later, he would estimate both the time he spent on a particular task and the date on which
he had performed the task.

This led Collins to submit forms with inaccurate hours, including three days in 2021 where he billed over 24 hours and numerous other days where he billed between 16-24 hours. An audit by the Public Defender’s office also found many instances where Collins billed improbable amounts of time, such as billing the same 0.5-hour amount of “in court” time for multiple clients on many occasions.

The complaint alleges Collins’ actions constituted dishonest conduct in violation of Ohio’s rules of professional conduct. It requests Collins be found in violation and sanctioned. Collins acknowledged to the Disciplinary Counsel that “recording inaccuracies unfortunately occurred.” He has agreed to make restitution for any hours billed over 16 in a single day in 2021 as he did not properly track his time before the complaint.

The Disciplinary Counsel and Collins are still determining the parameters of this restitution, since it involves multiple courts. The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct will now review the complaint’s arguments and decide.

According to avvo.com, Mr. Collins is a juvenile attorney in Pickerington, Ohio. He acquired his law license in Ohio in 2012.

A copy of the original filing can be found here.