Dirk Padgett, candidate for Botetourt County Board of Supervisors, received a public reprimand dated April 22 from the Virginia State Bar for violating rules that govern fees, safekeeping property and misconduct between a lawyer and a client.
The state bar took issue with Padgett’s recordkeeping regarding client fees, his use of the term “non-refundable” in a contract with a client, and an agreement he entered into with the client which, the state bar said, limited her right to pursue a complaint against Padgett with the state bar, among other issues.
Padgett, who has been licensed to practice law in Virginia by the state bar since 1990, is running in the June primary for the Republican nomination to the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors’ Amsterdam District seat. His opponent in the Republican primary is Tim Snyder, a businessman who sits on the county’s planning commission.
Padgett had run as an independent candidate for commonwealth’s attorney in Roanoke County in 2019. He came in third in a three-way race with about 20% of the vote.
The issue arose, according to both Padgett and the state bar’s determination, after a client of his in a custody case did not like the outcome of that case and requested a refund of the $6,000 which she paid for his representation in November 2023.
Padgett’s client filed a complaint with the state bar in July over the $6,000 advanced legal fee, and a warrant in debt against Padgett in the Roanoke City General District Court in August in an effort to recoup that money. A hearing was set for November, according to the bar’s determination.
Padgett filed an answer to the complaint filed with the bar. His answer said that he did not refund his client’s advanced fee because he took her case on a “flat fee basis.”
“I spent hours on this case, this was a five-hour circuit court custody fight,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I had mistakenly put on the fee agreement, instead of the word ‘fixed fee,’ I put ‘non-refundable fee.’”
Padgett said Tuesday that he was at fault and that it was against the state bar’s rules to include the words “non-refundable” in a fee agreement.
In an effort to settle the dispute between himself and his client, Padgett offered his client a settlement agreement that would require her to withdraw or dismiss her bar complaint “with prejudice,” and to withdraw her warrant in debt, with prejudice, in exchange for a one-time payment of $3,000.
That agreement, in limiting his client’s right to pursue a bar complaint against Padgett, violated the state bar’s rules, according to the subcommittee determination. Padgett said he was unaware of state bar rule changes that prohibited those kinds of settlements.
The subcommittee determination also noted that Padgett violated the state bar’s rules in failing to maintain and provide his client with an accounting of the $6,000 advanced legal fee and in failing to keep a ledger, receipts and disbursement journals related to the client’s case, among other issues.
“I had recordkeeping, it just wasn’t good enough for the state bar,” Padgett said. “The recordkeeping wasn’t electronically done. When you do something with pencil, it doesn’t look good, and so the state bar wanted me to be more systematic.”
Padgett said his client never asked for an accounting of her legal fee and that he’ll likely need to create an electronic ledger and possibly hire a bookkeeper to maintain that ledger.
“The problem I had is I was too honest with the state bar, I told them everything,” he said. “If I tried to side-step it or whatever, I could have but I’m not going to do that, I’m going to tell the truth.”
Correction, April 30, 10:10 a.m.: This story has been updated to correct the name and references to the Virginia State Bar.
Early voting for the June 17 primary begins Friday. For more on who’s running, see our Voter Guide.
