Feature Story

By Rob Holbert Managing Editor

The attorney chosen by Mobile Circuit and District Court judges almost twice as often as any other lawyer to represent indigent defendants received a public reprimand in 1999 for allegedly attempting to charge a client’s mother $200 for her son’s case file.

The public reprimand followed on the heels of a 90-day suspension and two-year probation for this attorney after he allegedly took a loaded pistol from his briefcase during the deposition in a divorce proceeding and waved it at his wife and her attorney. Despite this history, Habib Yazdi remains the king of Mobile’s indigent defense practice.

As detailed in the last issue of Lagniappe, Yazdi is by far the judges’ favorite choice to defend the poor facing jail time. In the one-year period from May 1, 2006 to April 30, 2007, Yazdi was appointed to 445 indigent cases in District and Circuit Courts, receiving either the most or second most appointments from nine of the 14 judges examined, according to records from the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts. His nearest competitor received only 267 appointments.

The result of Yazdi’s success in getting indigent defense work has been a fairly impressive income. During the year examined, Yazdi was paid $174,000, according to Alabama Comptrollers records. The next closest attorney on the indigent defense list made $112,000.

Yazdi’s stunning success in getting appointments that pay $60 per hour for in-court time, $40 per hour for out-of-court time, as well as additional overhead fees is explained by judges, colleagues and competitors in various ways. Those who spoke to Lagniappe on condition of anonymity variously said Yazdi simply outworks other attorneys, or he makes sure he is in court every morning early so judges will appoint him. Other suggested he is good at getting his clients to take plea deals, which means no trial and helps judges clear their dockets more quickly.

But few of those working in the local court system seem to know anything about Yazdi’s past, including that up until 1997 he went by the name Habib Ollah Yazdtchi, while practicing in Montgomery. According to information supplied by Bonnie Mainor, disciplinary clerk for the Alabama State Bar Association, Yazdtchi officially changed his name in Baldwin County Probate Court on Nov. 5, 1997, about a year and a half after his suspension by the bar. It wasn’t clear when Yazdtchi moved to Baldwin County.

Unusual beginnings

Yazdtchi’s Alabama legal career began in an unusual fashion, as he required a waiver from the Alabama Supreme Court in order to be admitted to the bar in the first place. Because he earned his law degree from the University of West Los Angeles, a law school not accredited by the American Bar Association, Yazdtchi would have been ineligible to practice law in Alabama without a waiver. According to Alabama Bar Association General Counsel Tony McLain, Yazdtchi filed a petition with the Supreme Court to waive the rule that prevented him from practicing in Alabama, and it was granted Feb. 28, 1990. McLain said he had no records of any debate or comment surrounding Yazdtchi’s waiver.

Yazdtchi’s first run-in with the State Bar started Aug. 30, 1995, according to Disciplinary Board records provided after a written request. According to the affidavit, Yazdtchi and his wife of nine months, Shahla Yazdtchi, were going through a divorce. When the deposition concluded, Yazdtchi allegedly “opened his briefcase and withdrew a semiautomatic pistol.”

“The respondent attorney waved the pistol in the direction of his wife and Mr. Leavell (her attorney), and others, while making certain remarks or threats to them. He removed the clip to demonstrate that the gun was loaded,” the affidavit states.

As a result of those alleged actions, Yazdtchi was suspended from legal practice for 90 days, got a two-year probation and had to undergo psychological counseling.

According to another affidavit provided by the Bar Association, Yazdi – his name legally changed – pleaded guilty on Oct. 19, 1999 to having violated the bar’s rules of professional conduct. According to that document, Yazdi had been appointed by the Baldwin County Circuit Court to represent Norton Bell, who was an indigent defendant. After the trial, the document states that Yazdi attempted to get Bell’s mother to pay him for her son’s file.

“You told Mr. Bell’s mother, whose only income is a disability check, that she would have to pay you $200 in order for you to provide the files to her son and you eventually collected $50 from her,” the affidavit states.

Yazdi was found to have violated Rule 1.5 (f) of the rules of professional conduct, which prohibits an attorney appointed to represent an indigent criminal defendant from accepting any fee from the defendant or anyone on the defendant’s behalf without prior approval of the appointing court. Yazdi was also found to have violated Rule 8.4 (d), prohibiting an attorney from engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

Judge Charles Graddick’s office said he would have no comment on anything pertaining to the way indigent criminal defense appointments are handled in this circuit, and that he would not comment on specific attorneys. Graddick is the circuit’s presiding judge.

Another local judge who has worked with Yazdi many times said the second disciplinary action would give him the most cause for concern, but that he would still appoint him based on years of satisfactory performance.

Attempts to interview Yazdi for this story were unsuccessful, so it is difficult to know why he changed his name or how the events unfolded that led to disciplinary action by the bar. Though Yazdi’s name legally changed 10 years ago, his old name can still be found scattered all over land records in Baldwin County’s Probate Court. A search of both his legal name and his former name on the Baldwin Probate Web site reveal many transactions using both names. However, there were some in the years after his name change became final in which his former name was the only listed on the Web site and also appeared as the only name on PDFs of the document, viewable online. For example, a mortgage loan with Southtrust Bank posted April 14, 2000, listed Habib Yazdtchi and his wife Parnevaneh Yazdtchi on the document available online. There was no mention of Yazdi’s new name on the document.

Caris Bryars, who works in the Baldwin Probate Office, said she really wasn’t sure why some records might have been recorded using two different names, even if they were similar. Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis said he couldn’t speak about any specific instance, but did say a legal name change means someone must use that name.

“We all have one legal name,” he said.

Lagniappe found no instances of Yazdi litigating under his old name after 1997.

Rob Holbert is Lagniappe managing editor. Contact him at rholbert@lagniappemobile.com.

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