See - 8235.pdf
"x x x.
When a lawyer agrees to take up a client's cause, he makes a commitment to exercise due diligence in protecting the latter's rights. Once a lawyer's services are engaged, "he is duty bound to serve his client with competence, and to attend to his client's cause with diligence, care and devotion regardless of whether he accepts it for a fee or for free. He owes fidelity to such cause and must always be mindful of the trust and confidence reposed on him."25 A lawyer's acceptance to take up a case "impliedly stipulates [that he will] carry it to its termination, that is, until the case becomes final and executory. " 26
Atty. Baterina's duty to his clients did not automatically cease with his suspension. At the very least, such suspension gave him a concomitant responsibility to inform his clients that he would be unable to attend to their case and advise them to retain another counsel.
A lawyer - even one suspended from practicing the profession - owes it to his client to not "sit idly by and leave the rights of his client in a state of uncertainty." 27 The client "should never be left groping in the dark" and instead must be "adequately and fully informed about the developments in his case."28
Atty. Baterina practically abandoned this duty when he allowed the proceedings to run its course without any effort to safeguard his clients' welfare in_ the meantime. His failure to file the required pleadings on his clients' behalf constitutes gross negligence in violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility29 and renders him subject to disciplinary action. The penalties for a lawyer's failure to file the required brief or pleading range from warning, reprimand, fine, suspension, or in grave cases,
disbarment.J 1
Further, Atty. Baterina's reckless disregard for orders and directives of the courts is unbecoming of a member of the Bar. His conduct has shown that he has little respect for rules, court processes, and even for the Court's disciplinary authority. Not only did he fail to follow the trial court's orders in his clients' case, he even disregarded court orders in his own disciplinary proceedings.
x x x."
