Joel Currier reports that a former law firm employee who allegedly helped herself to copies of 22,000 files one week before she resigned for a new position elsewhere, has been ordered to pay her former employee more than $775,000.
St. Louis lawyer Chelsea Merta, who was found in contempt of court earlier this year, has been ordered to pay the Stange Law Firm more than $775,000 for copying thousands of client files a week before she resigned from the firm last year.
Circuit Judge Kristine Kerr issued an order Tuesday in favor of the firm. In July, the judge found Merta in contempt and ordered her to serve 48 hours in the St. Louis County Jail. Kerr also required Merta to destroy all files in her possession or return them to the Stange Law Firm.
Read more on St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The paper has uploaded two contempt orders against Merta as well as her confession of judgment.
What they don’t mention is whether there are any disbarment proceedings or ethics charges against Merta, who filed for bankruptcy on March 3, 2019. But perhaps there is an investigation that is simply non-public at this time.