The severe recommendation is based on a complaint from a Czechoslovakian woman, Hana Belickova who filed an affidavit in June of 2013 saying that Cardona took just under thirty two thousand dollars of her money - and claimed that he had to use twenty thousand to bribe authorities to release her son, Martin Muzikant.

In April of 2013, Muzikant had been charged for unlawful possession of a passport and escaping from police - and pleaded guilty on April 23rd. Cardona told the family that there would be a fine of one thousand dollars, plus another five thousand for bail on the escape charge, plus legal fees. That's fine enough, but then he took it into another area when he put in writing these words: "Your son asked me to do whatever…to get him out of jail. I have contacted someone who is very close to the magistrate….the person told me he arranged everything in advance to get your son to get bail today…however it is costing about twenty thousand dollars….to get officials to agree to give him bail" end quote.

That's pretty damning stuff for an officer of the court to put in writing, that he would use a client's money, a substantial sum, to pervert the course of justice, while bribing and conspiring with a judicial officer.

Hana Belickova didn't buy it. She concluded that Cardona still had twenty eight thousand dollars in change for her. When he started giving her the run around, she wasted no time - and made a formal complaint to the Judicial and Legal Services Commission in June of 2013, and signed an affidavit specifying her charges against Cardona.

The problem was that she didn't buy the bribery story - she demanded the money back - and he said he couldn't because it had been used to gain her son's freedom.

Well, 7News has learned that the General Legal Council has since met to consider the matter - and we are reliably informed that just this week they recommended to the Chief Justice that Cardona be placed on suspension for a year.

The matter will not be final until the Chief Justice hands his decision down and lodges it with the registrar. There is no requirement for such judgment to be made public - because justice's practitioners are a cloistered clan.