A Batavia attorney has been disbarred after he failed to tell his clients his law license had been suspended for misleading clients with bizarre lies.

According to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Manos Kavvadias was disbarred this month by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Kavvadias was suspended for one year in 2009, in part for failing to help a client and leading her to believe he was taking extraordinary steps to remedy a case he knew had already been dismissed.

According to the ARDC, Kavvadias represented a woman in 2003 on a drunken driving charge. The woman pleaded guilty to drunken driving — her second conviction — and her license was suspended. Two years later, she asked Kavvadias to represent her as she petitioned for a restricted driving permit.

Kavvadias did initially represent the woman at a Secretary of State hearing and even sued the Secretary of State’s office to compel them to grant a restricted license.

But after a judge ruled that Kavvadias had not completed basic paperwork, the attorney agreed to dismiss the case — without the woman’s consent.

Kavvadias continued to tell the woman and her husband that he was pursuing the case, the complaint says.

In April 2007, he lied to the couple, saying that Secretary of State Jesse White, an assistant attorney general and a Secretary of State employee had been arrested for failing to participate in her case.

Kavvadias then told them he had contacted Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin and she had agreed to conduct a May 2007 news conference about the Secretary of State’s lack of attention to the woman’s claim, also not true.

Both these claims were false, and Kavvadias lied so his client would think he was still pursuing her reinstatement request, the complaint says.

Kavvadias agreed to meet with the couple at a mall to prepare so they could drive together to the imaginary press conference. When they arrived, Kavvadias admitted the ruse.

Kavvadias was disbarred when he failed to notify his other clients that his law license had been suspended and continued to appear in court on their behalf.

Kavvadias has a Batavia mailing addresses but several online directories list a Wheaton business address. All phone numbers for his office were disconnected Friday.

Credit: Matt Hanley mhanley@stmedianetwork.com / BeaconNews.SunTimes.com