The clerk of the Arkansas Supreme Court is getting ready to send a lot of mail as the holidays approach, but attorneys won't find Christmas cards from the court in their mailboxes.
Under newly adopted provisional changes, the Arkansas Supreme Court amended the judicial rules for application for licensure as an attorney in Arkansas. The new rules, which will be reviewed for changes in June, attempt to clarify the process of notifying attorneys of the consequences of not paying their licensing fees on time.
The first notices under the new rules will be mailed out by the end of this month, said Supreme Court spokesman Stephanie Harris.
The provisional changes were adopted by the Arkansas Supreme Court in a per curium order Nov. 20, in an effort to get new rules put into effect before the December mailing date for notices about license renewals. The court had asked the Arkansas Bar Association to convene a task force to make recommendations for changes to the process, after the previous process was ruled unconstitutional.
The task force was not asked to consider candidate eligibility requirements but to ensure that attorneys' due process rights were protected.
"The task force was formed by the previous president and included members as well as two people associated with the courts," said Brian Ratcliff, president of the association. "That's our hope, that this will clear up some of those issues [from the lawsuits] and impress upon people the consequences when not paying the fee in a timely manner."
The Supreme Court ruled on three separate lawsuits earlier this year regarding judicial candidates whose licenses had been suspended briefly for failure to pay their annual licensing fee on time. The justices ruled in May, just days before the May 20 nonpartisan judicial elections, that the candidates' suspensions for overdue annual license fees did not violate a state constitutional requirement that candidates for circuit court judgeships hold a law license for six years before taking office.
Amendment 80 to the state constitution reads: "Circuit Judges shall have been licensed attorneys of this state for at least six years immediately preceding the date of assuming office."
The court ruled in three separate opinions that lawyer Angela Byrd and sitting Judges H.G. Foster and Tim Fox were eligible to run for office.
In the case against Foster, Justice Cliff Hoofman also addressed whether the practice under the court's rules to automatically suspend a law license when dues are not paid on time was constitutional.
His opinion states that the specific rule within Amendment 80, which brought the administrative rules for the judicial branch under the jurisdiction of the office of the Supreme Court, was not constitutional because it did not allow for due process or account for situations when a check might be lost in the mail.
According to the Nov. 20 opinion, the new rules require notice to be sent to attorneys in December that the licensing fee is due by Jan. 1 and considered delinquent if not received by March 1. At that point, if the fee is not paid, there will be a $100 fine. If the fee is not paid by April 1, there will be an additional $100 fine and the license will be suspended.
Another notice is required after March 1 and a third notice is to be sent on or about April 1, both containing the same information as the December notice.
Previously, the rules did not require such notices.
The new rules add some bite, Ratcliff said, pointing to a provision that requires a per curium order from the Supreme Court on April 16 listing all of the attorneys who did not pay their license fee and whose licenses have been suspended. The order, which will be mailed to all state and federal judges, will make it clear that those listed attorneys are ineligible to practice law at that time.
"My personal belief is there will be a bunch of people on the list the first time, but then there won't be much of a need because no one is going to want to be on that order twice," Ratcliff said.
The rules also include a procedure for attorneys to challenge their inclusion in the per curium order and for reinstating the attorney licenses.
The court asked for any public comment on the provisional rules be sent to the Supreme Court clerk before June 1.
Metro on 12/13/2014