Attorneys on both sides of four appeals over judicial qualifications filed briefs Friday with the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The key question: whether late payments of annual bar license dues disqualify a candidate for judge.
The court had set a noon Friday deadline for the documents. Attorneys in all of the appeals had asked forthe justices to decide the issue quickly, noting that early voting begins Monday.
A Supreme Court spokesman on Friday said the court does not typically announce a timeline for issuing a decision. None of the parties have requested an oral argument, she added.
The filings largely repeat arguments made at the circuit court level, where one judge found administrative suspensions for nonpayment of dues should bar judicial candidates from holding office. Judges in the other three cases disagreed.
Judicial candidate Valerie Thompson Bailey was disqualified in March by Special Circuit Judge John Cole, who found that Bailey had received a multiyear suspension for nonpayment of dues while she lived out of state and that “a suspension is a suspension is suspension” under criteria set by the state constitution.
Bailey had also been suspended for not completing required annual training.
The state constitution requires appeals court judges and Supreme Court justices to have been “licensed attorneys” for at least eight years “immediately preceding the date of assuming office.” The minimum requirement is six years for circuit judges and four years for district judges.
Circuit Judges H.G. Foster and Tim Fox and lawyer Angela Byrd, who is running for a judgeship in the 20th Judicial Circuit, each won lawsuits challenging their eligibility after the Bailey case.
Justices Karen Baker, Paul Danielson and Courtney Hudson Goodson have recused themselves from hearing the appeals but did not provide reasons. Attorneys Todd Turner of Arkadelphia and Woody Bassett of Fayetteville and former Court of Appeals Judge Raymond Abramson were appointed as special justices Tuesday to fill the vacancies.
All of the Supreme Court justices have been suspended for nonpayment of dues at some point in their legal careers, according to information provided by the clerk of the courts.
Nearly one-third of the state’s sitting judges, or 81 of 256, have also been suspended for late dues payments since 2006. More than 6,000 suspensions were issued during that time to nearly 4,000 of the state’s approximately 8,200 active lawyers.
In addition to the parties in each of the cases, Assistant Attorney General Colin Jorgensen asked the justices to allow the office to file an amicus - or “friend of the court” - brief stating its interpretation of how the suspension rule should be applied. That rule is Rule VII of the Arkansas Rules Governing Admission to the Bar.
Jorgensen wrote that the court should accept the brief because its decision “will have an impact upon a substantial number of duly elected district judges, circuit judges, appellate judges and prosecuting attorneys in Arkansas, as well as a substantial number of candidates for these positions throughout the state.”
Jorgensen repeated an argument made during an earlier petition to the court on the issue, stating that the justices should hold that the suspensions apply only to the practice of law and not to the law license itself and that once the late dues are paid, the suspensions should be “retroactively nullified.”
“In short, on behalf of the state, the attorney general urges the court to hold that when the requirements of Rule VII are satisfied, albeit belatedly (but within three years as set forth in the Rule), there is no lapse in the attorney’s licensure,” Jorgensen wrote.
Matt Campbell and Sam Perroni, attorneys representing John Kelly of North Little Rock, who challenged Fox’s eligibility, wrote in filings with the court that the justices should find that the suspensions apply to the attorney’s license. The attorneys wrote that the high court has also not previously distinguished between administrative and disciplinary suspensions, which he said should carry the same weight.
“The plain language of [the suspension rule] demonstrates that this court intended for an attorney’s license to practice law to be suspended for nonpayment of annual license fees and the suspension had the effect of the attorney losing his or her license until the fees and penalties were paid. This is not a matter to be excused by the [Clerk of the Courts] or the circuit courts as a matter of discretion,” Campbell and Perroni wrote.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 05/03/2014