Licenses null, few attorneys settling debt

After 2 months, 42 of 934 pay to expunge suspensions

Nearly two months ago, almost one out of every 10 attorneys licensed to practice law in the state saw his license suspended.

Since then, only a few dozen have bothered to get the licenses back.

Prompted by a string of 2014 lawsuits involving attorneys and judges who had their licenses suspended for failure to pay law license fees, the Arkansas Supreme Court signed off on a new judicial rule allowing for automatic suspension of an attorney's law license for failure to pay the annual fee.

On May 7, the clerk of the Supreme Court, Stacey Pectol, sent out a notice to 934 of the 10,490 attorneys licensed to practice in the state and informed them they would not be allowed to work in the courtroom until they made good on those fees.

More than half of those attorneys had out-of-state addresses.

Pectol said that as of last week, her office had received payment from 42 attorneys, 14 of whom live outside of Arkansas, to get their licenses reinstated.

When asked why so few had responded, Pectol said there was no easy answer because each attorney's circumstances is different.

"It seems to be a very personal matter to attorneys," Pectol said. "To some, it's very important. They take it very seriously ... and with the other attorneys, it's not quite as personal a matter."

Attorneys in their first three years of practice are expected to pay $125 annually to practice law. The rest are supposed to pay Pectol's office $200 per year.

In addition to paying overdue license fees, delinquent attorneys also have to pay a range of fines, including a reinstatement fee of $100 if their licenses have been suspended for more than three years.

Pectol said the unpaid fees range from small amounts to thousands of dollars.

Her office has received one payment as high as $5,000, and several other attorneys have written four-figure checks to get reinstated.

Court officials had hoped to bring down the number of suspended law licenses by publicizing the list of attorneys who owe license fees. They also sent out a list of the suspended licenses to all judges in the state so they would know who was authorized to work in the state's courtrooms.

Eddie Walker, president of the Arkansas Bar Association, did not return phone calls for comment.

But his predecessor, Brian Ratcliff, said in May that it was disappointing to see so many attorneys weren't paying what they were supposed to and said it was necessary -- though "embarrassing" -- to publicize it.

Kay Kelley Arnold of Little Rock was one of those attorneys on the list.

A staff member for Gov. Bill Clinton, widow of District Judge Richard Arnold and chairman of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, Kay Kelley Arnold has been retired for two years but hadn't practiced law since the 1980s.

Still, when she found out her license was suspended, she wanted to get it back.

"I got a phone call from a friend of mine who said, 'Hey your name is in the paper,' and I said, 'What for?' and they said, 'You haven't paid your bar dues' ... and I said, 'Oh, crap,'" Arnold said. "It's entirely my fault. It's my responsibility to pay the dues. ... I worked hard to get [the law license]. I can afford it. I should do it."

Arnold had to pay about $800. She said she suspects many of the hundreds of attorneys whose licenses were suspended have retired or moved out of state.

"They probably aren't ever going to pay their Arkansas dues again. They're practicing again in some other state," she said. "If I don't practice in Arkansas anymore but I practice in Texas, why the heck keep up with Arkansas [fees]?"

Michael Collins, a Fort Smith attorney who also does accounting work, was surprised that so many attorneys had their licenses suspended.

In his case, Collins said, he simply had paid the wrong amount and owed a little more.

"I don't know where I got off on the wrong amount," Collins said. "As soon as I paid, I was reinstated."

The Arkansas Supreme Court's new rule, and the suspensions, came about after candidates in judicial elections were accused by opponents of being ineligible for office because their licenses had been suspended temporarily for nonpayment.

In May 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that Amendment 80 of the state constitution, which requires an attorney to be licensed for six years before becoming a judge, does not bar a candidate whose license was suspended for nonpayment.

An analysis by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of suspensions between 2006 and 2014 showed that 81 of the state's 256 circuit, district and appellate judges had their licenses suspended for not paying their fees.

Pectol said she couldn't speculate about how many more attorneys will pay what they owe.

Some of the suspended lawyers won't ever seek reinstatement: They're dead.

Pectol said her office did its best to whittle down the list to remove those attorneys who are no longer living, but lacking any kind of centralized death listing, she said she's sure there are some deceased attorneys on the list who won't be paying.

"Some survivors of deceased attorneys do notify us," Pectol said. "But it's not to say that we didn't miss any."

Metro on 07/04/2015

Upcoming Events