{"id":4397,"date":"2006-02-22T19:16:31","date_gmt":"2006-02-22T23:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2006\/02\/22\/the-arkansas-bar-irks-me\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:54:08","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:54:08","slug":"the-arkansas-bar-irks-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2006\/02\/22\/the-arkansas-bar-irks-me\/","title":{"rendered":"the Arkansas Bar irks me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Later this evening, I will post on the topic of our implicit attitudes and <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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biases.  First, though, I want to mention one very ex<\/FONT>plicit attitude\/bias <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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that I have: I do not respect bar associations that put <\/FONT>the interests of the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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lawyers before those of clients (see <\/FONT>bar & guild<\/FONT><\/A>) — <\/FONT>especially when lawyers <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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are merely being asked to give clients information <\/FONT>that is important to their <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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selection of counsel.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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\"100DollarBill\"<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Today, my bad attitude goes <\/FONT>out to the Arkansas Bar Association<\/A>. Why?<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Via <\/FONT>Ben Cowgill<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A>, I learned that the Arkansas Bar’s House of <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Delgates voted by a two-to-one margin to reject a proposed <\/A><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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rule requiring lawyers in active practice to certify <\/FONT>whether <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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they <\/FONT>carry professional liability insurance.  As Ben reported: <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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The proposal had been drafted by the Bar’s Profession-<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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alism Task Force and had received a strong endorsement <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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from the Bar’s Board of Governors.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Arkansas is the first state that has rejected the concept <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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of mandatory reporting of professional liability insurance <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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since the ABA recommended a Model Court Rule<\/FONT><\/A> on Insur-<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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ance Disclosure, in August of 2004.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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The rejected rule is a weak form of disclosure — made to the Court <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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and not directly to clients.  Ben lists eleven states that now require <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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disclosure along with annual registration statements: AZ, DE, IL, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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KS, MI, NE, NV, NM, NC, VA and WV.  There are also five states <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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requiring notification of clients: AK, NH, OH, PA and SD.  In addi-<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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tion, as Ben notes in his comprehensive review, “Oregon is still the <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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only state which requires all members of the Bar to maintain profes-<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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sional liability insurance.”  Find state-by-state details from the ABA <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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here<\/FONT><\/A>.<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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We’ve long <\/FONT>supported<\/FONT><\/A> mandatory disclosure to clients.  Click <\/FONT>here<\/FONT><\/A> for <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the submission of the legal reform group <\/FONT>HALT<\/FONT><\/A> to the Georgia State <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Bar (Nov. 4, 2004), explaining the benefits of mandatory disclosure <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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rules, and the need for notifying each client or potential client. HALT <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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gives one statistic that would surely surprise most members of the <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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public — and lawyers, too — the national average of lawyers who carry <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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professional liability insurance is 40%.  It is no surprise that disclosure <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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rules have motivated many formerly “naked” lawyers to purchase pro-<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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fessional liability <\/FONT>insurance.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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p.s<\/STRONG><\/EM>. Arkansas is among the 8 states that still impose a Gag Rule<\/A> <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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on complainants in disciplinary matters.  Several state supreme <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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courts have recently declared such rules to be unconstitutional, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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including the New Jersey<\/FONT><\/A> Court last September. <\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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hidden in leaves
gazing at the camellia
croaking frog<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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hidden in shadows
a laughing mouse…
New Year’s inventory<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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midday’s mosquitoes
hidden behind
the Buddha of stone<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Issa<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>, translated by <\/FONT>David G. Lanoue<\/FONT><\/A><\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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\"PhantomMask\"<\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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 <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Later this evening, I will post on the topic of our implicit attitudes and biases.  First, though, I want to mention one very explicit attitude\/bias that I have: I do not respect bar associations that put the interests of the lawyers before those of clients (see bar & guild) — especially when lawyers are merely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-18V","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12766,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4397\/revisions\/12766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}