In Re: Committee on Bar Admissions Cfn-8972

217 So. 3d 278, 2016 La. LEXIS 2057
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedOctober 19, 2016
Docket2014-BA-1338 IN RE: COMMITTEE ON BAR ADMISSIONS CFN-8972
StatusPublished

This text of 217 So. 3d 278 (In Re: Committee on Bar Admissions Cfn-8972) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re: Committee on Bar Admissions Cfn-8972, 217 So. 3d 278, 2016 La. LEXIS 2057 (La. 2016).

Opinions

BAR ADMISSIONS PROCEEDING

PER CURIAM

| petitioner successfully passed the Louisiana bar examination in July 2003. The Committee on Bar Admissions (“Committee”) subsequently declined to certify petitioner for admission, citing his arrests for felony aggravated battery and hit and run driving and his lack of candor in failing to disclose either of these arrests to the Committee. While the battery charge was still pending, petitioner applied to this court for admission. We declined to consider the [279]*279application but reserved petitioner’s right to reapply after the criminal charge was concluded.

Petitioner reapplied for admission in 2005, after the battery charge was dismissed. At that time, we appointed a commissioner to take character and fitness evidence, but by 2014, petitioner had not taken any action to move the matter towards resolution. The commissioner therefore requested to be relieved of his appointment. Accordingly, in April 2014, we dismissed petitioner’s application for admission without prejudice. In re: Committee on Bar Admissions CFN-8972, 05-1046 (La. 4/9/14), 138 So.3d 604.

In June 2014, petitioner again sought admission. We remanded the matter to the Committee on Bar Admissions Panel on Character and Fitness to conduct an investigation and appointed a commissioner to take character and fitness evidence. Following a hearing, the commissioner recommended to this court that petitioner be conditionally admitted to the practice of law, subject to the following conditions: (1) petitioner shall comply with a Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (“JLAP”) agreement, and (2) petitioner shall be required to take additional continuing legal education courses each year of his conditional admission. Both the Committee and petitioner objected to the commissioner’s recommendation, and accordingly, the case was set on the docket for oral argument in October 2015.

During oral argument, questions were raised concerning petitioner’s blood Phos-phatidylethanol (PEth) test conducted at Palmetto Addiction Recovery Center in July 2013, and whether there was a discrepancy between the positive results of the test and petitioner’s self-report to Palmetto that he now drinks alcohol only infrequently. Because these issues were not addressed at the hearing, and an explanation of the apparent discrepancy required expert medical opinion which was not contained in the record, on November 12, 2015, we remanded this matter for a supplemental hearing before the commissioner.

On remand, the parties took the deposition of Palmetto’s medical director and filed briefs addressing petitioner’s PEth test. The commissioner also ordered the parties to take the deposition of the JLAP director. In February 2016, the commissioner filed his report with this court, reiterating his recommendation that petitioner should be conditionally admitted subject to his compliance with the terms and conditions of a JLAP agreement. Petitioner objected to that recommendation, and oral argument was conducted before this court pursuant to Supreme Court Rule XVII, § 9(D)(11).

This matter raises several issues for our consideration in determining whether petitioner possesses the requisite good moral character and fitness to be admitted to the bar. First, the record shows that petitioner’s college and law school years were marked by his involvement in an unusually large number of criminal offenses.1 However, it is noteworthy that petitioner was last arrested in 2003, and he has not been involved in any criminal offense since that time. While the criminal offenses are serious, and the pattern of offenses is disturb-[280]*280mg, given the age of the conduct and the fact that the conduct has not been repeated in the last thirteen years, we find that the criminal offenses, standing alone, are not a basis to deny admission.

The second issue we will consider is petitioner’s lack of candor. The commissioner found there is no question that petitioner demonstrated a lack of candor when he applied for admission in 2003, as he did not update his application to disclose his arrest for hit and run driving or his arrest for aggravated battery. While Supreme Court Rule XVII did not then contain a provision imposing a continuing duty to keep the bar application current, nevertheless, petitioner was obligated to disclose material facts in connection with his bar admission application. Furthermore, in finding that petitioner demonstrated a lack of candor, the commissioner implicitly rejected petitioner’s explanation that he contacted the Committee after the hit and run and was informed that he was not required to update his application. Notwithstanding this finding, the commissioner also found that petitioner is rehabilitated from his lack of candor, given that he truthfully completed his 2014 application and testified openly and honestly at the character and fitness hearing. We cannot say that the commissioner’s credibility finding in this regard is clearly wrong. See In re: Hinson-Lyles, 02-2578, n.6 (La. 12/3/03), 864 So.2d 108 (“[wjhile we afford some deference to the commissioner’s recommendation, making due allowance for the commissioner’s opportunity to observe and evaluate the demeanor of the applicant and the witnesses, the ultimate decision regarding admission rests with this court”).

Next, we turn to petitioner’s alcohol issues. The record reveals that in July 2005, during petitioner’s first bar admission proceeding, he was admitted to Palmetto Addiction Recovery Center for a five-day inpatient substance abuse evaluation. Following the evaluation, petitioner was diagnosed as meeting the criteria for substance abuse. JLAP and Palmetto recommended that petitioner enter into a one-year monitoring agreement with the standard conditions, but petitioner refused to execute the agreement. The bar admission proceeding then lingered without action for nine years, until it was dismissed by the court.

In 2013, in conjunction with his second application for admission, petitioner was briefly “interviewed” by a physician at Palmetto. During this “interview,” petitioner reported that he only drinks alcohol once or twice a month and that he abstained completely from alcohol from February 2012 through February 2013. Because petitioner had never been subject to a JLAP agreement, this was an anecdotal report only and was not supported by objective evidence. Based on the information petitioner himself reported to Palmetto, he was diagnosed with a “distant history of alcohol abuse, in remission,” and Palmetto concluded that petitioner does not need treatment and does not need JLAP monitoring. After Palmetto issued its report to this effect, it received the positive results of petitioner’s PEth test, but no amended report was issued.

Notwithstanding Palmetto’s report, the commissioner recommended that petitioner’s admission be conditioned upon his compliance with a JLAP agreement because he has not been able to provide the court with documented rather than anecdotal evidence of his rehabilitation from alcohol abuse. Petitioner objects to this portion of the commissioner’s recommendation, citing the Palmetto report.

We agree with the commissioner that petitioner’s failure to provide this court with documented evidence of his rehabilitation from alcohol abuse is troubling, par[281]*281ticularly given that all of his underlying conduct is alcohol-related.

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Related

In Re Hinson-Lyles
864 So. 2d 108 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2003)
In re Committee on Bar Admissions CFN-8972
138 So. 3d 604 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
217 So. 3d 278, 2016 La. LEXIS 2057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-committee-on-bar-admissions-cfn-8972-la-2016.