Opinion ID: 1136922
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The motion to dismiss the complaint due to multiplicity.

Text: At the Tribunal's hearing of the case on the merits, Emil raised a motion to quash the charges on grounds of multiplicity, but the motion was overruled. Emil contends that since disciplinary proceedings are inherently adversarial of a quasi-criminal nature, the formal complaint may be compared to an indictment in that it lists the various charges against the accused in a formal document. Emil applies Miss. Code Ann. § 99-7-2 to the proceedings at hand. Miss. Code Ann. § 99-7-2 states that an indictment may charge two or more offenses only if the offenses are based on the same act or transaction or the offenses are based on two or more acts or transactions connected together or constituting pars of a common scheme or plan. Emil argues that this statute requires dismissal of the charges against him since all seven were joined in one formal complaint although they all are totally unrelated and are not alleged to be part of a common scheme or plan. This Court has held that disciplinary proceedings are only quasi criminal and not criminal. See Alexander v. The Mississippi Bar, 651 So.2d 541, 546 (Miss. 1995); Harrison v. The Mississippi Bar, 637 So.2d 204, 218 (Miss. 1994); and Attorney K v. Mississippi State Bar Ass'n, 491 So.2d 220, 222 (Miss. 1986). Ergo, § 99-7-2 does not apply to the case sub judice. As previously discussed, this Court has also held that an attorney is not entitled to all those rights afforded a criminal defendant. See, e.g., Mississippi State Bar v. Young, 509 So.2d 210, 219 (Miss. 1987) (holding that an attorney is not entitled to a jury trial). It follows that the statute (and the only authority cited by Emil for this proposition) is inapplicable to the case at bar. This assignment of error is without merit and must fail.