Court Opinion

ID: 9861370
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:55:49.827204+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:15.506251
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE MILLER, dissenting: Unlike the majority, I believe that appropriate conditions should be imposed on the respondent’s continued practice of law. Accordingly, I dissent. Although the psychiatric testimony in this case is sharply conflicting on the respondent’s proper diagnosis, there is expert unanimity on one conclusion: that the respondent will require continued psychiatric treatment if he is to be able to practice law in the future. Even the respondent’s treating psychiatrist, Dr. Carl Aagesen, believed that the respondent should remain under psychiatric care if he is to continue in his practice. On this record, then, the majority errs when it determines that no conditions are necessary to ensure that the respondent may continue to practice law without posing any risk to the legal system or to the public at large. The respondent, in his own testimony before the hearing panel, acknowledged as much. As the Administrator notes in her brief before this court, the respondent testified in the proceedings below that he knows that he suffers from a mental condition that requires medication for its control. He further stated that he intends to follow Dr. Aagesen’s treatment recommendations. Thus, the respondent essentially agrees with the principal condition recommended by both the Hearing Board and the Review Board: that he continue receiving treatment from a qualified mental health professional. Despite the testimony of the respondent and his psychiatrist, the majority concludes that the imposition of any conditions on the respondent’s continued practice of law is unnecessary. The majority offers no explanation for this decision apart from the singular assertion that “[tjhere is insufficient basis to conclude that, despite his assurances to the contrary, respondent will not continue psychiatric treatment and take the prescribed medication.” 192 111. 2d at 90. In essence, even though the respondent’s prior behavior has shown a need for close psychiatric supervision, the majority delegates to the rer spondent himself the duty to ensure that he will continue to receive the necessary treatment. The tripartite goals of the attorney disciplinary system are not so easily satisfied. As the majority notes, the purposes of these proceedings are to safeguard the public, maintain the integrity of the legal profession, and protect the administration of justice from reproach. In re Smith, 168 Ill. 2d 269, 295 (1995); In re Chandler, 161 Ill. 2d 459, 472 (1994). Those goals can only be frustrated by today’s result. The evidence in this case demonstrates that the respondent has a lengthy history of mental illness and that he will require continued psychiatric treatment if he is to remain fit to practice law. This court has a duty to the bar and to the general public to ensure the respondent’s continued professional competence. We abdicate those responsibilities, however, when we simply defer to the respondent’s stated intent to continue his psychiatric therapy, without requiring the safeguards recommended by both the Hearing and Review Boards. I do not believe that our authority to impose conditions on an attorney’s continued practice of law extends only to recalcitrant lawyers who deny the need for treatment. That the respondent today vows to continue to see Dr. Aagesen and follow the psychiatrist’s plan of treatment speaks in the respondent’s favor, but it cannot relieve us of our obligation to ensure that the respondent will actually do so. CHIEF JUSTICE HARRISON joins in this dissent.