Court Opinion

ID: 9768031
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:39:09.591716+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:35.679635
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, dissenting. I would grant the petition. It has obvious advantages: it is for the public good; it produces earnings from a source that has heretofore produced nothing; it has the support of the bar and several bar related organizations; it has the opposition of no one. The argument that the client must approve the plan is not without substance, but the objection is more theoretical than real, and I expect it would resolve itself in practice. Clients traditionally have neither received nor expected interest earnings on these short-term funds, which are in relatively small amounts or, if not, are rarely held for more than a few days. Nor has this problem prevented several other states from adopting similar plans. If, as the majority suggests, the legal profession and its systems are losing the public’s confidence, I think it is not so much the result of our willingness to venture new methods, as an unwillingness to try them.