Court Opinion

ID: 9576831
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:29:02.370672+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:17:48.819731
License: Public Domain

Hall, Judge,
concurring specially. While I concur in the
judgment under the ruling in Elam v. Johnson, 48 Ga. 348, 350, I reject Division 1, which is dictum, and much of the dictum in *350Division 2 for the reason that much of what is said attempts to place the legal profession on the same level as trade unions.
In Division 1, the majority opinion comes to an advisory conclusion that a request by a court that an attorney represent an indigent defendant in a criminal case amounts to a “taking” for public purposes of his property rights. This conclusion is, to the best of my knowledge, not supported by any common law authority in the English speaking world.
“Historically, the practice of law is a profession. It must remain a profession if the purposes of representation in litigation as part of the machinery of justice are to be achieved. A profession is a group of men pursuing a léamed art as a common calling in the spirit of public service—no less a public service because incidentally it may be a means of livelihood. The exigencies of the economic order require most persons to gain a livelihood and the gaining of a livelihood is a purpose to which they are constrained to devote their activities. But while in all walks of life men must bear this in mind, in business and trade it is the primary purpose. In a profession, on the other hand, it is an incidental purpose, pursuit of which is held down by traditions of a chief purpose to which the organized activities of those pursuing the calling are to be directed primarily and by which the individual activities of the practitioner are to be restrained and guided.” 5 Pound, Jurisprudence 676, 677 (1959). The legal profession exists primarily for the advancement of justice. “The best service of the professional man is often rendered for no equivalent or for a trifling equivalent and it is his pride to do what he does in a way worthy of his profession even if done with no expectation of reward. This spirit of public service in which the profession of law is and ought to be exercised is a prerequisite of sound administration of justice according to law.” Pound, The Lawyer From Antiquity to Modern Times 10 (1953).
“Representation of indigents is a traditional professional obligation of the bar, which a lawyer undertakes when he becomes a member of the bar. There is thus no ‘taking’ when a lawyer is required to fulfill that obligation ... An applicant for admission to the bar may justly be deemed to be *351aware of the traditions of the profession which he is joining, . . . Thus the lawyer has consented to and assumed this obligation, and when he is called upon to fulfill it he cannot contend that there is a taking.” U.S. v. Dillon, 346 F.2d 633, 636, 638 (1965). The Dillon ease cites Elam v. Johnson, 48 Ga. 348, 350 along with a vast number of other authorities.
The solution to the problem lies not in an action of this sort but, in a thorough policy and practical study and evaluation of our assigned counsel system in its entirety, with participation by all interested groups—bench, bar, legislature and the public. Out of such a study should come, hopefully, a system of providing defense for the indigent which will safeguard the rights of all by providing reasonable compensation for those charged with such defense.