Court Opinion

ID: 9885485
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 13:03:56.727247+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:54.228012
License: Public Domain

Conley Byrd, Justice, dissenting. As I read the record in this case the lawyers representing Harold Chakales, M.D., were not attacking Mr. Cox’s ability to represent his clients but were complaining because he was too successful in representing them and consequently complained that he had received $111,000 in fees from malpractice settlements or payments made by one liability insurance company. 1 submit that Mr. Cox has appeared in no more lawsuits than did Justice Thurgood Marshall for litigants in this State and I have never heard anybody suggest that Thurgood Marshall was involved in the unauthorized practice of law. Furthermore, Wils Davis of Memphis, Tennessee,(1) regularly appeared in litigation before the trial courts of this State and I never heard it contended that he was involved in the unauthorized practice of law. Thus in view of past history it appears to me that the trial court was arbitrary in refusing to permit Mr. Cox by comity from participating in the trial of this litigation. It also appears to me that by preventing Mr. Cox from representing Mr. and Mrs. Brown in this malpractice action we are encouraging the trial courts to give more emphasis to the income protection of local lawyers than we are to the rights of the litigants. The record shows that after consulting with legal counsel Mr. and Mrs. Brown were referred to the law firm of McMath, Leatherman and Woods. Ex-Governor McMath refused to take the case, not because of lack of merit, but because he had considerable business with Dr. Chakales. Henry Woods, Ex-Governor McMath’s law partner and a former president of the Arkansas Bar Association, finally suggested to the Browns that they consult Mr. Cox, a Memphis, Tenn. lawyer. Since Mr. Cox, a specialist in medical malpractice, after consultation thought that Mr. and Mrs. Brown had a meritorious claim, I can only conclude that Mr. and Mrs. Brown have a meritorious cause of action that they are entitled to have submitted to a jury for a factual determination. Under these circumstances I challenge any member of the majority or the trial court to come forth with the name of any lawyer in Arkansas that has had any plaintiff success in the medical malpractice field in the trial courts and in persuading physicians and surgeons to break the so-called “conspiracy of silence. ” Had I been practicing law and had the Browns consulted me, I would have given them the same advice they got when they were referred to Mr. Cox. After all it would appear that the regulation of the practice of the law is for the benefit of the litigants not necessarily for the lawyers. If the regulation turns out in practice to be for only the benefit of the lawyers then we are subject to being chastised for operating a monopoly. For the reasons stated, I respectfully dissent.  Mr. Wils Davis was admitted to practice in both Arkansas and Tennessee but Mr. Cox cannot be so admitted under our rules without becoming a resident of Arkansas with the intention to maintain an office in Arkansas.