Ethics panel fines, cautions 3 lawyers

The Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct has sanctioned a Hot Springs attorney who filed a lawsuit for a client that had already fired him.

The committee issued an official caution to Josh Q. Hurst of the Hurst Law Firm in Hot Springs earlier this month after former client Donna House filed a complaint. The committee also filed letters of caution for misconduct against two other attorneys earlier this month.

The committee found that Hurst had refused to give House’s new attorney a copy of her file, as required by the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct. Hurst had said he would only give her a copy if she would sign a document consenting to the Hurst law firm filing a lien against any settlement she received with the help of the new attorney.

The committee also found that Hurst violated rules of conduct by filing a lawsuit in Garland County Circuit Court without the woman’s consent. House, alleging that Hurst wasn’t responding to her calls, told him that he’d been replaced by another attorney. Hurst filed that lawsuit as a joint lawsuit between House and another plaintiff — a driver in the car wreck she was seeking damages in — without notifying House that the other plaintiff was also a client of the firm, creating a possible conflict if she had decided to sue that driver for further damages.

Hurst was fined $100 in addition to the caution.

The committee also sanctioned two other attorneys. Mississippi County attorney Catherine Palmer Dean received a letter of caution and an $800 fine for six different charges of misconduct. Little Rock attorney David Matthew Littlejohn received a formal caution and a $50 fine for three different charges of misconduct related to practicing law while his license was suspended.

The committee found that Dean mishandled two temporary custody orders; she failed to keep her clients informed about the status of the case; she failed to contact her clients after they repeatedly requested information; she failed to tell her clients that she no longer represented them when she closed her private practice to take a position in the public sector; she failed to schedule hearing dates and failed to follow through on those court dates; and she wasted the time of the circuit court.

The committee ruled in Littlejohn’s case in late July that he had violated a rule requiring that he pay annual attorney licensing fees, that he illegally practiced law while his license was suspended for noncompliance with continuing legal education requirements and that his suspended license led to a mistrial in a March 2013 case.

The actions in both Littlejohn and Dean’s cases were filed with the Clerk of the Courts earlier this month.