nbc wrote:
borealis wrote:
She CC'd CA bar too. Can they do something now?
The filing of a complaint with the MS bar may be protected as a privileged publication but I wonder if she, by sending the complaint to others, she may not have opened herself up to legal liabilities.
IANAL...
I just took a quick stroll through the Mississippi State Bar's Rules of Discipline.
http://courts.ms.gov/rules/msrulesofcou ... ipline.pdfRule 14(a) grants privilege to complaints:
Quote:
RULE 14. IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL SUIT - RIGHT TO SUE
(a) All complaints filed, statements made and documents or other tangible things
produced pursuant hereto shall be absolutely privileged, and no civil suit predicated therein
may be instituted, and each person, firm, association or legal entity filing such a complaint
shall be immune from any civil suit pending thereon.
Rule 14(a) is great for Orly. Rule 14(
b)? Not so much:
Quote:
(b) In an action separate and distinct from the disciplinary proceedings, the attorney
may, by petition filed with the clerk of the Court, seek a finding by the Court or its special
master on the issue of malicious prosecution, abuse of process, malicious publication to
persons not authorized to receive information pertaining to matters arising under these rules,
slander or libel. If the Court finds or approves a finding by a special master that there
appears to or may have been malicious prosecution, abuse of process, defamation of
character, slander or libel, the court shall enter its order granting the right to sue,
notwithstanding the immunity provided above.
Rule 15 discusses confidentiality. The relevant parts of Rule 15 appear to be (c) & (d):
Quote:
(c) These rules shall not prohibit any complainant, the accused attorney, or any
witnesses from discussing publicly the existence of the proceeding under these rules or from
disclosing any information relating thereto, including the disclosing of any documents
involved in the disciplinary proceeding.
(d) Statements made pursuant to Rule 15(c), in whatever form or by whatever means,
outside the disciplinary process shall not enjoy the immunity provided in Rule 14.
I'm going to go way out on a limb here, and suggest that Orly might, possibly, have maybe, I don't know,
really made a mistake this time.
