{"id":761,"date":"2014-12-28T13:30:06","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T13:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/?p=761"},"modified":"2023-04-20T12:35:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:35:18","slug":"2014-year-review-attorneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/attorneys\/2014-year-review-attorneys\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 Year in Review – Attorneys"},"content":{"rendered":"

A. Character and Fitness<\/strong><\/p>\n

In re Application of Carlton Vose, 93 A.3d 33 (R.I. 2014)<\/a>: In Vose, the Supreme Court addressed a petition in opposition to the recommendation of the Supreme Court\u2019s Committee on Character and Fitness (the \u201cCommittee\u201d) that the petitioner be denied admission to the Rhode Island bar. After numerous meetings with the Committee \u2013 during some of which petitioner was represented by counsel \u2013 the Committee submitted a Recommendation of Denial of Admission to the Rhode Island Bar supported by ten specific findings of fact. Among those many findings was reference the Florida Board of Bar Examiners\u2019 denial of the petitioner\u2019s application for admission to that state\u2019s bar. In his petition in opposition to that recommendation, the petitioner claimed that the Committee failed to meet its burden of inquiring into the findings concerning his previous denial of admission to the Florida bar.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>

Image courtesy of suphakit73 at Freedigitalphotos.net<\/p><\/div>\n

The Supreme Court disagreed, noting that the petitioner \u201cappears to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the application process laid out in Rule 3 [of the Supreme Court Rules of Admission of Attorneys and Others to Practice Law],\u201d which makes clear that \u201cthe onus was on [the petitioner], not the committee, to present clear and convincing evidence of his good moral character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, in passing on an issue of first impression, the Supreme Court concluded that it was proper for the Committee to consider the findings of the Florida board in determining whether the petitioner possessed the requisite character and fitness to be admitted to the Rhode Island bar. The Supreme Court\u2019s conclusion is consistent with that of other jurisdictions that recognize \u201cthe propriety of considering an applicant\u2019s denial from the bar of another state.\u201d (citing Hawai\u2019I Board of Bar Examiners Rules of Procedure Pt. 2, \u00a7 2.6(c)(10); Minnesota Rules for Admission to the Bar 5(B)(3)(1); New Mexico Rules Governing Admission to the Bar 15-103(C)(3)(k); In re Bar Admission of Vanderperren, 661 N.W.2d 27, 41 (Wisc. 2003)).
\nB. Sanctions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Burns v. Moorland Farm Condominium Association, 87 A.3d 392 (R.I. 2014)<\/a>: \u201cRule 11 requires attorneys to \u2018make [a] reasonable inquiry to assure that all pleadings, motions and papers filed with the court are factually well-grounded, legally tenable and not interposed for any improper purpose.\u2019 Pleasant Management, LLC v. Carrasco, 918 A.2d 123, 218 (R.I. 2007) (quoting Mariani v. Doctors Associates, Inc., 983 F.2d 5, 7 (1st Cir. 1993)). According to Rule 11, such improper purposes may include efforts \u2018to harass or to cause unnecessary delay or needless increase in the cost of litigation.\u2019 The rule allows a trial justice \u2018to formulate what he or she considers to be an appropriate sanction, but he or she must do so in accordance with the articulated purpose of the rule: \u201cto deter repetition of the harm, and to remedy the harm caused.\u2019\u201d In re Briggs, 62 A.3d at 1098 (quoting Pleasant Management, LLC, 918 A.2d at 217).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A. Character and Fitness In re Application of Carlton Vose, 93 A.3d 33 (R.I. 2014): In Vose, the Supreme Court addressed a petition in opposition to the recommendation of the Supreme Court\u2019s Committee on Character and Fitness (the \u201cCommittee\u201d) that the petitioner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[18,119,120,14,115],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attorneys","tag-appellate-practice","tag-attorneys","tag-character-and-fitness","tag-rhode-island-supreme-court","tag-sanctions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/on-appeal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}