Montana Attorney Seeking to Dismiss Ethics Charge Denied Relief

A suspended Montana attorney who asked the state’s highest court to dismiss additional, pending disciplinary charges against her because she’s not subject to the disciplinary commission’s jurisdiction struck out when the court denied her petition.

Intervention in the commission’s process is “unwarranted and unsupported by law,” the Jan. 6 opinion said.

Tina L. Morin asked the Supreme Court of Montana to issue a writ of supervisory control to stop the state’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel from proceeding with a professional misconduct charge against her.

“Supervisory control is an extraordinary remedy that may be invoked when the case involves purely legal questions and urgent or emergency factors make the normal appeal process inadequate,” but it doesn’t apply here, the state supreme court said.

First of all, the supervisory control process applies to “courts,” it said. But the Montana Rules for Lawyer Disciplinary Enforcement, which control Morin’s case, “prescribe a process for review of Commission decisions,” the court noted.

It also rejected Morin’s argument that her case involved a legal question because her suspension means she is no longer a member of the Montana Bar and not subject to the commission’s jurisdiction to hear disciplinary matters.

“Morin’s position that she is not a member of the Montana Bar is incorrect,” the court said.

Being under suspension simply means she’s not currently able to exercise the privilege of practicing law in this state, it said.

So her argument is wrong “as a matter of law,” it said.

The case is Morin v. Comm’n on Practice of the Supreme Court of Mont., 2020 BL 3046, Mont., No. OP 20-0007, 1/6/20.