{
  "id": 3799905,
  "name": "Stark LIGON, as Executive Director of the Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct v. R.S. McCULLOUGH",
  "name_abbreviation": "Ligon v. McCullough",
  "decision_date": "2007-01-25",
  "docket_number": "04-1395",
  "first_page": "598",
  "last_page": "599",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "368 Ark. 598"
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    {
      "type": "parallel",
      "cite": "247 S.W.3d 868"
    }
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  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ark.",
    "id": 8808,
    "name": "Arkansas Supreme Court"
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      "cite": "272 Ark. 306",
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      "year": 1981,
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          "parenthetical": "striking appellant's brief due to \"intemperate and distasteful language\" toward trial judge"
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        {
          "parenthetical": "striking appellant's brief due to \"intemperate and distasteful language\" toward trial judge"
        }
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      "cite": "73 S.W.3d 572",
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      "case_ids": [
        74107,
        74061
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      "year": 2002,
      "pin_cites": [
        {
          "parenthetical": "brief of attorney for petitioner seeking recusal of all justices would be stricken, in view of attorney's continued strident, disrespectful language used in his pleadings, motions, and arguments, and his repeated refusal to recognize and adhere to precedent"
        }
      ],
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      "case_paths": [
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      "cite": "348 Ark. 135",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark.",
      "case_ids": [
        74107
      ],
      "year": 2002,
      "pin_cites": [
        {
          "parenthetical": "brief of attorney for petitioner seeking recusal of all justices would be stricken, in view of attorney's continued strident, disrespectful language used in his pleadings, motions, and arguments, and his repeated refusal to recognize and adhere to precedent"
        }
      ],
      "opinion_index": 0,
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T15:59:17.047242+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "Stark LIGON, as Executive Director of the Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct v. R.S. McCULLOUGH"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Per Curiam.\nMr. R.S. McCullough filed a motion to abate a $550 fine imposed on him from the Professional Conduct Committee. In his motion for abatement, McCullough argues that he is indigent and cannot pay the fine. However, intermingled into his substantive request for abatement, Mr. McCullough uses unnecessary, strident, and disrespectful language toward Mr. Stark Lig\u00f3n, who represents the Committee on Professional Conduct as its Executive Director and attorney (officer of the court). Examples of Mr. McCullough\u2019s remarks follow, and we note that Mr. McCullough, throughout his motion, refers to Mr. Lig\u00f3n using lower case letters:\n[McCullough] received a rather infantile and asinine communication from stark lig\u00f3n dated October 19, 2006.\n[B]ased upon the venom which lig\u00f3n appears to harbor for [McCullough] in particular and other black lawyers, in general, he saw fit one weekend to let his little mind come up with the complained of communication and its attachments.\nPerhaps [Ligon\u2019s] ignorance in a matter of this type is clouded by the fact that when he lost his judgeship to a 90+ year old man, he got picked up by \u201cthe system\u201d to be a librarian in a library rarely, if ever, used.\nIn view of this disrespectful language, Mr. McCullough\u2019s motion to abate is stricken in its entirety.\nWe have, on prior occasions, expressed a displeasure with attorneys who have directed disrespectful language toward courts and officers of the court. See White v. Priest, 348 Ark. 135, 73 S.W.3d 572 (2002) (brief of attorney for petitioner seeking recusal of all justices would be stricken, in view of attorney\u2019s continued strident, disrespectful language used in his pleadings, motions, and arguments, and his repeated refusal to recognize and adhere to precedent); McLemore v. Elliott, 272 Ark. 306, 614 S.W.2d 226 (1981) (striking appellant\u2019s brief due to \u201cintemperate and distasteful language\u201d toward trial judge). In the same vein, we caution attorneys from filing motions containing irrelevant, disrespectful, and caustic remarks that only serve to vent a party\u2019s emotions such as anger or hostility.\nBecause this matter implicates a breach of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, we refer Mr. McCullough to the Professional Conduct Committee and request the Committee to take whatever action it believes his actions warrant under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Per Curiam."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "R.S. McCullough, pro se.",
      "Nande M. Givens, for Stark Lig\u00f3n, as Executive Director of the Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Stark LIGON, as Executive Director of the Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct v. R.S. McCULLOUGH\n04-1395\n247 S.W.3d 868\nSupreme Court of Arkansas\nOpinion delivered January 25, 2007\nR.S. McCullough, pro se.\nNande M. Givens, for Stark Lig\u00f3n, as Executive Director of the Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct."
  },
  "file_name": "0598-01",
  "first_page_order": 638,
  "last_page_order": 639
}