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Monday, January 24, 2011

Ind. Courts - Still more on: Do ALJs lack the authority to grant pro hac vice appearances for out-of-state attorneys appearing before their agencies?

Updating this ILB entry from Thursday, Jan. 20th, 2011, that quoted a letter stating that in Indiana "admission to practice law in Indiana is exclusively the province of the Supreme Court," and that "ALJs do not have the authority to grant such requests of foreign attorneys for temporary admission." Instead, according to the Oct. 18, 2010 letter from the Clerk of the Courts:

[W]hen a foreign attorney submits a petition for temporary admission in an ALJ, the ALJ, citing the rule mentioned above, should decline to rule an the petition and, instead, direct the attorney to file the petition with a trial court in the county in which the ALJ is presiding over the matter.
The ILB has now obtained a copy of a second letter on the subject, again written by the Clerk of the Courts, and dated Jan. 21, 2011. The letter reads in part:
As a follow-up to my previous letter, I write to let you know that the Supreme Court is currently analyzing Indiana Admission and Discipline Rule 3, section 2 as it applies to foreign lawyers wishing to act in a representative capacity in administrative hearings. As part of this analysis, the Court will be submitting the issue to the Indiana Supreme Court Rules Committee for review. In the meantime, the Court wishes to make one slight adjustment to the procedure previously outlined. Specifically, instead of directing foreign attorneys to file their petitions in a local trial court, the Court would like those petitions filed with the Indiana Supreme Court, until such time as the Court can consider the matter more fully through the Rules Committee process discussed above. If you would, please make your ALJs aware of this slight change. [Emphasis by ILB]

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 24, 2011 02:38 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts