Law license of Helena mayor pulled over poor work in ’99
Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2008
Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley lost his right to practice law for 30 days Friday, but said he had more pressing matters demanding his attention.
“Essentially, I’m not practicing law now, I’m busy chasing dogs,” Valley said after the Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct suspended his law license for poor legal representation on a 1999 child-support case.
In June, Valley released dogs from the city’s makeshift animal shelter into the St. Francis National Forest, bringing international condemnation on the Phillips County seat, population of about 15, 000.
A criminal complaint against Valley accuses him of misdemeanor animal cruelty. Valley this week filed a complaint against Ruby Burton, the director of the Humane Society of Southeast Arkansas.
In his law-license hearing, Valley said he has billed fewer than 20 hours in his general law practice since becoming mayor at the end of 2005. His job as mayor fills 80-85 hours of his week, he said.
“The mayor’s office has taken tremendous amount of time. Much more than I thought,” Valley said.
The professional-conduct committee said he should have done more to serve his client, Zederick Jackson, who hired Valley in September 1999 to reduce his weekly child-support payments and back payments. Jackson contacted the professional conduct office in 2007 after he said he couldn’t contact Valley about his case.
Valley didn’t file a petition for 14 months after their first meeting. And the petition was never acted upon or dismissed.
After being contacted by the committee, Valley called Jackson and offered to repay his $ 300 fee.
“I sent him a check for peacekeeping purposes, not because I thought I owed him,” Valley told the seven-person panel. “I didn’t want to be sitting here with you all.”
Valley did mail Jackson a check in September but dated it Sept. 27, 2008, making it impossible to cash, said Michael Harmon, who prosecuted the case against Valley.
Valley said he mistakenly put the wrong year on the check. “It was a misprint,” he said.
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