Atlanta Unfiltered

Cracks in system let trooper shooting suspect stay free Deal brings in campaign cash since winning

The Georgia Supreme Court today ordered a 3-year suspension for an attorney who refused to stop appealing a client’s conviction and his own disciplinary action. The court’s order lays out a 10-year chain of court battles over a client’s $400 fine and 3-day jail sentence. The court found Arthur F. Millard’s actions showed “a basic disrespect of the attorney-client relationship and … needlessly subjected his client to liability, after she made clear that she no longer desired his services.”

Among the consequences of Georgia’s new ethics law: It will require more reporting by lobbyists and will probably thin out their herd, at least at the state level. It will relieve hundreds of the new governor’s appointees of the need to disclose even a smidgen about their personal finances. And, combined with budget problems, it will require the state ethics commission for the next several months to set aside one of its core missions, says its chairman, Patrick Millsaps.