Mar 4, 2011
Whose money is it?
Maryland State Bar Association Thomas D. Murphy urged a House panel this week to reject legislation that would require any unspent annual revenue of the Attorney Grievance Commission to go to the state’s general fund rather than remain with the disciplinary body.
The AGC receives its funding from an annual court-ordered assessment on attorneys that is earmarked for oversight of the legal profession, Murphy told the House Judiciary Committee. The funds are not intended for the general use of the state and thus should not go to the general fund, he added.
“We Maryland lawyers paid our money to that [AGC] fund,” said Murphy, of Murphy & Mood PC in Rockville. The money “should be spent for the purpose we wrote our checks,” he added.
Murphy testified against House Bill 765, which would require AGC’s $7.85 million surplus as of last June 30 to go to the state treasury, as well as any future annual surpluses. The commission anticipates a $9 million surplus as of next June 30.
Del. Frank M. Conaway Jr., the bill’s chief sponsor, told the committee that Maryland must find ways to “beef’ up its revenue. Transferring AGC’s unspent money to the general fund would generate “$9 million worth of the beef,” said Conaway, D-Baltimore City.
The AGC’s revenue base, the “disciplinary fund,” comes from a portion of the Maryland Court of Appeals’ annual assessment on each of Maryland’s approximately 34,500 attorneys.
Conaway said the money raised through the attorney assessments violates the state constitution because it is a levy of fees without the legislature’s consent.
But David R. Durfee Jr., of the Administrative Office of the Courts, countered that the fee on attorneys is a valid exercise of the Court of Appeals’ “authority to regulate the legal profession,” which does not require General Assembly involvement.
“The Court of Appeals would know what the law permits,” Durfee, executive director of the AOC’s legal-affairs department, told the committee. “These are not state moneys.”
Of the $145 yearly assessment, $125 goes to the disciplinary fund. The other $20 goes to the Client Protection Fund, which reimburses claimants for losses caused by theft of funds by attorneys.
Well, counselor, should the money go to the general fund or stay with AGC?
I cannot believe that our government is so desperate, that they would literally steal from justice itself. Shameful.