WASHINGTON (AP)
Montana legislator Jerry O’Neil lost his effort Monday to have the U.S. Supreme Court hear his claim that he should be allowed to practice law, despite not being a licensed lawyer. The court denied O’Neil’s appeal without comment. The denial means that a Montana Supreme Court ruling issued in November will stand. The state high court upheld a District Court ruling from 2004 that found O’Neil in contempt and prohibited him from practicing law. The Republican state senator from Columbia Falls has long sought permission for nonlawyers to give legal advice and prepare legal documents. O’Neil has tried unsuccessfully to change state law so the Legislature, rather than the Supreme Court, would have authority to determine eligibility to practice law. Disputes over O’Neil’s desire to practice law began in the 1980s. In 1986, he was rejected as a candidate for the Montana Supreme Court, for lack of credentials. The constitution requires that Supreme Court justices be lawyers. In pressing his cause before the 2005 Legislature, O’Neil said “There’s other good ways to learn the law besides graduating from the system.” He has described himself as an “independent paralegal.”
