Two attorneys have been placed on disability inactive status, one of them voluntarily, following recent and separate action by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Franklin attorney Erich Webb Bailey was placed on disability inactive status following a Feb. 9 Louisiana Supreme Court three-page disciplinary proceeding after the office of disciplinary counsel filed a petition for the status. The counsel's petition was based on Bailey's transfer to disability inactive status by the Supreme Court of Tennessee in October "because his medical records show he is 'currently incapacitated from continuing the practice of law'," the disciplinary proceeding said.
In December, the Louisiana Supreme Court placed Bailey on reciprocal interim suspension following a similar suspension last summer in Tennessee. The Louisiana high court also gave Bailey 30 days "to demonstrate why transferring him to disability inactive status in this state would be unwarranted" but Bailey failed to respond, court's latest disciplinary proceeding said.
"According to the record, respondent provided the Supreme Court of Tennessee with medical records indicating he is unable to practice law," the proceeding said. "After considering those medical records, the Supreme Court of Tennessee transferred [the] respondent to disability inactive status. The imposition of reciprocal disability inactive status in Louisiana is clearly appropriate, and there is no suggestion otherwise upon the face of the record. Accordingly, we will transfer respondent to disability inactive status as was imposed in Tennessee."
Bailey was admitted to the Louisiana bar April 29, 2010, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar's website. He has been licensed in Tennessee since 2014, according to his profile at the Tennessee Supreme Court's Board of Professional Responsibility website.
In a separate action, Lafayette attorney Kenneth James Culotta has been voluntarily transferred to disability inactive status following a Feb. 9 Louisiana Supreme Court order after the court accepted a joint petition for the transfer. The order was effective immediately.
Culotta was admitted to the Louisiana bar May 7, 2015, according to his profile at the Louisiana State Bar Association's website. No record of discipline is listed on Culotta bar profile.