Las Vegas Sun

February 11, 2012

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Court: Inmate can’t collect fee for acting as lawyer

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009 | 5:43 p.m.

CARSON CITY – A state prison inmate, judged a habitual criminal in Clark County, can’t collect a $10,000 fee for acting as a lawyer in a malpractice case for a family.

The Nevada Supreme Court says Jimmy Earl Downs is barred from collecting a fee for filing a suit for a family that collected $100,000 in a medical malpractice suit.

Downs maintained he was “tricked” into doing a favor for Christine Napolitano and her son Andrew in filing a medical malpractice suit for them with the agreement he would get a contingency fee.

When the family did not pay him, he filed a breach of contract suit. “Just as a prostitute of a drug dealer can be ‘rolled’ so can an inmate ‘writ writer,’” said Downs in his appeal to the Supreme Court.

The court said Nevada law prohibits an individual from practicing law if he or she is not an active member of the Nevada State Bar or otherwise authorized to practice law in Nevada.

It said a contract made “in disobedience of the law creates no right of action to be enforced by the court.”

Downs, 52, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after being judged a habitual criminal. He is also serving a term for robbery. And he completed terms for grand larceny and burglary.

The decision upheld the ruling of District Judge Todd Russell of Carson City.

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