Park Apartments At Fayetteville, Lp v. Plants

545 S.W.3d 755 (2018)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

In November 2015, P filed a complaint against Ds alleging that the liquidated-damages clause in her lease agreement is unenforceable, constitutes an illegal penalty, and violates the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Arkansas Security Deposit Act. P's attorneys work for Legal Aid of Arkansas (Legal Aid). Attorneys from D's in-house legal department represent Ds. From July 2016 through December 2016, Summer McCoy worked as a staff attorney for Legal Aid in its Springdale office. Legal Aid assigns cases based on four workgroups: domestic violence, consumer, housing, and economic justice. McCoy worked in the economic-justice workgroup dealing with issues associated with Medicare, Medicaid, ARKids, SNAP benefits, unemployment benefits, and home healthcare. In January 2017, McCoy began working as a staff attorney for Lindsey (D). P filed a motion to disqualify McCoy and Lindsey's (D) entire in-house legal department. P claims a conflict of interest arose because, while McCoy was working at Legal Aid, she had access to P's confidential attorney and client information and files. P claims that a conflict of interest should be imputed to the entire Lindsey (D) legal department because McCoy is now part of that department. The circuit court concluded that McCoy had a conflict of interest because 'she had full access to all of Legal Aid's files.' The court then imputed McCoy's conflict to the other attorneys in Lindsey's (D) in-house legal department. P's motion to disqualify was granted. D filed an interlocutory appeal.