An official on the Florida Bar (the law version, not the beer version) ordered that controversial Miami attorney Jack ‘video games are evil’ Thompson submit to psychological testing and accept a 91-day suspension of his law license. What does this all mean? All is explained inside.

According to a post on GamePolitics, Jack Thompson has emailed the site stating that he has been asked to undergo a psychological test and accept a temporary suspension. The claim has not yet been verified by the Florida Bar however. Tensions have been high between Thompson and the Florida Bar over the conduct of the controversial attorney. Recent cases relating to Grand Theft Auto and Bully have raised questions about the way the attorney goes about his business and with regards to his views on the gaming industry. A scheduled June 25th hearing involving Thompson and the Florida Bar was postponed. Meanwhile, mediation talks have taken place between Thompson and the Bar.

On Sunday Thompson cc’d gaming website GamePolitics an e-mail of what seems to be a filing with the Florida Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over Bar disciplinary matters. In it Thompson writes of an ongoing attempt to mediate the dispute:

Mediation failed today because there was no mediation whatsoever… [Florida Bar official] Ms. Tuma not only did not move off her [suspension] demand one iota, not one smidgeon, but she instead upped her demand by requiring that Thompson undergo a battery of psychological tests as part of the fabulous deal The Bar offered him…

Ms. Tuma [sic] last demand going into the mediation was a 91-day suspension, and she opened and ended with that and a shrink’s couch. This is bad faith…

This “mediation” was a charade… Finally, [Thompson] requests a status conference herein as soon as possible so that we can… shut this Star Chamber down. Thompson is not the one who needs a psych evaluation.

So basically the Bar and Thompson are locking horns over his conduct. The Bar has been criticised by Thompson for their handling of complaints against him, he currently has two federal lawsuits against them pending. The Bar has filed a motion to dismiss his claims. All sounds a bit messy to us. So whatever your views on Jack Thompson (if you’re a fan of video games they are most likely not too favourable), it doesn’t look like he’s going to disappear any time soon. We’ll let you know how this one pans out.

Many thanks to Dangerous Dan for submitting.