John Tarantino is the lawyer for James Sokolove.

PROVIDENCE — He’s a familiar face to most Rhode Islanders: lawyer James Sokolove promising television viewers he’ll seek justice on an injured person’s behalf.

And Tuesday he sought for the state Supreme Court to allow him to set up shop in the Ocean State.

His lawyer, John A. Tarantino, asked the high court on its first day back this fall and the first with Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell at the helm to allow Sokolove’s national personal-injury law firm to establish a limited liability corporation in Rhode Island. Calls to Sokolove Law LLC would be referred to Brian J. Farrell, a lawyer with a private practice in Smithfield who would act as a member of Sokolove’s LLC, he said.

But Angel Taveras argued for firms opposing the move that Sokolove’s plan doesn’t comply with court rules and would amount to allowing Sokolove to mislead the public through advertisements that imply Sokolove would represent them when, in fact, he would not. Taveras asked the court to deny the request.

Taveras represents David Morowitz; D’Oliveira and Associates; and DeLuca & Weizenbaum, some of the state’s top personal-injury firms.

Justices Francis X. Flaherty and Maureen McKenna Goldberg appeared to embrace Taveras’ reasoning. Goldberg suggested Sokolove’s proposal amounted to “make believe.”

Flaherty noted TV ads in which Sokolove states he’s going to solve your problems. “He doesn’t solve any problems,” Flaherty said.

Tarantino responded: “He solves your problems. There’s nothing in the law that says ‘I have to handle the case.’ ”

Sokolove, who has made millions soliciting clients through advertisements nationwide, kept a low profile during Tuesday’s proceedings. He didn’t join Tarantino at the front of the courtroom and quickly left the courthouse.

His request has been pending since 2008. Sokolove is not seeking to practice law in Rhode Island, but instead open a branch of his Delaware-based firm here, court papers show. South Dakota is the only other state in which he does not have a presence.

A lawyer must be licensed to practice law in Rhode Island and be a dues paying member of the bar association to practice here. The state Supreme Court licenses lawyers to operate as limited liability corporations.

Tarantino told the court Sokolove’s arrangement would be similar to his firm, Adler, Pollock & Sheehan, which has offices in Boston and New Hampshire as well as Providence.

“This is a different animal,” Flaherty said. Goldberg remarked that it differed because Farrell would still keep his own practice.

Tarantino explained that Farrell would farm out cases beyond his expertise to other Rhode Island lawyers and take a portion of the fee, as seen routinely in other firms.

“Brian Farrell would be paid for something he knows nothing about?” McKenna Goldberg said.

Sokolove, who holds licenses in Massachusetts and New York, now refers cases to Rhode Island lawyers and splits the fee — a practice the contesting lawyers also oppose.

Taveras brought a disciplinary complaint against Sokolove on behalf of the same firms in 2007, challenging his television and print advertisements as misleading. They accused him of misrepresenting himself as a lawyer authorized to practice law in Rhode Island and violating court fee-sharing rules.

That complaint was dismissed, but a similar one was lodged with a panel that polices unauthorized practice of law, court records show. Sokolove agreed informally not to list his firm in the phone book and to state in TV ads that he is not licensed in Rhode Island until the Supreme Court rules on his LLC request.

The state Supreme Court will decide in the coming months whether to hear further arguments or issue a ruling based on Tuesday’s proceedings, according to court spokesman Craig N. Berke.

kmulvane@projo.com