Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Dues debate leaves group nearly broke
The State Bar of California announced yesterday that
it has stopped accepting
complaints from the public about dishonest or
incompetent lawyers because
it's nearly out of money.
The announcement came two days after some 500 layoff
notices were handed
out to the bar's staff, which handles more than
200,000 complaints and
inquiries a year. The notices to about 75 percent of
the bar's remaining staff
were necessary because of a stalemate between the bar
and Gov. Pete
Wilson.
In October, Wilson vetoed a measure allowing the state
bar to continue
mandating attorneys to pay up to $458 a year in dues,
which are the bar's sole
income. Payments slowed to a trickle, and the bar is
now almost broke.
The organization, which licenses, disciplines and
lobbies on behalf of
California's 160,000 lawyers, says it will be broke by
early July unless a dues
agreement is reached.
Yesterday, callers to the bar's 800 number got a taped
message announcing
the shutdown and saying the bar was working with the
Legislature and the
governor to solve the funding crisis. Written
complaints will be returned to
sender.
The bar said it will do its best to handle the 1,600
complaints already in the
system. Chief prosecutor Judy Johnson said only
complaints that could lead to
disbarment or serious suspension would be flagged for
further investigation.
University of San Diego law professor Robert Fellmeth,
who spent five years
as a watchdog and reformer of the bar, is incensed
about the political impasse.
"I would urge all clients who have problems with their
attorneys to immediately
contact Gov. Wilson, who must have some alternative
strategy in mind,"
Fellmeth said yesterday.
"We did a lot of work from 1987 to 1991 to clean up
that system and make it
work, and California now has the best system for
disciplining lawyers by far,"
he said.
San Diego attorney Marc Adelman, president of the
state bar, said the bar
always has relied on its own money to police its
ranks, Now, however, he
fears the burden will fall on the taxpayers.
"It really is a crisis that people really haven't paid
a lot of attention to, because
they don't see the harm that taking away the
discipline system will cause,"
Adelman said yesterday.
"With our discipline system shutting down, who is left
to go after the bad
lawyers -- the City Attorney or the District
Attorney?" he asked. "I'm certain
they're not equipped to handle this.
"If they do, it's your tax money that's funding it."
Fellmeth pointed out that in the mid-1980s, it took
nearly five years for a a
complaint to translate into discipline of a wayward
lawyer. Now the time is
closer to 18 months.
He said the number of attorneys who were reproved,
suspended or disbarred
also has increased greatly, from about 180 to about
900 a year.
"What the governor's doing is posturing here, because
they're mad at some
positions taken by the bar," Fellmeth said. "They're
basically throwing the baby
out with the bath water . . . I think it's really a
shame."
When Wilson, a longtime bar critic, vetoed the annual
dues authorization bill,
he said the bar was bloated, unresponsive to members
and too involved in
politics.
Among other things, he cited the bar's support of a
bill that would have
allowed higher damage awards in medical malpractice
cases, and resolutions
passed by the bar's Conference of Delegates supporting
legalization of
same-sex marriages, shorter drug sentences and more
racial diversity in law
schools.
In the aftermath, the bar has cut expenses and
continued operating on reserves
and voluntary dues payments while trying to reach an
agreement with Wilson
and legislative Republicans to limit the
organization's scope and restore its dues
authority.
Some Republican support is needed for a two-thirds
vote that would allow
such a bill to take effect immediately, but no
Republicans have yet backed a
bar proposal that would reduce maximum dues by $40,
restrict lobbying and
limit how dues are spent.
Lawyer discipline takes up the majority of the bar's
budget. The bar said it
gets about 140,000 calls a year on its consumer
hotline, along with 86,000
written complaints and inquiries.
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
