Our Lawyer Disciplinary System – Is It Again Time For A Change?
In 2011, in response to a lack of uniformity in the way our disciplinary system functioned, the Arizona Supreme Court adopted substantial changes which removed decision-making from the State Bar as to which disciplinary complaints should be pursued and, instead created the Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee. In addition, the Court did away with three-member, lawyer hearing panels, which previously decided disciplinary complaints and, substituted in its place, the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge, which heard evidence and decided all disciplinary cases against lawyers.
In 2014, statistics compiled by the American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility, revealed that Arizona had one of the highest percentage of lawyers disciplined on a per capita basis. In that year, Arizona received 3,549 complaints and sanctioned 108 lawyers, the third highest among the states.
It is difficult to gauge the degree of dissatisfaction that may exist among members of the bar on the way our current disciplinary system functions for obvious reasons. Those who are fortunate enough to have never been exposed to it presumably have no complaints. Those who have, are either no longer around, or would rather remain silent because of the humiliation and embarrassment that public exposure of the experience carries for its victims.
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1 comment:
Mr Levine is correct that the State Bar is corrupt but his mistake is over analysis of the problem. Attorneys regulating Attorneys is the problem. The existing system of checks and balances offers the obvious solution. If one Branch of Government is running amok, the other Branches have powers to restrain these excesses. In this case the Legislature has the power to regulate professions under ARS Title 32. We create a regulatory board where the PEOPLE regulate attorneys. A simple easily implemented version of this statute has been drafted. Problem solved.
One must be cautious when accepting the prevailing wisdom that only the Supreme Court and the Bar have the authority to regulate the Legal Profession. Look at the US and AZ Constitutions yourself. The only authority has been created by the courts via case precedent which would be immediately trumped by a Legislative Act.
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