Cal Bar 2008 Performance Review | PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Just in time for the CalBARFOON’s annual gathering– this year at the Grand Hyatt in San Diego, the Evil Esquire Bar Association’s actuarial department has released their preliminary findings regarding the State Bar of California’s discipline system performance for the years 2004 through 2008.

Before we start, the text on the cover of the State Bar of California 2008 Annual Report is worth noting: “Public Protection | Administration of Justice | Member Services.”

First the good news, according to the Cal Bar, there were 161,729 lawyers actively “practicing” law in California on December 1, 2008. This equates to 1 lawyer for every 226 humans in the state down from 242 humans per lawyer in 2004.

Now the bad news, from 2004 through 2008 the Cal Bar disciplined only 3.1 percent of the lawyers regarding whom they received complaints. During this period, only 0.8 percent of complaints received by the Cal Bar from consumers of legal services i.e., victim clients, opposing parties, etc. resulted in disciplinary action against the offending lawyer.

Appalling! Obviously the only bar activity they’re good at is “Member Services.”

The EEBA will release our final report and statistics later this year. In the meantime, review the Cal Bar’s 2008 Annual Discipline Report.

* * * * * * STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA WARNING * * * * * *

In addition to the foregoing, EvilEsq.com has found that the vast majority of attorneys the Cal Bar investigates are employed by small firms or are solo practitioners. Large law firms and lawyers who are partners or employed by large law firms are virtually immune from Cal Bar regulation, the exceptions being when federal law enforcement has intervened. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that California’s attorney discipline system is highly political– read corrupt.

Consumers of legal services in California cannot rely on the Cal Bar to assist them in the event they become a victim of, for instance, one of the 13,529 attorneys complaints were filed against in 2008. Moreover, it’s very difficult to discern whether or not a lawyer has engaged in “misconduct” or even illegal activity because the Cal Bar does not publish the complaints they “decline” to investigate. California consumers “roll the dice” every time they retain a lawyer and one out of twelve times they will make the wrong choice.

While California certainly ranks in the bottom quartile of U.S. “attorney discipline” systems, in our opinion, no state adequately protects consumers. EvilEsq.com can help to equalize this problem. If you’ve filed a complaint against an attorney that your state’s bar overseers have “declined” to investigate, forward it along with any exhibits thereto for our consideration for publication.

If you know of a lawyer who’s worthy of induction to the EEBA? Send a brief summary of the lawyer’s “qualifications” along with his or her full name, state(s) of licensure and other identifying information to victims @ evilesq.com and, depending on their conduct, we’ll add them to our Nominee roles or Watchlist.

We strongly advise anyone contemplating hiring a California attorney use our LAWYER PROPHYLACTICS.

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