Bar Buffoonery Example #0,000,000,001

Cal­i­for­nia.  Hear Ye!  Hear Ye!

On Sep­tem­ber 7th, 2008 the Cal­i­for­nia Bar “dis­ci­plined” Elisa Ann Cas­tro for fail­ing to per­form legal ser­vices com­pe­tently, refus­ing to refund unearned fees, refus­ing to coop­er­ate with State Bar inves­ti­ga­tors and fail­ing to take actions nec­es­sary to avoid her clients being prej­u­diced in the course of legal actions.

Accord­ing to the stip­u­la­tion order, Castro’s behav­ior: sig­nif­i­cantly harmed a client, the pub­lic or the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice and that the mis­con­duct evi­denced mul­ti­ple acts of wrong doing. Cas­tro signed this stip­u­la­tion. All totaled there were 18 counts of mis­con­duct in 12 cases.

The “dis­ci­pline” imposed?

Cas­tro was sus­pended for one year. The “Bar” stayed her sus­pen­sion i.e., she’s not really sus­pended.  In lieu of sus­pen­sion, the Bar placed her on pro­ba­tion and ordered her to take the multi-state pro­fes­sional respon­si­bil­ity exam­i­na­tion (MPRE).

The “Bar” cited “mit­i­gat­ing” cir­cum­stances affect­ing their deci­sion were that Cas­tro had no record of prior dis­ci­pline and that she par­tic­i­pates in the Cal­i­for­nia Bar’s Lawyer Assis­tance Pro­gram– a pro­gram to assist lawyers with men­tal health and sub­stance abuse issues i.e., money that could be spent inves­ti­gat­ing and pros­e­cut­ing com­plaints of attor­ney mis­con­duct TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC, CLIENTS and THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE is diverted to help NUTS and ADDICTS con­tinue to prac­tice law.

Cas­tro also stip­u­lated to pro­vide resti­tu­tion. The amounts she agreed to repay are PALTRY and bear inter­est at the rate of 10% per annum which of course doesn’t reflect the oppor­tu­nity cost her clients incurred by not hav­ing the use of those funds.

Con­sid­er­ing the amount dam­age Ms. Cas­tro inflicted on her clients, it doesn’t appear from our read­ing of the doc­u­ments that the resti­tu­tion she agreed to includes amounts to com­pen­sate them for the con­se­quences of her behav­ior– i.e., con­se­quen­tial damages.