I am happy to report that I received a call from my friend — the one on whose behalf I filed an ethics complaint (see the complaint here) — and she has been contacted by an investigator with the governing body and they are going forward with my complaint! She did send the governing body a letter stating that everything that I had alleged in the complaint was true. She has been told by the investigator that the complaint will be opened in my name against the lawyer, so as to “protect” her while she is still working in the legal community. This is a little odd, since the initial response of the governing body to my written complaint was that they did not want to open a complaint if I was not the injured party. Such is the path of hypocrisy and bureaucracy on the way to justice (we hope).
When Bad Lawyers Happen to Good People®
Posts tagged ‘ethics’
Ethics Complaints Part 2
In one of my recent entries, Ethics Complaints Against Lawyers, I reported that I made an ethics complaint against an attorney. In this instance, I was not the wronged party, but had set out the situation to the State Bar Counsel on behalf of a friend of mine. I received a written response back from State Bar Counsel, and I am not happy (but I am also not surprised). I was told that they needed more information and that they needed to receive the information directly from the wronged party. In my original letter, I had provided the name of my friend and her contact information. I sent her a copy of my letter to the State Bar and that was indicated at the end of my letter. When I called the office of State Bar Counsel, I was told it was “policy” not to speak to anyone who had written a letter and that I could only speak with the assistant, who was of no assistance whatsoever. She even had the nerve to ask me “why can’t your friend just do this herself; is she disabled or something?”
It is absolutely clear to me that this particular State Bar Association doesn’t really want to stamp out unethical behavior by attorneys. They will not even share the complaint with the attorney in question or pursue any investigation or action if my friend doesn’t tell them herself. I have informed the State Bar that serious unethical behavior, including crimes such as failure to pay wages, payroll and worker’s compensation taxes, has occurred, and they do not care because it didn’t happen to me.
In this particular situation, the State Bar Association, which all lawyers in the state are required to belong to and pay dues, is also the organization that pursues discipline against lawyers. There is not an arm’s length relationship between the governing body and the membership. In short, there is a conflict of interest!
I’m going to pursue this matter in some alternative ways. One of the things I will do is post a copy of my letter on this site in the next few days. I will black out the names (to protect the guilty), but I would like you to see the kind of behavior I am concerned about and how I constructed my letter of complaint. It may be helpful to someone out there who is considering filing a grievance against a lawyer in their state.
I’ll be checking in more frequently now that the holidays are over and 2010 is seriously upon us.
When Lawyers Make Mistakes
It might seem like the punch line to a good lawyer joke to say, “…and then I sued my lawyer.” What do you do when a lawyer makes a mistake, or worse yet, intentionally does something unethical which hurts you? Lawyers commit malpractice just like doctors do, but it’s not always as simple as “he cut off the wrong arm.” We are going to take a look at lawyers, what to look for and watch out for, how to pick the right one, and what options are available to take him or her to task if you do see something that’s wrong. Stay tuned and hopefully you will learn something and maybe have a laugh or two along the way.
