Western New York landed a D+, only slightly better than New York's D average in the 2002 Lawyer Discipline Report Card issued by Halt.

"It doesn't give you a good idea of the operations of this office," said Vincent Scarsella, deputy chief counsel of the Attorney Grievance Committee serving Western New York.

His office annually handles an average of 912 complaints, ranging in severity from a client merely not liking the outcome of a case to the theft of a client's escrow account, for example.

Halt's report card is the first evaluation of the legal establishment's system of self-regulation in a decade, said James Turner, Halt's executive director, and there's no cause for celebration across the country. Of the 51 jurisdictions surveyed, New York and 38 others received grades below a C. No state earned an A.

Turner said HALT produced the report card to assess whether states have taken any meaningful action in response to the American Bar Association's 1992 report that determined the country's lawyer discipline system is "too slow, too secret, too soft and too self-regulated." The ABA's study followed a 1970 panel led by a Supreme Court Justice that found lawyer discipline was in a scandalous situation and required immediate attention of the public.

Founded in 1978, Halt champions improved access and reduced costs in the civil justice system at the state and federal levels. Turner said Halt's report card detected a pattern of delay, secrecy and toothless sanctions that amount to a national disgrace.