In November, CLEAR—a project of HALT—sent a draft copy of its Lawyer Discipline Best Practices to state discipline agencies across the country for comment. Discipline officials were asked to respond by January 15, 2010. The nation’s lawyer discipline systems—which handle complaints against attorneys for ethics violations, billing problems or outright stealing—have been criticized for years by consumers, reform advocates and legal professionals as being inefficient, secretive and overly lenient. In response, many states have asked a special Consultation Team of the American Bar Association to evaluate their systems and propose specific reforms.

“We’re happy that the ABA is looking into ways to improve the attorney discipline system,” said HALT Policy Director & Senior Counsel Tom Gordon. “Many states have implemented consumer-friendly practices that we believe the ABA will want to promote nationally.”

After years of evaluating lawyer discipline systems, HALT is in a unique position to offer advice to discipline agencies looking for a way forward. For years HALT has recommended many of the best practices identified in its report. We believe widespread adoption of these practices, some of which are already in place in one or more states, is necessary to enhance the public’s confidence in lawyer-run systems:

• Disclose a lawyer’s complete disciplinary history so that consumers can make informed decisions about whether to hire an attorney.
• Host a user-friendly Web site that is easy to find and provides helpful information about the discipline process.
• Abolish closed-door sanctions and replace private admonitions with formal and public censures, fines, suspensions and disbarments.
• Permanently disbar lawyers who commit abusive practices against clients.
• Abolish gag rules that prevent people from speaking publicly about the complaints they’ve filed.
• Publicize the availability of lawyer discipline programs through required client notification and local advertising.
• Open lawyer discipline hearings to everyone to increase the public’s trust.
• Provide ordinary citizens with a majority voice on the panels that decide attorney misconduct cases.
• Grant clients and witnesses immunity from civil liability for any information given to the agency during a disciplinary investigation.
• Allow citizens the right to appeal initial complaint dismissals and hearing panel decisions.

  Click here to read more about our best practice recommendations