April 20, 2006
Karla Browne
Pennsylvania's lawyers just jumped from 51st place in the nation to fifth in rankings by a national watchdog organization.
"Three big items" were responsible for the improvement, says Robert Saidis, Cumberland County lawyer and a member of the state Supreme Court's disciplinary council, which made the changes.
Opening hearings on lawyer misconduct to the public, launching a website that lists lawyers who have been disciplined and requiring lawyers to tell clients whether they have "malpractice" insurance are the three tops changes, he says.
"We're making lawyers more responsive to clients, making our profession more consumer friendly," Saidis says.
Directives from state Supreme Court members were largely responsible for the changes, Saidis says, although staff and the 16 members of the disciplinary council also worked hard on the changes.
The rankings, posted by HALT, a 28-year-old, 50,000-member legal reform group, include all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Most improved
Pennsylvania was named "most improved" since the last evaluation in 2002.
"We hope disciplinary officials across the country will follow Pennsylvaniaâ~@~Ys lead because all Americans deserve a system that does more than pay lip service to consumer protection," says Suzanne Blonder, HALT associate counsel, in a written release.
The state disciplinary board worked with HALT and increased its budget by nearly 25 percent to make the changes.
But HALT officials still are not happy with lawyer discipline systems nationwide, which "not only fails consumers but ... undermines the integrity of the legal profession" Blonder says on the HALT website.
And HALT offered criticism of Pennsylvania's lawyer disciplinary system, citing American Bar Association findings that only 4.5 percent of cases against lawyers result in discipline - three times less than the national average.
State system slow
HALT also says Pennsylvania's system is slow to process cases, taking more than 19 months to hand down sanctions.
Pennsylvania's disciplinary council takes issue with those criticisms, citing the need to exercise due process before charging lawyers and faulting HALT's grading system.
"Pennsylvania's grade is a direct reflection of the number of grievances filed that are not valid," disciplinary board members say in a written release.
Many complaints against lawyers do not get full investigations because an initial investigation deemed them frivolous or unrelated to unethical conduct.
But HALT requires that 90 percent of all grievances be investigated to award an A grade, board members say.
No state received As in the latest ranking and a more than a third were graded below C. Utah flunked.
More changes ahead
Pennsylvania is not through making improvements, Saidis says.
"No matter what kind of an organization you have, you've always got room for improvement," he says.
What areas will be targeted next aren't known until disciplinary board recommendations are reviewed by Supreme Court members, Saidis says.
But "the disciplinary board right now is very progressive," he says. "There are a lot of better ideas being talked about and considered."
©2006, The Sentinel, a division of Lee Enterprise
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