News
Discipline
Feb. 14, 2002
Head for Details
Dicta Column - By JoAnne Earls Robbins - When we are sworn in as attorneys, we all take an oath to uphold certain duties. All attorneys are familiar with some of them, such as telling the truth and preserving the confidences and secrets of their clients. But what about those more mundane duties, like paying your dues, getting all your MCLE hours and reporting your change of address? Oh, sure, you'll get around to them, sooner or later. Most lawyers have no idea, however, how much trouble they can get into by overlooking these mundane details.
Dicta Column
By JoAnne Earls Robbins
When we are sworn in as attorneys, we all take an oath to uphold certain duties. All attorneys are familiar with some of them, such as telling the truth and preserving the confidences and secrets of their clients. But what about those more mundane duties, like paying your dues, getting all your MCLE hours and reporting your change of address? Oh, sure, you'll get around to them, sooner or later. Most lawyers have no idea, however, how much trouble they can get into by overlooking these mundane details.
Think of it like this: How would the IRS react if you told them that you forgot to pay your taxes? What would the police officer say if you explain that you just didn't have time to renew your driver's license or car registration? Well, the State Bar would have the same reaction to similarly "minor" misconduct.
The California State Bar has the responsibility of enforcing its administrative rules and regulations, which it takes very seriously. The results of an attorney's failure to comply with these requirements can be very severe.
Take the most obvious one: paying your State Bar dues. Your membership fee, which is $390 for active members, was due on Feb. 1. If you have not yet paid, you had better do it right away, or a hefty penalty may apply. If you neglect to pay it, you can be suspended from practice. That means you cannot practice law nor hold yourself out as practicing law by any form of advertising, like business cards and letterhead. If you practice law while suspended, you can be disciplined for unlawful practice of law, which is also a misdemeanor.
This requirement of paying your membership dues is a personal, nondelegable, strict liability-type of responsibility. It does not matter whether you told your secretary to do it or your law firm always paid it in the past or you thought your corporate employer was supposed to do that. You are not relieved of your responsibility because you didn't get the bill, or because someone lost it. State Bar case law holds that as an attorney, you are charged with the knowledge that you have to pay dues, and you have an affirmative obligation to make sure your membership fee is paid.
Another absolute responsibility is to comply with your Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirements. All attorneys whose last names begin with letters N through Z were supposed to finish all their required educational hours, and report them to the State Bar, by Jan. 31. If you didn't complete the required hours, do it as quickly as possible. There also is a noncompliance fee for being late in either completing your necessary hours or in reporting them to the State Bar.
More important, if you don't complete and report your MCLE hours in a timely fashion, you can be placed on "administrative inactive enrollment," which is the equivalent of suspension from practicing law, until you fulfill your MCLE requirement.
Then, there is the very mundane but very important duty to keep your "membership records address" with the State Bar up to date. Business and Professions Code Section 6002.1(a) requires attorneys to keep their addresses current and notify the State Bar within 30 days after any change. Of course, it should be made in writing, so that you can prove your notification. You should verify that the change has been made by checking your record on the State Bar's Web site at www.calbar.org.
You are responsible for making certain that the State Bar knows where to contact you. If the State Bar doesn't receive or process your notification, you can have a major headache. First, you won't get reminders about paying your dues and reporting your MCLE. Worse, if you don't respond to inquiries by the State Bar regarding a complaint against you, and the matter ends up in a default proceeding in the State Bar Court, you will be placed on "involuntary inactive enrollment," which is the same as being suspended from practice, until you get your default set aside by the State Bar Court.
The bottom line on these administrative requirements is that they are all critical, and they are all easy to check to be certain that you are in compliance. As usual, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Every year, hundreds of attorneys are suspended or placed on inactive enrollment unnecessarily. They frequently panic and then spend a lot more time and money to get out of trouble than it would have taken to prevent the problem in the first place. The proverbial ounce of prevention in this area is well worth the pound of cure.
JoAnne Earls Robbins practices with Karpman & Associates of Los Angeles and was a hearing judge with the State Bar. She can be reached at karpethics@aol.com.
By JoAnne Earls Robbins
When we are sworn in as attorneys, we all take an oath to uphold certain duties. All attorneys are familiar with some of them, such as telling the truth and preserving the confidences and secrets of their clients. But what about those more mundane duties, like paying your dues, getting all your MCLE hours and reporting your change of address? Oh, sure, you'll get around to them, sooner or later. Most lawyers have no idea, however, how much trouble they can get into by overlooking these mundane details.
Think of it like this: How would the IRS react if you told them that you forgot to pay your taxes? What would the police officer say if you explain that you just didn't have time to renew your driver's license or car registration? Well, the State Bar would have the same reaction to similarly "minor" misconduct.
The California State Bar has the responsibility of enforcing its administrative rules and regulations, which it takes very seriously. The results of an attorney's failure to comply with these requirements can be very severe.
Take the most obvious one: paying your State Bar dues. Your membership fee, which is $390 for active members, was due on Feb. 1. If you have not yet paid, you had better do it right away, or a hefty penalty may apply. If you neglect to pay it, you can be suspended from practice. That means you cannot practice law nor hold yourself out as practicing law by any form of advertising, like business cards and letterhead. If you practice law while suspended, you can be disciplined for unlawful practice of law, which is also a misdemeanor.
This requirement of paying your membership dues is a personal, nondelegable, strict liability-type of responsibility. It does not matter whether you told your secretary to do it or your law firm always paid it in the past or you thought your corporate employer was supposed to do that. You are not relieved of your responsibility because you didn't get the bill, or because someone lost it. State Bar case law holds that as an attorney, you are charged with the knowledge that you have to pay dues, and you have an affirmative obligation to make sure your membership fee is paid.
Another absolute responsibility is to comply with your Mandatory Continuing Legal Education requirements. All attorneys whose last names begin with letters N through Z were supposed to finish all their required educational hours, and report them to the State Bar, by Jan. 31. If you didn't complete the required hours, do it as quickly as possible. There also is a noncompliance fee for being late in either completing your necessary hours or in reporting them to the State Bar.
More important, if you don't complete and report your MCLE hours in a timely fashion, you can be placed on "administrative inactive enrollment," which is the equivalent of suspension from practicing law, until you fulfill your MCLE requirement.
Then, there is the very mundane but very important duty to keep your "membership records address" with the State Bar up to date. Business and Professions Code Section 6002.1(a) requires attorneys to keep their addresses current and notify the State Bar within 30 days after any change. Of course, it should be made in writing, so that you can prove your notification. You should verify that the change has been made by checking your record on the State Bar's Web site at www.calbar.org.
You are responsible for making certain that the State Bar knows where to contact you. If the State Bar doesn't receive or process your notification, you can have a major headache. First, you won't get reminders about paying your dues and reporting your MCLE. Worse, if you don't respond to inquiries by the State Bar regarding a complaint against you, and the matter ends up in a default proceeding in the State Bar Court, you will be placed on "involuntary inactive enrollment," which is the same as being suspended from practice, until you get your default set aside by the State Bar Court.
The bottom line on these administrative requirements is that they are all critical, and they are all easy to check to be certain that you are in compliance. As usual, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Every year, hundreds of attorneys are suspended or placed on inactive enrollment unnecessarily. They frequently panic and then spend a lot more time and money to get out of trouble than it would have taken to prevent the problem in the first place. The proverbial ounce of prevention in this area is well worth the pound of cure.
JoAnne Earls Robbins practices with Karpman & Associates of Los Angeles and was a hearing judge with the State Bar. She can be reached at karpethics@aol.com.
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