Halt - Lawyer Discipline Best Practices

http://www.halt.org/reform_projects/lawyer_accountability/petition_form.php

Please sign this petition.  The state of IL has adopted MOST of these and we really need number 10.

To: Illinois State Bar Association

Lawyers occupy a position of special trust in our society. When they violate that trust, they should face swift and serious consequences?and consumers should have the right to know about it. While the disciplinary process is often structured to protect abusers rather than consumers, many state bars have instituted reforms that streamline the disciplinary process, impose meaningful punishments and protect the rights of consumers. As a supporter of HALT, I urge you to work with your state's disciplinary agency to adopt the 10 Best Practices printed below. Lawyers are sworn to uphold the law. They should not be above it.

10 Best Practices

1. Disclose a lawyer's complete and disciplinary history so that consumers can make informed decisions about whether to hire an attorney.

2. Host a user-friendly Web site that is easy to find and provides helpful information about the discipline process.

3. Discipline lawyers with formal, serious and public measures.

4. Permanently disbar lawyers who commit abusive practices against clients.

5. Abolish gag rules that prevent people from speaking publicly about complaints they've filed.

6. Publicize the availability of lawyer discipline programs through required client notification and local advertising.

7. Open lawyer disciplines hearings to everyone to increase the public trust.

8. Provide ordinary citizens with a majority voice on the panels that decide attorney misconduct cases.

9. Grant clients and witnesses immunity from civil liability for any information given to the agency during a disciplinary investigation.

10. Allow citizens to appeal initial complaint dismissals and hearing panel discussions.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin

Group gives tips for lawyer disciplinary agencies

By John Flynn Rooney
Law Bulletin staff writer

A national legal reform group has recommended that state lawyer discipline agencies adopt 10 “best practices” to enhance public confidence in those disciplinary systems.

HALT Inc.’s Lawyer Discipline Best Practices report was publicly released earlier this year, said Rodd M. Santomauro, the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based group. HALT has long advocated for transparency within lawyer discipline systems, he said.

“We felt that a series of 10 best practices that could be uniformly adopted by all 50 states would not only protect America’s legal consumers, but could also act as a check and balances system within the various disciplinary agencies,” Santomauro said.

The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission sent a detailed written response about the best practices to HALT in 2010, said ARDC Deputy Administrator James J. Grogan. Illinois has already adopted a number of HALT’s recommended practices, he said.

“The reason we decided to participate was because it’s important to provide to a wider community how things operate in Illinois,” Grogan said.

“We believe in transparency and scrutiny,” Grogan said. “It’s good to have questions raised as to practices and policies.”

Among the practices recommended by HALT is that discipline agencies provide easily accessible, user-friendly websites to access information about attorney discipline. The report gave the ARDC’s website, iardc.org, high marks.

“Illinois really does serve as a model for the rest of the country,” Santomauro said. “I think it is the best or among the best when it comes to a user-friendly website that provides helpful information about the discipline process, ” Santomauro said.

George B. Collins, who has represented lawyers accused of misconduct before the ARDC since the agency began operations in 1973, said the commission’s website is easily accessible for lawyers who started practicing before computers became prevalent.

“I can use it,” said Collins, a partner with Collins, Bargione & Vuckovich.

Another of HALT’s recommended practices calls for disclosing a lawyer’s full disciplinary history so that potential clients can make an informed decision about retaining a particular lawyer. HALT also urges that lawyers be disciplined with formal and public sanctions.

In Illinois, the Supreme Court has the final say in most attorney disciplinary cases by publicly issuing sanctions ranging from reprimand to disbarment. Another recommendation calls for opening lawyer discipline hearings to everyone.

The ARDC’s Hearing Board panels act like trial courts in the disciplinary process, while the Review Board functions as an appellate tribunal. Hearing Board and Review Board proceedings have been open to the public since 1989.

Another recommendation calls for providing clients and witnesses with immunity from civil liability for any information given to a disciplinary agency as part of an investigation.

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 775 provides that any person submitting a complaint to the ARDC is immune from civil liability, so long as the communications are made to the ARDC, Grogan said.

HALT’s final recommendation suggests that citizens be allowed to appeal the initial dismissals of disciplinary complaints and hearing panel decisions.

“Illinois, without the instigation of HALT, has an excellent [disciplinary] system that provides essentially all of the recommendations from HALT,” except for the recommendation allowing citizens to appeal, Collins said. “And they shouldn’t have that.”

In Illinois, individuals with grievances about lawyer misconduct don’t file formal complaints, Collins said. Those complaints are brought by the ARDC administrator’s office. “Illinois has been doing many of those things [HALT recommends] since 1973,” Collins said.

Grogan said he plans to provide the ARDC’s seven commissioners with copies of HALT’s best practices report for them to review. The report can be found at halt.org