Ethics Byte-focus Returns to Tighter Discipline With Supreme Court's Return of 24 Cases

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Citation: Vol. 07 No. 2012 Pg. 06
• Publication year: 2012
• Pages: 06

California Bar Journal 2012.

CBJ - July 2012 #06. Ethics byte-Focus returns to tighter discipline with Supreme Court's return of 24 cases

The California Lawyer
July 2012

Ethics byte-Focus returns to tighter discipline with Supreme Court's return of 24 cases

Recent signs suggest that the discipline pendulum (which shifts every decade or two) is about to radically switch once again. On Thursday, June 21, in an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court of California, which by law has the last word in attorney discipline, referred 24 (yes, twenty-four) cases back to the State Bar Court. These cases represent many hours of heavily negotiated, fact-intensive, detailed stipulations, which were signed, sealed and delivered to them. The ink was already dry on these settlements, in which the respondents, trial counsel, and State Bar Court judges had all signed off. In the past, some in the legal profession had assumed the Supreme Court would merely "rubber stamp" these State Bar Court's determinations. Obviously, that's not true anymore.

Every year, hundreds of disciplinary stipulations are approved. This is a long, tedious process, involving the application of case precedents and the balancing of mitigating and aggravating factors. "The 24" were returned for "further consideration of the recommended discipline in light of the applicable attorney discipline...