Vol. 34, No. 1, 8. An Insider's View.

• Author: by Sleeter C. Dover, Esq. Executive Director, Wyoming State Bar

Wyoming Bar Journal

2011.

Vol. 34, No. 1, 8.

An Insider's View

Wyoming Bar JournalIssue: February, 2011An Insider's Viewby Sleeter C. Dover, Esq. Executive Director, Wyoming State BarLight at the end of the tunnel

No, this time that hght is not the proverbial oncoming train! It is a helping hand, a new beginning, a way out, or maybe even a lifesaver. Wyoming State Bar members that find themselves in "hot water" with Bar Counsel and/or the Board of Professional Responsibility (BPR) due to chemical dependency or abuse, or other behavioral health problems, will now have a new third-party provider available to bring to life the provisions as initially envisioned in Section 14, Diversion Program, of the Disciplinary Code of the Wyoming Court Rules.

Following extensive review and consideration of the relevance and continuing efficacy of many long-standing bar committees and programs, the Officers and Commissioners (O and C) made a determination that in light of more recent policy, practice and goals, the ongoing substance and chemical abuse testing and monitoring system should be substantially enhanced.

Bar counsel has outlined four primary requirements to meet the needs of the diversion program.

1. Evaluation of the member in question to determine what monitoring/treatment is necessary. 2. Establishment of the program to meet the monitoring, testing, and treatment needed. 3. Arrange for monitoring and testing to insure compliance with the treatment plan. 4. Reporting process to report compliance or violations to bar counsel.

In light of the introduction of the Wyoming Lawyers Health Benefit Plan (WLH-BP) that includes a substance abuse benefit for treatment; the recently approved Incapacitated status now available to members (see WSB Bylaws, Article I, Section 3(a)(6)); the current consideration of the Bar of introducing an Employee Assistance-type plan, at no cost to members, that would provide for telephonic on-call counseling and referral for most, if not all, of the everyday professional, social, and familial stressors that our members deal with on a daily basis, it became clear that a new and more clinical approach was needed beyond the long term service previously provided by the members of the Lawyers Assistance Committee. All of these, and other modern life-living potentially debilitating issues and challenges...