If you are dissatisfied with your attorney, the first step in taking any disciplinary action should be submitting a formal complaint. Most regulatory bodies offer English-language complaint forms online for filing grievances against lawyers.
Disciplinary committees consist of lawyers and nonlawyers who volunteer their time to investigate allegations of lawyer misconduct. If necessary, these committees can send letters of caution, admonition or private reprimand to an attorney accused of wrongdoing.
Client-Attorney Disputes
Lawyers frequently find themselves embroiled in disputes with their clients, whether the latter believes their lawyer charged too much or provided bad advice. When this occurs, clients have every legal right to seek damages in civil court or file a formal complaint with the state bar association.
Attorneys may face disciplinary action from the New York State Bar Association when engaging in misconduct. A disciplinary investigation usually commences upon receipt of a client, attorney, judge or arbitrator filing a formal complaint; however, it can also initiate itself when there is reason to suspect an attorney has broken a rule or regulations.
To be required to report another lawyer’s conduct, you must have firsthand knowledge of any violations and not simply relay hearsay or hearsay information. Furthermore, honesty must be shown when answering questions from disciplinary agencies; any lawyer found guilty of misconduct could face censure, suspension, or disbarment proceedings.
Lawyer Discipline
Rules of Lawyer Conduct require that any allegations of lawyer misconduct be reported to the appropriate professional authority. Complaint committees investigating such complaints consist of lawyers and nonlawyers volunteering their time to maintain high standards in their profession. Your complaint begins by submitting written details about an attorney’s misconduct; most disciplinary boards’ websites have an online form which details this requirement for submission of initial complaints; waiver of attorney-client privilege may be necessary as well as providing documents.
Many attorneys are subject to disciplinary complaints at some point in their careers, which should be taken into account when choosing an attorney for legal assistance. When making this choice, consider past disciplinary history alongside experience, case results, client reviews and relevant expertise relevant to your legal matter. It’s also important for attorneys to be honest in their responses to disciplinary agencies without admitting wrongdoing when no such wrongdoing occurred.
State Bar Complaints
Reasons exist why most state bar associations utilize grievance committees, where lawyers who violate professional ethics are disciplined by public members volunteering their time as grievance panels to investigate complaints against attorneys. Usually this process remains confidential unless public discipline or disbarment are agreed to; then the entire affair becomes part of public record.
First step to filing a complaint in your state: File your claim with your state disciplinary board. Each state’s process differs; please visit their websites for details on filing an official complaint form – such as New York’s, where users can fill out and submit online or print and mail in their complaints forms.
Once the disciplinary board reviews your complaint, they may or may not find misconduct. If no such conduct has been confirmed by their investigation, you will receive an explanation letter as part of that process. If misconduct has indeed been proven, however, your case is usually transferred to state court for further hearings and decision on punishment.
Fee Arbitration
Whenever there is a fee dispute between attorneys, either party should immediately notify their grievance committee of such conduct as failing to do so violates ethical obligations and could lead to public discipline of either.
Before or at the time of service of a summons in an action to recover fees and costs for professional services, lawyers must inform their clients about the availability of a fee arbitration program and of their right to arbitrate. Furthermore, this notice should contain instructions and procedures on how to initiate such proceedings.
Rule 8.3’s requirements for reporting attorney misconduct can be complex and should be assessed case-by-case. You generally must have firsthand knowledge of their misconduct that cannot be based solely on feelings, beliefs, suspicions, or hearsay. While it would not constitute misconduct to threaten to file a complaint against an attorney for not returning an undisputed fee to its client, reporting such conduct if firsthand knowledge arises that this conduct was deceptive or dishonest in billing processes would likely be required to report this conduct as it could violate rule 8.3.