I’ve posted my op/ed piece, D for Discipline in the “Essays” folder. Although aimed at the system of lawyer discipline in New York State, the essay describes problems that can be found across the nation, and suggests solutions based on the recommendations of the national legal reform group HALT. The Consumer Federation of America recently endorsed HALT’s proposals, calling for an end to secret hearings and private reprimands, a large increase in the number of nonlawyers on panels, the investigation of all complaints, and the opening up of attorney discipline records.
For a detailed look at each state’s disciplinary problems, see the Lawyer Discipline Report Cards issued in October, 2002, by HALT for all 51 jurisdictions. HALT concluded that the American system is still broken — as an ABA Commission stated in 1992, lawyer discipline is “too slow, too secret, too soft, and too self-regulated.”