On May 2, 2005, the New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments on the Court’s
complainants from disclosing the existence of their complaints (under pain of criminal
contempt charges), unless a formal complaint has been issued. Explaining R.M. vs.
“The rule makes a grievance against a lawyer secret until an ethics
committee determines it is backed up by reasonable cause and issues
a formal complaint. In the vast majority of cases, that never happens.
Either the grievance is dismissed as unfounded or, as happened in R.M’s
case, the lawyer agrees to correct a minor ethical lapse and no formal
disciplinary action is taken.
” ‘R.M. can never criticize the ethics committee for not doing more regarding
her grievance,’ [R.M’s attorney] said. “In a free society, government may
not constitutionally prohibit people from discussing a topic simply to protect
people’s reputations.”
ethicalEsq stated his opposition to such “gag rules” early and often (see post), as has
the legal reform group HALT. In May 2004, HALT reported in its eJournal that they had
submitted Comments to the NJ Supreme Court, asking the Court to declare the discipline
gag rule unconstitutional as applied to complainants. HALT also suggested commentary and
– click here for the rest of this post, which concludes:
There’s no excuse for such disciplinary gag rules. Take
a look at the Doe case from Tennessee, if you need further
persuasion. Remember to subsitute the name of another
profession, if you’re a lawyer who doesn’t want to give up our
Family’s little penchant for secrecy.
To the N.J. Court and Bar: “Please give up the decoder rings
and pinky rings. Secrecy breeds contempt, not respect.
No More Omerta.”
p.s. The same goes for Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Montana,
Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Washington, which have
similar gag rules — and the 27 state grievance committees that
strongly advise or request consumers to keep their grievances secret.
after the big flock
silence
geese flying north
the village of nondrinkers
is silent . . .
plum blossoms
“Every culture has great restorative stew of humble 
Even if you won’t be accepting any invitations to whack a pinata 
That whipper-snapper 