The California Bar is seeking a $125 fee increase--25%. It's justifications are absurd.
First, in 2018, the Bar broke off the California Lawyers Association--an organization that provided services to lawyers, and joining that organization requires a MINIMUM of $120. So we're already paying the Bar $120 extra dollars that the Bar wants to take again.
The Bar's justifications are even more dubious. https://lnkd.in/dYEMQDXv
It asserts that it needs $35/per members for merit increases, COLAs, and IT increases. Then it says it needs $39/member to fund existing staffing. Merit increase and COLAs ARE funding existing staffing.
The Bar has implemented a new "snitch" rule, requiring lawyers to report other lawyers. That might seem good; it's not. It just turns litigation more acrimonious. Now we have to report other lawyers; threats of reporting (which were always lame) now actually needed reporting. Guess what--the snitch reports are 60% of all reports. What percentage of these are actual complaints, much less discipline. It will be very low.
The bar also requires $21/member to pay for the fact it sold its HQ in San Francisco, and now leases that space. It is in San Francisco. Every other state agency is headquartered in Sacramento--the state Capitol. But the Bar insists on leasing office space in the most expensive city in the state. Amazingly, the Bar sold the building for $54M, after seeking $85M. So it either overestimated the value by more than 1/3rd, or gave a 1/3rd discount. Either way, pathetic.
Notably, the Bar claimed when it sold the building that (this really is a quote): "The sale is expected to shore up the State Bar financially."
And here it is a year later asking for a 25% fee increase.
The Bar also wants $5.75/member for it's CTAPP program. This is a program where the Bar asks every lawyer in the state to swear that their firm's client trust fund is properly managed, but most lawyers in private practice (unless they are sole practitioners or managing partners) have no control over CTAPP. The Bar should know this, though I suspect that the Trustees and the management is so detached from reality that they do not understand even the basics of practicing law.
Meanwhile, instead of discipline and protecting the public, the Bar has been engaging in programs to let non-lawyers own law firms (very dangerous) or let computer apps give legal advice (beyond dangerous, just outright stupid), while it has shown no ability to actually engage in discipline. The Tom Girardi scandal continues to show how the Bar just has not done its job, has gone after petty problems while allowing big red flags persist, and there is no demonstration that it is doing better. The reality is that the entire Bar (trustees and management) needs to be cleaned out.
The State Auditor says that Bar dues should go up $24.
Stabilizing housing with proactive, collaborative dispute resolution for providers and tenants
10moThis has great intersections with our committee on Public Disputes & Consensus Building Tina Patterson, MDR, MCIArb, CF APMP, Loraine Della Porta