The State Bar receives, investigates, and prosecutes complaints filed against California attorneys. On average the State Bar handles about 15,000 cases each year.
Under current law, the State Bar is supposed to complete its investigation and either charge or close a case within 180 days of receiving a complaint for standard cases, and 365 days for complex cases.
Each year, the State Bar has a significant backlog of cases that have not been processed according to these standards, and the State Bar has been criticized for taking too long to investigate and prosecute cases.
Last year, the Legislature directed the State Bar to develop new time standards and propose staffing levels necessary to complete most cases within those time standards.
Why we need your views The State Bar seeks public comment on proposed new case processing standards detailed below. The new standards are faster than current average processing times. They would require additional staffing to achieve.
How the Draft Standards Were Developed
Based on the Legislature’s direction, in an effort to improve case processing times, the State Bar is proposing new time standards that take into account the following factors:
- How the discipline process works: Different standards apply for cases closed or charged at each of three stages—Intake (initial review of complaints); Investigation (gathering information and evidence for complaints not closed in Intake); and Charging (doing any final investigation and drafting the Notice of Disciplinary Charges for complaints not closed in Investigation).
- Case complexity: Different standards apply complex cases that will take longer to investigate because they involve multiple charges, require the gathering and analysis of large numbers of documents such as bank or court records, or require other investigative steps that will take significant time.
- Case risk level: Different standards apply for investigations of higher risk cases. High risk cases include those involving vulnerable victims, significant risk of loss or other harm, or attorneys whose prior history of discipline suggests that they are likely to repeat misconduct.
To develop its new proposed standards, the State Bar also considered:
- Prior reports from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO 2019 Report) and California State Auditor (CSA 2022 Report, CSA 2021 Report, CSA 2019 Report) relating to State Bar discipline case processing.
- Other states’ case processing standards and times based on their own reports and American Bar Association data (ABA 2019 Survey on Lawyer Discipline Systems).
Draft Case Processing Standards
1: Average days to closure or charging based on actual case data over four years (2018-2021). For example, for high-risk/noncomplex cases, over the last four years the average time from receipt of the complaint to closure in investigation was 167 days.
2: Proposed standard for average days to closure or charging , with an assumption that staffing levels will be adjusted to enable the State Bar to meet these standards. For example, for high-risk/noncomplex cases, the proposed time standard would be an average time from receipt of complaint to closure in investigation of 120 days.