Anyone tried state bar? You can submit a complain against an attorney if you think he did something wrong. I am not sure at this point if you can only complain on your OWN attorney though. But if we can, I think submitting a complain against a collection attorney to state bar is another good way to attack them. State Bar is not a court so, they will not get you anything. But, they can probate them or even revoke their lawyer license. In the future, if I have to show a collection lawyer my intention to sue them, at the same time, I will show them my intention to submit a complain to state bar. Any other thoughts? By the way, when my divorce lawyer sucked, I told him that I am going submit a complain to the state bar. After then he became very nice. I think state bar is one of the thing that lawyers are afraid of most because if a lawyer keep getting complaint even though they are small complains, they could lose their license! (this is a lot worse than loosing thousands of dollars at a court for them!) Below is what I copied from state bar of california web site. All lawyers who practice in California must live up to ethical standards imposed by the California Supreme Court and the State Legislature. As an arm of the California Supreme Court, the State Bar investigates and prosecutes complaints against lawyers. Depending on the seriousness of the offense, a lawyer can be given a warning, put on probation, suspended from practicing law for a period of time, or disbarred - prohibited from practicing law in California. The Bar has limited authority to discipline lawyers for such behavior as rudeness or making a single honest mistake. It is limited by law only to complaints about unethical behavior as defined in the Rules of Professional Conduct and/or the State Bar Act.
What the Bar says and what they will do are two completely different things. They sound tough, but are not. Read the disciplinary records for the state. Most are public. Two things will get a lawyer in trouble - misappropriating money and getting convicted of a felony. You almost never see anything else. If you check the statistics - number of complaints vs. actual discliplinary actions, you will see only a very small number of complaints lead to action. I have watched this for thirty years, and it has not changed.
