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July 2009
We do not make jokes, we simply watch the LA Times, the Orange County Register and CID/HOA board of directors and report the facts
Lowering
the Bar – A Kinder Gentler California Bar
Posted By CotoBlogzz 06-10-2009 1:00 PM
The California Bar was created by the state legislature in
1927 as a public corporation within the judicial
branch of government, serving as an arm of the
California Supreme Court. All State Bar members are
officers of the court.
In part, the mission of the California State Bar it to assure
that the public is protected and served by attorneys
and other legal services providers that meet the
highest standards of competence and ethics, to assure
that all people have access to high quality legal
services regardless of financial or other
circumstances and to assure that the State Bar
is an accountable leader in improving the
administration of justice and ensuring the rule of law
in our civil society
In theory the State Bar’s discipline system is designed to
protect the public, the courts and the profession from
attorneys who violate ethical rules covering their
professional conduct. All consumers have to do to file complaints about an attorney
is to call the bar’s toll-free number (1-800-843-9053).
The Office of the Chief Trial Counsel, which is
responsible for reviewing charges of lawyer
misconduct, then investigates and prosecutes these
complaints, then if a possible violation of the
bar’s Rules of Professional Conduct seems to exist,
a complaint form is sent to the consumer and
information gathering begins. Complaint forms are also
available on the State Bar’s Web site, www.calbar.ca.gov.
What happens next is easy:
After a review of numerous Bar complaints, our
conclusion is that the Bar does practically nothing.
Take
for example a Bar complaint filed against an attorney
working as a Legal Affairs
Manager for a
Homeowners Association and contacting a
Small Claims Judge hearing a case against her
employer. The
attorney offered letters
with several opinions, stipulations and
points in the case.
After last minute
interference by the HOA’s legal counsel’s
office with the Bar, reportedly the attorney was reprimanded
and told not to do it again.
However, in most cases, the Bar, even when the complaints have been
taken all the way up to the Supreme Court, the Bar's
typical response is “If you file a lawsuit
against the attorney and you win, we may then get
involved”
Specifically, the complaints we have reviewed
include:
·
Rule 1-120. Assisting, Soliciting, or Inducing
Violations
·
Rule 5-100. Threatening Criminal, Administrative,
or Disciplinary Charges
·
Rule 3-110 Failing to Act competently.
·
Rule 3-310 Avoiding the Representation of Adverse Interests
So, if you think
the California Bar has been overly protective
of its lawyers, you ain’t seen notin’ yet – now
that top Bar prosecutor Scott Drexel has been dumped.
Mike
McKee of the Recorder reported last week that Mr.
Drexel “the California State Bar's top
prosecutor, who in recent months has angered both
county prosecutors and discipline-defense lawyers with
a tougher stance on attorney misconduct, has
been let go”.
Mr. Drexel has served as chief trial
counsel for four years and worked at the State Bar for more than thirty years.
Mr. McKee quotes San Diego lawyer David Carr, president
of the loosely organized Association of Discipline
Defense Counsel as saying that Mr. Drexel "has
made some enemies during his tenure and hoped that the
discipline system will now work better, more
efficiently and more fairly for everybody”
From the Bar complaints we have reviewed, we can conclude
that discipline system has not worked at all for
consumers. Not
sure it will work any better with a Kinder Gentler
Bar.
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The
New Lawyer World, an Orgy of Fright
The
words “Leisure World” have become synonymous with
a few different “communities” but in particular,
for the purpose of this opinion piece, reference is to
Laguna Woods, or “LW.” Leaving incompetence
aside, it is the quintessential entanglement
consisting of a bloated conglomeration of
bureaucracies that are over-extended and lost in a
swamp of their own importance. For now, LW
appears to have become equivalent to a “Dead Man
Squawking.” Yup, in the opinion of this
author, it’s now a quagmire of dead-ends and
circular arguments draining vital resources and
adversely affecting the residents’ quality of life
if not their property values. It is amazing that
in order to accomplish ANYTHING of consequence the
residents have to contemplate suing their own
community!
Breach! Breach
of Fiduciary Duty: The Board? PCM, The
Property Management Company, or United Director
Michael Curtis ? - You be the judge
Levitt
Goes Public with New Laguna Woods Occupancy Agreement
Leisure World's Mutual Number Four President and Seal
Beach City Councilman Mike Levitt wrote an alternately
whiny and self-congratulatory letter to the editor
published by The SUN NEWSPAPERS in its Thursday, April
23, 2009 issue.
Law?
What Law? WE are the Law!
TO: All Directors and MembersGolden Rain
FoundationThird Laguna Hills MutualUnited Laguna Hills
MutualRecent find of Original Documents were mailed to
each President (GRF, Third Laguna Hills Mutual and
United Laguna Hills Mutual), together with...
Another
Corrupt Coto de Caza Election
All: I just threw the Delegate Election form sent by
CZ in the trash. I refuse to participate in a process
that intentionally disenfranchises our members.
Clearly, we have taxation without representation in
Coto/CZ.
Fiduciary
Responsibility, Part Three ? Coto the Caza Cityhood
Movement
A homeowner?s association board of directors, by
statue, is responsible for the maintenance, repair and
replacement of common areas. In Coto the Caza however,
the local governance regularly goes beyond
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