Wilson signs bill to initiate inactive status

Attorneys who face a recommendation of disbarment by the State Bar Court will automatically be placed on involuntary inactive status beginning Jan 1, 1997.

Gov. Pete Wilson recently signed AB 2787, authored by Assembly-woman Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, which will also subject attorneys to summary disbarment for conviction of any felony involving moral turpitude, rather than just those which involve the practice of law.

The measure was crafted to shorten the length of time it takes to disbar an attorney, which currently runs six months to a year. Bar discipline officials say that it now could be shortened to about three months.

Sponsored by the State Bar, with input from the California District Attorneys Association, the bill also will:

• Make it easier for the bar to place an attorney on inactive status if he or she fails to participate in disciplinary proceedings;
• Provide for a nolo contendere plea for lawyers brought up for disciplinary actions, specifying that the plea will be treated the same as a guilty plea;
• Prohibit lawyers from interfering with bar investigations, in order to deter them from persuading clients to seal documents as a condition of settlement of malpractice cases.