California Supreme Court rejects State Bar plan to cut sanctions, automatic expungement

The state Supreme Court has rejected a State Bar proposal that would have reduced the monetary sanctions on disciplined attorneys.

The proposal would have lowered fines for disbarment from $5,000 to $1,000 and reduced to zero the current $2,500 sanction for a suspension and a $1,000 sanction for a resignation with charges pending.

The justices on Wednesday also rejected a State Bar proposal for an automatic, one-time expungement of an attorney's public disciplinary record if the lawyer had not had any further discipline imposed for eight years.

The recommendations were made by the State Bar's Ad Hoc Commission on the Discipline System, which said California's sanctions were higher than those of other states. Commission members "expressed widespread support for lowering discipline cost assessments and eliminating sanctions."

On expungement, the committee's executive summary said there was "widespread consensus regarding expungement of discipline records to align the State Bar with California's current criminal justice trends."

"Both were also viewed as a means to redress historical racial disparities in discipline and align the State Bar with California's current criminal justice trends and the practices of other regulatory agencies," the report added.

But the justices, without comment, balked at the State Bar's proposals. It only approved amendments to clarify how attorneys may pay sanctions in installments.

Justices also approved, with modifications, a plan to honor the professional licenses of military personnel and their spouses across state lines with limited restrictions to bring California's rule in line with federal amendments under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

The court appointed Pasadena Assistant City Attorney Alison R. Worthington as a State Bar Court judge in Los Angeles. She will replace U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Central District of California judge last December after her nomination by President Joe Biden.