Report 2007-030 Recommendation 13 Responses

Report 2007-030: State Bar of California: With Strategic Planning Not Yet Completed, It Projects General Fund Deficits and Needs Continued Improvement in Program Administration (Release Date: April 2007)

Recommendation #13 To: Bar of California, State

The State Bar should continue its efforts to reduce its backlog of disciplinary cases to reach its goal of having no more than 200 cases.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From January 2012

The Office of Chief Trial Counsel has undertaken a series of initiatives aimed at eliminating the backlog by the end of 2011. These included the hiring of a new management team, forming dedicated backlog teams, instituting Saturday working sessions, and proposing new rules of procedure to accelerate the Early Neutral Evaluation stage of the discipline process. Since early October, the Office of Budget, Performance Analysis and Internal Audit has been providing weekly reports on the progress of OCTC toward meeting its goal. In November, the number of cases in backlog was well below the 2007 goal of 250. As of the December 16, 2011, the backlog was down to 75. We anticipate that the backlog will approach zero by the end of 2011.

A copy of the most recent backlog report is attached. The graph reports backlog figures by week. As of the week of December 16th, the backlog was down to 75 and is expected to be even lower by the end of the year. (See 2011-041, p. 188)

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

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All Recommendations in 2007-030

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.