Report 2009-030 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2009-030: State Bar of California: It Can Do More to Manage Its Disciplinary System and Probation Processes Effectively and to Control Costs (Release Date: July 2009)

Recommendation #5 To: Bar of California, State

To make certain that the State Bar provides accurate and complete descriptions to its various stakeholders so they can evaluate the effectiveness of its disciplinary system over time, the State Bar should identify in its annual discipline report the types of cases that it does not include in its calculation of backlog and explain why it chooses to exclude these cases. Specifically, the State Bar should identify that it presents its backlog by case rather than by member, and that it does not include intake, nonattorney, abated, and outside examiner cases.

1-Year Agency Response

The State Bar provided a copy of its 2009 Annual Discipline Report demonstrating that it had begun including this information. The State Bar stated that it will include this information in each subsequent annual discipline report. Additionally, the State Bar stated that reporting the backlog composition is a work-in-progress and it continues to refine its methods for presenting the data to provide more clarity. (See 2011-406 p. 68)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2009-030

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.