Wisconsin May Reconsider Life-ban for Felonious Attorneys

While a demand for lifetime bans had already been rejected by an unanimous Supreme Court in 2010, latest developments indicate that Wisconsin may reconsider the issue and might promote lifetime ban for felonious lawyers.

A new report published by the Office of Lawyer Regulation Review Committee has made such a suggestion. The committee was appointed by the Board of Administrative Oversight in April 2011 to review the OLR process for handling ethics complaints against attorneys in Wisconsin.

The findings of the report mention that while most people feel the disciplinary process in place to be effective and good in general, the long term of complaints remaining confidential allowed felonious lawyers to continue practicing with impunity, even if the complaints against them had merits.

Suggestions of the committee include:

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1. The disclosure of complaints immediately upon the Preliminary Review Committee having determined that a complaint has the merits to move further
2. Preliminary Review should be more frequent than quarterly sessions
   

While in other states like New Jersey, felonious lawyers are debarred for life upon being convicted of felony, in Wisconsin, the maximum period for debarment is five years.

Of recent, there have been media reports of felonious lawyers practicing with impunity in Wisconsin courts. Last year, the Journal Sentinel found at least 135 attorneys with criminal records, including those convicted for stealing client funds, practicing happily in the Wisconsin bar.

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The Wisconsin disciplinary system for lawyers have been heavily criticized for lacking transparency, being awfully slow, and allowing lawyers to continue practice under investigation.

Last year too, the regulatory committee was criticized by the media for taking no action upon numerous sexually suggestive text messages sent to a woman complainant by Calumet County District Attorney Kenneth Kratz, while Kratz's office was looking into a complaint of domestic violence by the woman.

Ethics and disciplinary processes have been convoluted for centuries, but it needs to get more transparent and more assertive, according to the latest study in Wisconsin.

However, the report also takes pains to point out the principle of being innocent until proven guilty, and that as such, the disclosure of unproved complaints can cause undue suffering and loss of reputation to an attorney.

When last time, the idea of a lifetime ban upon a lawyer was rejected by the Supreme Court, a number of Justices, including Abrahamson expressed doubts and held that permanent revocation of license may leave an improperly convicted lawyer without any recourse.