Bill proposes new procedure for complaints against lawyers

New legislation moving at the General Assembly would give lawyers a better chance to fight complaints against them filed with the North Carolina State Bar.

Anyone can file a grievance against a member of the bar, and those complaints are reviewed in secret by the bar’s grievance committee. The process works much like a grand jury review, Sen. Michael Lee said, with the committee reviewing evidence but not hearing in person from the lawyer accused of wrongdoing.

The committee may dismiss a complaint, implement discipline or send the complaint along to a disciplinary hearing commission, which hears the complaint in public. Lee’s bill would add another step, giving the accused attorney a chance to appear before a new panel that would confidentially review grievance committee decisions.

“It’s really just a check on the system,” said Lee, R-New Hanover.

If the accused lawyer is cleared, the bill also says they can recover attorneys’ fees spent defending the case, and that the state bar would pay those fees.

The bill also makes various state bar documents confidential, particularly anything related to a request for ethics advice.

This measure was pasted Tuesday into House Bill 869, which was previously an unrelated bill. It cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee without opposition and heads to the Senate Rules Committee. From there the bill would head to the Senate floor.

The potential increased workload from the new process may mean a dues increase for licensed attorneys, who currently pay the state bar $300 a year. That’s the maximum allowed by law under a cap that the General Assembly put in place years ago. Lee said Tuesday it may be time to revisit the cap.

The state bar hasn't raised its dues since 2010.

Committee discussion on the bill also revealed at least some support Tuesday for further legal reforms, with Sen. Chuck Edwards saying he’d like to see changes to deflect frivolous lawsuits against business. Edwards, R-Henderson, is a business owner and a candidate for Congress this year in western North Carolina.

“I applaud your efforts to protect lawyers,” he told Lee Tuesday. “I would just like to remind this committee that the same protections ought to be in place for businesses.”