Given that the Virginia government ignores issues of its failure I attempted to post on
on the effectiveness of the Bar as a regulatory agency. I approached it with the precept of posting the "Effectiveness" of the Bar's implementation, apparently I did not have a
policy. This is interesting in that since the metrics that would support my claims are swept under the carpet and people that do stand up to this system are marginalized.
Effectiveness
The effectiveness of the Virginia State Bar in regulating its members and protecting the citizens of Virginia is questionable.
In
2000 the Virginia State Bar changed its policy from the
Code of Professional Responsibility to
"Professional Guidelines and Rules of Professional Conduct". This change allows the VSB to dismiss "strategy" complaints. The only regulation comes from the ability of a damaged client to afford another member to address the offending member of the Bar. There are items that are addressed by the VSB, attendance, billing and filing a paper. What the Bar does not address is a member that chooses a "strategy" that does not include a discovery, an attorney that chooses not to review evidence or contact
witnesses. There is also question as to how the Bar handles cases of
attorney desertion. The Bar handles attorney desertion by sending the files and dismissing the client, there is no regard for the clients state or their damaged case, this is relevant given that the old
Code of Professional Responsibility specifically addressed integrity of the profession, propriety, diligence and competence.
When one complies with the VSB's instructions in addressing the attorney failure described above by retaining another member, the Bar's "strategy" mantra is repeated along with being told that to address attorney failure would be cost prohibitive - this is not effective regulation or to use some discarded words
"Assist in Maintaining the Integrity and Competence of the Legal Profession.".
In this era where the statistics of professional games, football for example, are minutely maintained, every last fumble is documented, there is no such metric maintained on those who have chosen a profession that represents a citizen in arbitration of disputes. The Virginia State Bar does not collect client "strategy" grievances, it does not separate a disgruntled client from one that was poorly represented, it is not able to support its claim of member diligence. As a result any client "researching" a prospective attorney has no metric that might identify the diligence of the member, their failure rate or even a potential bias. A "strategy" failure that the Virginia State Bar could identify would be a client complaining that they provided their attorney with an outline of material and the attorney did not review it. An example of identified relevant material would be failing to contact medical professionals representing years of treatment, obtaining store video of an event, witnesses or documents
*.
The ethics that the Virginia State Bar
discarded in
2000
- CANON 1. A Lawyer Should Assist in Maintaining the Integrity and Competence of the Legal Profession.
- CANON 2. A Lawyer Should Assist the Legal Profession in Fulfilling Its Duty to Make Legal Counsel Available and Should Render Pro Bono Publico Legal Services.
- CANON 3. A Lawyer Should Assist in Preventing the Unauthorized Practice of Law.
- CANON 4. A Lawyer Should Preserve the Confidences and Secrets of a Client.
- CANON 5. A Lawyer Should Exercise Independent Professional Judgment on Behalf of a Client.
- CANON 6. A Lawyer Should Represent a Client Competently.
- CANON 7. A Lawyer Should Represent a Client Zealously Within the Bounds of the Law
- CANON 8. A Lawyer Should Assist in Improving the Legal System.
- CANON 9. A Lawyer Should Avoid Even the Appearance of Professional Impropriety.
In conclusion in recent times the citizen requires all the protection from social and governmental abuses that can be mustered. The Virginia State Bar is NOT ensuring the "Integrity and Competence of the Legal Profession", the citizen can have no confidence that they will be competently represented when they hire a member of the Virginia State Bar.
Police abuse, corporate predators and criminals get a "bailout" because they know and can buy the system, when they talk representation the criminal says "how much" - they are profitable "clients of choice". With the
2000 change the citizen cannot argue to the regulatory institution that their attorney did not represent them "Zealously Within the Bounds of the Law" because this is "strategy" and "strategy" is not addressed by the
Virginia State Bar.
