This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more

Got it!

disbarment

Disbarment is the most severe sanction for attorney  misconduct, which involves the removal of an attorney's license  to practice law. Since the court has exclusive responsibility to license lawyers, it has sole authority / discretion to remove the license; less severe sanctions like suspension, probation, and reprimand can also be used to sanction misconduct when appropriate.

Causes of disbarment may include: a felony involving moral turpitude , forgery , fraud , a history of dishonesty, consistent lack of attention to clients, alcoholism or drug abuse which affect the attorney's ability to practice, theft of funds, or any pattern of violation of the professional code of ethics . 

Procedures and rules applicable to sanctions for attorney misconduct vary by state. In states that have adopted American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct , which includes every state but California, disbarment in one state or court is grounds for disbarment in other jurisdictions that have adopted the Model Rules.

Under American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the court or board shall consider the following factors when imposing sanctions  after a finding of lawyer misconduct:

• Whether the lawyer has violated a duty  owed to a client, to the public to the legal system, or to the profession;
• Whether the lawyer acted intentionally, knowingly, or negligently;
• The amount of the actual or potential injury caused by the lawyer’s misconduct; and
• The existence of any aggravating or mitigating factors.

[Last reviewed in August of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team
]

Keywords

• lawsuits-court

• lawyer

Wex

• ACADEMIC TOPICS

• legal education and writing

• THE LEGAL PROCESS

• legal practice/ethics

• wex definitions

• courts and procedure

• legal education and practice