{"id":27061,"date":"2025-10-28T14:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/27061\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T14:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:41:07","slug":"sanctioned-lawyers-in-california-wont-get-their-records-expunged-after-top-court-rejects-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/27061\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctioned lawyers in California won&#8217;t get their records expunged after top court rejects proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/\" title=\"Home\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Home<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/news\/\" title=\"Read the Daily News\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daily News<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tSanctioned lawyers in California won&#8217;t get\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Ethics<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tSanctioned lawyers in California won&#8217;t get their records expunged after top court rejects proposal<\/p>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/authors\/4\/\" title=\"View this author&#039;s information\" style=\"color:{default_link_color};\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Debra Cassens Weiss<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dateline\">October 28, 2025, 9:17 am CDT<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/shutterstock_eraser_and_pencil.jpg\" alt=\"eraser and pencil\" height=\"334\" width=\"500\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The California Supreme Court has rejected a state bar proposal to automatically expunge records of attorney discipline other than disbarment after eight years. (Photo from Shutterstock)<\/p>\n<p>The California Supreme Court has rejected a state bar proposal to automatically expunge records of attorney discipline other than disbarment after eight years.<\/p>\n<p>The state supreme court rejected the expungement proposal Oct. 22, along with another proposal to lower fines on disbarred lawyers and to drop them for lawyers who are suspended or who resign while ethics charges are pending.<\/p>\n<p>The California Supreme Court announced its decisions in an <a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.courts.ca.gov\/news-and-events\/california-supreme-court-rules-state-bar-proposals-appoints-new-state-bar-court\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oct. 23 press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/2403442\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Law360<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/legalindustry\/california-supreme-court-rejects-plan-expunge-attorney-discipline-records-2025-10-24\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/therecorder\/2025\/10\/24\/california-supreme-court-rejects-proposal-to-expunge-lawyers-discipline-records\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Law.com<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyjournal.com\/articles\/388247-california-supreme-court-rejects-state-bar-plan-to-cut-sanctions-automatic-expungement\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Journal<\/a> have coverage.<\/p>\n<p>The expungement proposal by the State Bar of California was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/news\/article\/attorney-discipline-records-short-of-disbarment-would-be-expunged-after-eight-years-under-state-bar-plan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">viewed as a way<\/a> to address racial disparities in discipline and align the system with the practices of other regulatory agencies. It called for expunging disciplinary records short of disbarment as long as there was no additional discipline or pending disciplinary proceedings during the eight-year period.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal on fines would have lowered the amount from $5,000 to $1,000 for disbarred lawyers and would have dropped fines of $2,500 for suspended lawyers and $1,000 for lawyers who resign while ethics charges are pending.<\/p>\n<p>The California Supreme Court approved a third proposal, however, that allows law practice in California by military service members and their spouses if they are licensed elsewhere and in good standing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe court added safeguards,\u201d the press release said, \u201cby prohibiting licensure under this rule for applicants with prior disciplinary records or pending investigations in other states and requiring background checks to verify eligibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/contact?referrer=https:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/news\/article\/sanctioned-lawyers-in-california-wont-get-their-records-expunged-after-top-court-rejects-proposal\" class=\"feedback-cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n    Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home Daily News Sanctioned lawyers in California won&#8217;t get\u2026 Ethics Sanctioned lawyers in California won&#8217;t get their records&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20535,20540,7,9,8,20541,20539,6743,405,721,20542,20536,20543,20538,10020,20537],"class_list":["post-27061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-aba-journal","tag-bar-associations","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-career-practice","tag-careers","tag-ethics","tag-government","tag-law","tag-lawyer-discipline","tag-legal-news","tag-military-veterans","tag-military-law","tag-state-government","tag-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}