It was not until actually filing a complaint against a State of Georgia attorney that I came to discover how apt the name of the State Bar of Georgia has become. I can state unequivocally that this lawyer-protective agency bars Georgians from preventing unprofessional and improper conduct by Georgia attorneys, judging from my own experience, not only as an aggrieved Georgian but as a retired professor of principles of law, business law, and contracts. The standard of proof that some Georgia attorney has behaved unprofessionally or violated the ethical requirements of the profession constitutes such a high bar as to protect Georgia attorneys from the consequences of their unwise or improper actions.
This is not the place to go into the specifics of my grievance against a local attorney, as my issue is with the procedures of the State Bar of Georgia which make a mockery of such grievances. When I first contacted a top Bar official, which in itself took several emails to achieve, I was immediately discouraged from filing any grievance or complaint. Without even bothering to have the full facts of the matter, I was essentially emailed to drop it. When I persisted, it took several requests to even receive the mandatory State Bar form in order to file my twenty-page grievance. Then, only a few day after that grievance was filed, it was mis-stated and condensed by their Grievance Counsel, and then dismissed out of hand. There is no way that some twenty pages of evidence could have been seriously studied in such a brief time.
But -- there is more! Shortly afterwards, our local paper carried a story that this same attorney was seeking an open judgeship, something which I vigorously oppose for solid and substantive reasons. So I again contacted the State Bar of Georgia, asking what information I could supply to the Judicial Nominating Commission from my grievance; were there any confidetiality rules or requirements? I have tried three time to get an answer, but not even any acknowledgement of these inquiries has been forthcoming. The State Bar of Georgia must know their own discosure rules, but they surely seem unwilling to share that information. Looks like one more bar -- this time, a bar to justice. Peer regulation in Georgia seems to protect the peers, not the public.
