The state’s head of attorney regulation wants more information available to the public about lawyers who have complaints against them or are facing discipline.
Currently, people can receive information about an attorney only if a formal complaint is filed with a judge, who will decide whether to discipline the lawyer.
John Gleason, the state’s regulation counsel, said people have the right to know whether an attorney they are about to hire has had problems with other clients.
“It’s time we eliminate the secrecy around our system,” he told the Attorney Regulation Advisory Committee of the Supreme Court.
But members of the Colorado Bar Association raised concerns about attorney-client confidentiality being exposed in discipline complaints and the harm to attorneys’ reputations if unfounded complaints are released.
“I don’t see confidentiality as a bad word,” said Richard Hennessey, who represents the association’s ethics committee.
Gleason said he gets calls nearly every day from people asking whether their lawyer is facing punishment. In most cases he cannot say anything.
Alexander Rothrock, of the bar association’s hearing board pool, said attorneys with frivolous complaints would be damaged by the information being made public.
The Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel receives about 5,000 complaints a year and dismisses as much as 92 percent of them. The counsel doesn’t make others public because there is a letter of reprimand or a deferred treatment program.
The advisory committee voted to set up a subcommittee of lawyers, members of the public and others to study opening up the system.
