Opinion ID: 1386894
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Remand to State Bar Court

Text: (1a) Petitioner requests that we grant him relief from default and remand the matter to the State Bar Court for a new hearing on the merits. (2) We are generally unsympathetic to attorneys' claims for relief from default in the State Bar Court. [A]n accused attorney has the obligation to obtain representation if he wants it, to appear at the hearing, and to present evidence. The hearing may proceed despite his voluntary absence, and his failure to participate is not grounds for a rehearing to present additional evidence. [Citations.] ( Hawk v. State Bar (1988) 45 Cal.3d 589, 597 [247 Cal. Rptr. 599, 754 P.2d 1096].) Petitioner did not appear. Further, after the default was entered, petitioner was sent notice of the default and was advised that he had 75 days after the entry of default to file a motion seeking relief. (See former Rules Proc. of State Bar, rule 555.1(b).) He did not file such a motion. Instead, petitioner now seeks relief from his default more than 75 days after the entry of default. (1b) The State Bar argues that petitioner's explanation for his failure to respond to the State Bar's charges is implausible, and that his motion to remand his case to the State Bar Court should be denied on this basis. [4] The State Bar presents two particular indicia that petitioner did know, or should have known, of the nature and outcome of the charges the State Bar filed against him. First, during the period from May 10, 1989, to October 6, 1989, petitioner received multiple notices of the State Bar proceedings to which he responded, in one instance, on July 7, 1989. The State Bar thus points out that petitioner knew of the proceedings at one point, and argues that this knowledge in itself clearly establishes his awareness that disciplinary proceedings had not been terminated. Second, the State Bar notes that the letter that petitioner has submitted from his supervisor at the State Public Defender's office indicates that from the first day of his employment as a deputy state public defender on December 18, 1989, through the diagnosis of his illness in March 1990, petitioner had completed his case assignments (according to a letter from the chief assistant state public defender) as a deputy state public defender in a capable, diligent manner. Indeed, the chief assistant state public defender noted that he had seen no evidence of aberrant behavior in petitioner. The State Bar argues that it is curious that evidence of petitioner's illness was entirely absent among the persons with whom petitioner worked, in spite of the fact that for much of this time his temporal lobe epilepsy was undiagnosed and while, presumably, petitioner continued to suffer from symptoms such as false memory. We agree with the State Bar that petitioner's claim that temporal lobe epilepsy precluded him from responding in the State Bar proceedings is implausible. Though his doctor attests that petitioner suffers from temporal lobe epilepsy, the doctor does not suggest that this ailment would account for petitioner's failure to respond to the charges filed against petitioner by the State Bar; indeed, after describing false memory as a symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy, petitioner notes that the false memories are not permanent but generally recede after a few days. Yet petitioner implies that this particular memory, that the State Bar charges had been dismissed, never receded even in the face of notices to the contrary. We find other facts which undermine petitioner's claim regarding the effect his disability had on his ability to respond to the State Bar proceedings. As the State Bar notes, the fact that petitioner practiced competently as a deputy state public defender for three and a half months before receiving effective treatment for his epilepsy suggests that petitioner was capable of assimilating and acting upon pertinent information. We see no reason to distinguish his clients' cases from petitioner's own case. Finally, petitioner was aware of recurring problems caused by symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy [5] at the time of the State Bar proceedings. This awareness establishes, at the very least, petitioner's inexcusable neglect in not providing some mechanism to prevent exactly this situation from arising (e.g., by retaining counsel to represent him or by alerting a secretary or other such person to monitor the progress of the proceeding). (See former Rules Proc. of State Bar, rule 555.1(a); Code Civ. Proc., § 473.) For all of the above reasons, we do not find that remand of petitioner's case to the State Bar Court is warranted. Accordingly, this request is denied.