Opinion ID: 1893113
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Claim of undue delay

Text: Petitioner claims that the director has unreasonably delayed the investigation for 5½ years and that the investigation should therefore be dismissed. We calculate that the actual investigation was commenced 4 years before the charges were filed  a lapse of time still substantially longer than the average attorney disciplinary investigation  dating from the director's May 1980 notification to petitioner that because of new evidence the investigation of the Wisconsin physician's complaint was being reopened. Our concern, however, is not directed so much at the length of the delay itself but at whether the delay has resulted in prejudice to the attorney being investigated. In re Williams, 221 Minn. 554, 564, 23 N.W.2d 4, 9 (1946). A fundamental goal of every disciplinary action is protection of the public. See, e.g., In re Hansen, 318 N.W.2d 856, 858 (Minn.1982). Requiring prejudice to an attorney before dismissing an action for unreasonable delay is consistent with that goal. Unless the attorney has been unfairly prejudiced, it would not be in the public interest to dismiss a disciplinary proceeding simply because of a failure to prosecute promptly. Among the many cases consistently adhering to that principal are Ramirez v. State Bar of California, 28 Cal.3d 402, 619 P.2d 399, 169 Cal.Rptr. 206 (1980); In re Bossov, 60 Ill.2d 439, 328 N.E.2d 309, cert. denied, 423 U.S. 928, 96 S.Ct. 275, 46 L.Ed.2d 256 (1975); Attorney Grievance Comm'n v. Kahn, 290 Md. 654, 431 A.2d 1336 (1981); State ex rel. Nebraska State Bar Ass'n v. McArthur, 212 Neb. 815, 326 N.W.2d 173 (1982); In re Weinstein, 254 Or. 392, 459 P.2d 548 (1969), cert. denied, 398 U.S. 903, 90 S.Ct. 1689, 26 L.Ed.2d 61 (1970); In re Wright, 131 Vt. 473, 310 A.2d 1 (1973). We find no merit in this argument for dismissal. We add, moreover, that not only has there been no showing of prejudice but that much of the reason for delay is attributable to petitioner's own actions since November 1982 in resisting the director's investigation.