Court Opinion

ID: 9632512
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:17:46.8159+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:41:30.524222
License: Public Domain

BIRD, C. J., Dissenting.
The majority misconstrues petitioner’s argument. Here, petitioner does not seek to relitigate his guilt. The majority does not seem to grasp this aspect of his argument. Rather than relitigating his guilt, petitioner merely seeks to demonstrate the facial invalidity of his conviction in a manner similar to challenging an invalid prior conviction in a criminal proceeding. (See, e.g., Veh. Code, § 23208.)
Petitioner asks that the State Bar be required to follow the procedures outlined in rules 501-576 of the Rules of Procedure of the State Bar. Since the conviction he suffered was invalid, he contends that the facts underlying the alleged misconduct should have been reviewed and the invalid conviction should not have been used as a basis for circumventing the procedural due process rights inherent in a hearing under rules 501-576.
Without ever addressing the substance of petitioner’s argument that he should be entitled to the procedural safeguards accorded in ordinary proceedings, the majority inexplicably reiterate the same point which petitioner asserts: “[I]f successful in reversing [szc] his capping conviction in this . . . forum, petitioner still could be investigated and disciplined for his misconduct . . . .” (Maj. opn. at p. 568.)
Indeed, petitioner has sought an investigation of his conduct in the context of an original proceeding from the beginning. In missing the point of his argument, the majority never really address this contention nor do they make a convincing case as to why it lacks merit.
Where, as here, a conviction was apparently invalid on its face, there seems to be no reason why the State Bar should not have investigated the facts of the alleged misconduct in proceedings in which the accused attorney would have been accorded procedural fairness.