No Excuse

The Washington Post has a story today on the bar discipline case involving the former Administrative Law judge who had sued over a pair of pants in a case that the D.C. courts disposed of in 2007.

The Post followed up on the issue we raised earlier this week – the seven year delay in proceeding by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel – and got this response:

In an interview, [Disciplinary Counsel] Shipp declined to say why the Bar waited so many years to seek sanctions against Pearson. But in a December filing, the counsel admitted it had “no excuse” in not bringing such disciplinary action against Pearson earlier.

“The public, the courts and the Bar deserve better,” Shipp wrote.

A similar delay in a case resolved in 2014 got a similar quote

“We should have done better,” said Bar Counsel Wallace Shipp Jr. He declined to discuss the details of Saito’s case.

Agreed.

We recently noted another case involving a 14 year time period to secure an initial report in a potential disbarment case.(Mike Frisch)