Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504110123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission staff plans to investigate the State Bar this spring and summer and present a report to the commission in November.
The study was one of several in a 1995 work plan outlined by the staff at a commission meeting Monday.
Also to be studied are higher education construction, jail oversight, juvenile justice, community action agencies, the Department of Environmental Quality, and the feasibility of consolidating law enforcement functions of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
The State Bar regulates the legal profession in Virginia. It is funded by dues and other fees paid by its 26,000 lawyer-members and has 69 employees and an annual budget of $5.3 million, said Mary Yancey Spencer, the bar's assistant executive director.
The study will focus on programs, organization, management, staffing levels and budget growth. Commission members asked the staff to also look at how well the bar handles complaints against its members.
``One of the major complaints I've received is that the State Bar doesn't follow through adequately on complaints about lawyers,'' said Del. Clinton Miller, R-Woodstock.
If those complaints are valid, Miller said, he wants to know why there is a problem and what needs to be done to correct it.
``Do they need more tools to be effective? The legal profession takes a beating anyway, so we really want to get the profession operating at the highest level,'' said Miller, a lawyer.
Michael Rigsby, head of the State Bar section that investigates complaints against lawyers, said in an interview that ``overall, cases are processed fairly promptly.''
Rigsby said his recent computer analysis of 4,000 cases showed it takes an average of 190 days to resolve a complaint.
by CNB