It’s time to replace the Bar Association with an oversight agency that protects the public interest. When people have a complaint about the conduct of a particular lawyer or the legal system in general, the first thing they usually do is fire a complaint with the bar association. However, all they usually find there is interminable delays and reluctance to discipline one of their own. On top of putting victims of lawyer misconduct through additional bureaucratic hassle for nothing, the lawyers are given the identifying information that allows them to retaliate.

Now the Bar Association in Ohio is out to make an example of (and extort lawyer fees from) a family that acted on behalf of their own their own child. It’s time for the public to rise and say that this is the last straw. No one should be obliged to pay to enforce their rights under the law. People who can afford a lawyer obviously already have an unfair advantage: but people who can’t afford tens of thousands of dollars shouldn’t therefore be denied protection of their rights. People who have no way of protecting their rights might as well not be citizens of this country.

A friend of mine who is familiar with the legal landscape in Ohio recommended that anyone with an lawyer complaint there should contact the Clerk of the Ohio State Supreme Court and file a complaint against the lawyer with the Disciplinary Committee. The Disciplinary Committee of the Court governs the licensure of the attorneys in Ohio. I’m not sure if other states have similar mechanisms. I do know California has a general problem with oversight, ranging from deteriorating juvenile services to failure to curb judicial misconduct.

It has become a cliche to say the legal system is broken, but perhaps recent events will demonstrate that a major factor in the problem is that in the U.S. we’ve left oversight to the members of the club. A truly independent agency needs to be created to alleviate this problem.