Michael Oths

As Michael Oths, President of the National Organization of Bar Counsel observed in his oral presentation to the court, standards governing professional conduct and responsibility are set forth in a code separate from the criminal and general civil codes.

Thus, were we to conclude that a discipline system is unnecessary for the reasons asserted, doubt would be cast upon the necessity of admitting individuals to practice before the courts.Indeed, the same would be true for any profession: anyone asserting expertise could offer services.

In his brief, Mr. Caso asserted that the public is better protected today than it was in 1986, and further suggested at oral argument that this is because the backlog of complaints that is now growing includes complaints of varying degrees of merit, while the backlog in 1986 included more serious matters that already had been subject to some investigation and evaluation.We do not, of course, know the composition of the present backlog, but it is not unreasonable to assume that because complainants must make extra efforts to file a written complaint and submit it to the bar, in fact the present backlog contains a larger percentage of serious allegations than the mix of complaints normally processed by the bar discipline system.