Professional Legal Studies Capstone – Statutes
In California, various state statutes have been enacted to preside over the professional conduct of attorneys popularly known as State Bar. These statutes encourage ethical and professional practice with the aim of preventing misconduct. Until 31st October, the legal practice in California was guided by a set of rules enacted in 1992 that included statutes on rules of court, State Bar, and professional conduct (Rhode, 2018).
The California Supreme Court enacted a new set of rules that govern the State Bar professional conduct of licensed attorneys within the state effective of 1st November 2018. The statutes were published by the State Bar of California (Funk & Mullen, 2018).
Enacted and enforced by the State Bar of California board of trustees, these rules aim at protecting the public and promoting confidence and respect in the legal practice (Alfini et al., 2018). The State Bar also mandated in licensing qualified attorneys and regulating the legal profession as well as enforcing disciplinary actions to ensure competent and ethical legal practice.
Failures to adhere to the statues with an obligatory or prohibitory requirement imposed by the rules elicit disciplinary procedures. The rules, however, do not necessarily attract any legal liability. According to the State Bar of California (2018), though the rules are meant to regulate professional conduct, it is possible for attorneys to violet the rules even when they are not practicing.
Lawyers are therefore required to consider the deficiencies in the admission of justice and observe their roles as advisors to clients with special functions as actors in the legal system. The statues, therefore, encourage legal practitioners to devote their services to the poor and any individual who may not afford to hire adequate legal services (Jimenez et al., 2018).
Among the provisions of the statutes, professional competence is of key importance. Legal practitioners prohibited from knowingly and purposefully fail to deliver their professional duties (Gillers et al., 2018). The statutes also require practicing lawyers to learn and be skilled in the profession as well as possess physical, emotional, and mental abilities that are necessary for the delivery of duties.