I know a lot of you have endured injustice in the hands of your own attorneys and also by judges. Afterwards, many of you say, "I'm going to file a grievance." but then never follow through.
Of course, there are those who do follow through. I wish I knew more about whether there is any success in filing grievances and if anyone out there has a story, I'd love to hear it!
There are guidelines to how an attorney is supposed to practice ethically. The guidelines are in the 2010 practice book right in chapter 1 under the heading "Rules of Professional Conduct". If you find that your lawyer has violated these rules, and you are not able to work out the problem with him or her, you are then encouraged to submit a grievance to the Statewide Grievance Committee.
Information about how to go about doing so is available on the Connecticut Judicial Website at the following URL: http://www.jud.ct.gov/SGC/.
There is also a judicial code of conduct by which judges are required to regulate their behavior. This is found in the 2010 practice book immediately after the Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers in a chapter called "Code of Judicial Conduct." This code encompasses Canons one through seven by which a judge should regulate his own conduct.
If you believe a judge has violated the guidelines in these Canons, send your complaint in writing to the Judicial Review Council. The Judicial Review Council is charged by statute to investigate allegations against a judge. Of course, I'm not sure how effective these complaints are. I've already had a judge say to me, go ahead and complain. I don't care! After all, these people are spin doctors, so they are experts on evading and avoiding any accountability. Still, I think it is worth a try, at least for the sake of closure.
In Connecticut, to obtain the procedures for filing a complaint against a judge write to: P.O. Box 260099, Hartford, CT 06126-0099. This isn't a very people friendly approach; you'd think they'd just post the complaint form online along with an address to send it to. But, you know, you do what you have to do. So if this is what you have to do in the State of Connecticut to file a complaint, go ahead and get started! Give it a shot
Meanwhile, I have just initiated a complaint against an attorney. Once I have gone through the process and have something to say about it, I'll let you know. If you have already gone through the process and have anything to share, I'd love to hear from you!
Hey Cathi
ReplyDeleteI was just trolling around and landed over here. Great information for your readers, as usual. Would love to know how that grievance works out. I read the other one about the "Attorney's Oath." You should know that there are many lawyers who take that oath seriously. Hard to believe, but it's true. The bad apples spoil it for the rest of us, unfortunately.
I think there may be a lack of definition regarding what is false and dishonest versus what is simply advocating for your client.
ReplyDeleteI filed a grievance which clearly stated the issues and how the law or laws were not followed . I had thought that the committee would clearly see the injustice and the wrong doing and side with me unfortunately that was not case they decided to side with the attorney . If you were to read the letter they sent me you would be appalled once again the injustice goes on
ReplyDeleteMy impression is that these grievance committees and Councils just rubber stamp and whitewash what judges and attorneys do no matter how illegal!
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