The year that President Bush was elected into office, the year 2000 the Virginia State Bar changed from addressing "strategy" with Code of Professional Responsibility to avoiding "strategy" with Professional Guidelines and Rules of Professional Conduct.
We know this because an attorney my girlfriend retained deserted her after five years. According to the Washington Post this attorney had a drug problem and was stealing their clients settlements. My girlfriend had been a probono client for five years, had gone further into debt seeing a specialist for the injury that this attorney was supposed to be addressing. Expecting the Virginia State Bar to adhere to the old Canon 1, Maintaining Integrity and Competence of the Legal Profession I told her that the institution would ensure that she was represented - it did not. They sent the files, told her that the case was still active and discarded her. We went to another member and they informed my bankrupt girlfriend that the case was too old and the Bar would take all this attorneys assets.
Since the 2000 desertion my girlfriend had a breakdown and was in need of legal assistance, again retained members failed to review provided material that included doctors, therapists and store video. According to the Virginia State Bar the attorney failure that we experienced falls under the umbrella of "strategy". The Bar then told my girlfriend the damaged client that she could buy another attorney who may or may not represent her competently. The institution goes on to claim that its members are "diligent", when pressed to provide the "customer complaint" metric one finds that they do not maintain it, therefore any claim of diligent members has no foundation. The excuse from the population is that every client would claim failed representation, this is avoidance, an inability to separate the real complaints from mischief an odd stance given the profession. This avoidance provides a niche for negligence and failed representation. In our case we walked into the attorneys office with material or where to locate material to support our case and the attorneys failed to research it. Going to other Virginia attorneys to address malpractice results in the claim that it was the attorneys "strategy", apparently "strategies" involving negligence, conflict of interest, bias or just incompetence are acceptable - protected by cronyism and cost. Maybe if we were rich, well connected or a corporation we could buy competent representation, we are not any of the above and as a citizen I cannot expect to have competent legal representation in Virginia. I suspect that wealth has little to do with competent representation, the uncensored shortcut is always more profitable, why should an attorney invest the time when they can deny and claim the client has "sour grapes". In discussions with attorneys outside of Virginia I have heard that this state does not have a very good rating, there have been other abuses and Virginia is not doing anything to ensure "presumption of innocence". So much for the old Code of Professional Responsibility
Our Experiences with Virginia attorneys and the Bar
Attorney accountability
The Judicial theater needs serious reform, especially in Virginia. An example of attorneys representing their clients according to an interpretation of "law" can be made with Jay Scott Bybee and his memos justifying torture, a "strategy" that he chose for personal advantage. These would have been covered up, swept under the carpet if it depended on the industry professionals. That national example reflects Virginia's implementation by the Virginia State Bar in 2000 an Agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia, changed its policy from addressing "strategy" with Code of Professional Responsibility to avoiding "strategy" with Professional Guidelines and Rules of Professional Conduct.
Our experiences with members of the Virginia State Bar include attorneys that chose a "strategy" for personal advantage, included a member that deserted their clients and members that processed their clients for expediency. The Virginia State Bar accepts such "strategies" and tells the damaged clients that they can go and buy another member who then makes excuses - notably that it would be more than the client could afford. So much for "Rule of Law" in Virginia - "presumption of guilt" and "kangaroo courts reign".
Reform Attorneys with functional oversighthttp://criminaljustice.change.org/actions/view/reform_attorneys_with_functional_oversight
Attorney Oversight - Change.org
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/attorney_oversight
The diligent Virginia attorneys - a collection of ten so far...
http://home.comcast.net/~styx.cml-lsm/01/Cases/prolog.htm
http://www.vsb.org/site/regulation/code-of-professional-responsibility/
http://www.vsb.org/site/regulation/guidelines/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Bybee
Representation with Federal mandates....
I posted on What is Virginia doing about its loss of Sovereignty ? expressing concern about the position of the State as result of the new mandates that are apparently being implemented by the current administration - mandates that will need to be addressed or ignored. Supporting article Two More U.S. Military Units Assigned For Homeland Security
What type of legal representation would we expect if one is caught inside of Virginia's Constitution Free Zones by the military ? Would we have rights to counsel or a direct ride to Guantanamo ?
Could we expect the same response as we experienced with our Police assault attorneys that ignored evidence, the Bar/its members that dismiss attorney "strategy" failure and the Governor that responded that ours was a "local issue". Will the Governor respond that such activities is a "federal issue" ?
What type of "rule of law" is being implemented now ?