APR 15 - Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection

• Proposed Changes to APR 15 - Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection (in Word Format)
• No comments are available at this time.

GR 9 Cover Sheet

Suggested Amendments

ADMISSION AND PRACTICE RULES (APR) Rule 15.

Submitted by the Washington State Bar Association

A. Name of Proponent:

Washington State Bar Association

Robin L. Haynes, President

B. Spokesperson:

Paula C. Littlewood, Executive Director

Jean K. McElroy, General Counsel/Chief Regulatory Counsel

C. Purpose:

The primary purpose of the suggested amendments to APR 15 is to incorporate Limited Practice Officers (LPOs) and Limited License Legal Technicians (LLLTs) into the ambit of the Fund, which would be renamed the Client Protection Fund. LPOs and LLLTs are practicing law and have clients whom they may injure. They should contribute to the fund that mitigates the losses incurred by legal practitioners, and that fund should review and make appropriate awards for losses to clients that fall within the coverage of the rule.

If the suggested amendments are adopted, the Court will need to issue an order setting the assessment amounts for LPOs and LLLTs.

Another substantive amendment would be to amend Regulation 9(b) and Example 1 to specifically state that the amount of the maximum allowable amount of a gift from the Fund would be $150,000. This would be consistent with recent action taken by the BOG to increase the limit on gifts paid out by the Fund to that amount.

There are also many amendments related to unifying the terminology used throughout the amended APR, including replacing the term “nonlawyers” with “community representatives who are not licensed to practice law”.

In addition, the term “Procedural Rules” applying to the rules that come after APR 15 would be changed to “Procedural Regulations” in order to avoid confusion caused by using the same term for both the primary rules and the subset of procedural rules.

D. Supporting Material:

http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/pdf/2016APRCoverLetterToCourt.pdf