Quoted in the Daily Journal

Proponents say the insurance disclosure rules would help to protect the public from shoddy legal representation and ease the burden on members who pay $40 annually into a fund that covers uninsured attorneys. That fund pays out $6 million annually and its reserves are dwindling, according to former bar president John Van de Kamp.
      Attorneys have 90 days to comment after the proposed rules are posted in the bar’s Web site. But some quickly expressed opposition.
      Ed Poll, who runs LawBiz Management Co., and is a vice chair of the bar’s Council of Section Chairs, said any such requirement would be prohibitively expensive to sole practitioners and lawyers in small firms.
      Moreover, he said, the proposal "does not protect the public."
      "If the bar really wanted to protect the public, they would not stop at disclosure, they would mandate insurance," said Poll, whose Web site, www.lawbiz.com, displays comments from lawyers who are against the idea. "But if they did that, the know they would have a riot on their hands."

Written by Savannah Blackwell and Erin Park, Daily Journal Staff Writers … www.dailyjournal.com  … June 20, 2006

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