No Bar Dues Bill for Cal. Amid Reform Battle

The California State Bar has no authority to charge dues in 2017, because the Legislature failed to advance either of two dues bills amid battles over reform and turf.

The session ended at 2:30 a.m. Sept. 1 with the original dues bill, Assembly Bill 2878, being revived, amended, and passed in the Senate, but then failing to come up for vote in the Assembly. A subsequent bill, Senate Bill 846, was drafted after the Senate originally balked at A.B. 2878. A.B. 2878 proposed aggressive reforms without Senate or California Supreme Court input. S.B. 846 likewise failed to get ...