The State - News from Feb. 5, 1987

The State Bar of California is a year ahead of schedule in meeting the state Legislature’s deadline for paring its backlog of disciplinary cases against attorneys. A bill passed last year requires the Bar to process 80% of the 6,700 pending cases by Dec. 31, 1987. But Bar President Orville A. Armstrong said 80.6% of the cases were handled by last Dec. 31, and that he hopes to eliminate the backlog entirely by the time he leaves office in September. In 1986, 38 attorneys were disbarred, a 52% increase over 1985. The number of attorneys who resigned with charges pending against them increased 103%--from 34 in 1985 to 69 in 1986.