Consumer Advocate Wins Fight to Join Bar

Consumer advocate Richard H. Lubetzky, a longtime critic of the legal profession, finally won his arduous battle Friday to become a lawyer in California.

The state Supreme Court rejected charges by the California State Bar that Lubetzky, 39, of Los Angeles was morally unfit to practice law.

The justices said the evidence offered by the Bar was insufficient and ordered Lubetzky--who failed the Bar examination 13 times before passing in 1987--admitted to the profession.

Lubetzky is chairman of Consumer Advocates for Legal Justice, a group that assists people in filing professional disciplinary complaints against attorneys.

He was accused of repeatedly filing civil suits to harass former friends and of sending scores of obscene postcards to his chief antagonist and others. Lubetzky denied the charges but the Bar cited the presence of his fingerprint on one of the cards as evidence.

However, the high court said in an opinion issued Friday that Lubetzky’s charge that the print could have been planted by someone else was a plausible one.

“Apart from the fingerprint, there is virtually no evidence to (implicate Lubetzky) as the author of the obscene mail,” the court said.