(a) (1) The California State Bar shall prepare a report providing written justification for how it would use revenue generated by an increase in the mandatory annual license fee authorized by Section 6140 for active licensees and Section 6141 for inactive licensees. It is the intent of the Legislature to review this report in conjunction with legislation authorizing the State Bar’s licensing fee in 2025.

(2) This report shall include the State Bar’s calculation of the necessary fee increase to maintain its existing operations and service levels and provide clear justification for any differences from the amounts calculated by the California State Auditor in its April 2023 audit.

Terms Used In California Business and Professions Code 6145.1

  • board: means any entity listed in Section 101, the entities referred to in Sections 1000 and 3600, the State Bar, the Department of Real Estate, and any other state agency that issues a license, certificate, or registration authorizing a person to engage in a business or profession. See California Business and Professions Code 31
  • license: means license, certificate, registration, or other means to engage in a business or profession regulated by this code or referred to in Section 1000 or 3600. See California Business and Professions Code 23.7
  • State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Business and Professions Code 21
  • Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which that term occurs, unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Business and Professions Code 15
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.

(3) This report shall also include the State Bar’s assessment of all programs and activities that require additional support from the annual license fee. For each program and activity, this assessment shall include all of the following:

(A) A detailed description of the program and activity.

(B) The projected, budgeted, and actual expenditures in 2023, 2024, and 2025 assuming no increase in the annual fee.

(C) The estimated deficit and the reason for the deficit.

(D) What aspects of the programs or activities would not be achievable if a fee increase was not provided.

(E) Complete, actual data for 2023.

(4) This report shall also include information on how the State Bar proposes to use any potential additional funding resulting from any potential increase in the mandatory annual license fee. Specifically, for every twenty-five-dollar ($25) incremental increase in the mandatory annual license fee for active licensees and corresponding six dollars and twenty-five-cent ($6.25) incremental increase in the mandatory annual license fee for inactive licenses the State Bar shall report, at a minimum, the following:

(A) The total amount of revenue estimated to be generated from the incremental increase.

(B) A description of which State Bar programs and activities would be funded by the revenue generated from the incremental increase and any recent major operational or procedural changes implemented in those programs and activities.

(C) In cases where a program or activity identified pursuant to paragraph (3) is proposed to receive funding, detailed justification for the amount of funding proposed to be used to support the program or activity, how that amount was calculated along with any key assumptions made, what outcomes are expected to be achieved, and what, if any, deficit would remain for the activity or program along with what aspects of the activity or program would be unachievable due to the deficit. This justification shall also clearly specify the extent to which the funding is or will be used to complete business process reengineering, improve processes, or improve efficiencies.

(5) The information provided pursuant to paragraph (4) shall reflect the State Bar’s actual planned use of the funding for each potential incremental increase and the State Bar shall not assume that it may redirect the funding for other purposes should an increase in the annual fee be approved.

(6) This report shall be submitted no later than April 1, 2024, to the board of trustees, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the Assembly and Senate Committees on Judiciary.

(b) In addition to the report required by subdivision (a), the State Bar shall provide a progress report on the Office of Chief Trial Counsel’s case processing standards, which shall be submitted pursuant to paragraph (6) of subdivision (a). This progress report shall include, but is not limited to, the following:

(1) The status of changes made to case disciplinary processes and an assessment of how those changes are impacting case processing times.

(2) A discussion of how concerns related to operational efficiency raised by the California State Auditor and the Legislative Analyst’s Office have been addressed or are planned to be addressed.

(3) An assessment of how recent case processing times compare to the State Bar’s proposed average case processing standards. This assessment shall also include data on the timeliness of the completion of the hearing stage in order to provide a comprehensive picture of case processing times.

(4) An assessment of how recent case processing times compare to the State Bar’s proposed backlog standards, as well as the proposed standards calculated using pending rather than closed workload as discussed by the Legislative Analyst’s January 2023 report.

(Added by Stats. 2023, Ch. 697, Sec. 31. (SB 40) Effective January 1, 2024.)

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