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Reporting a Lawyer for Ethics Violations

Lawyers who don’t live up to their ethical obligations can face discipline from a state board.
By Sachi Clements, Attorney · University of San Francisco School of Law
Updated by Jessica Gillespie, MSLIS · Long Island University
Updated: May 20th, 2025
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Lawyers are human, and sometimes they make mistakes when representing clients. In some cases, the mistakes are small and easy to fix—not filing enough copies of a document with the court or needing to reschedule a meeting, for a couple examples. Other times, the mistakes are serious—such as missing the deadline to file a lawsuit, revealing confidential discussions with a client, or mishandling client funds. In these situations, the lawyer can face discipline for violating legal ethics, and, in the most serious cases, even lose the right to practice law.

Disciplinable Offenses

Lawyers are given a lot of responsibility and often deal with serious matters, from criminal charges to child custody to taxes and other financial matters. When you hire a lawyer, you are trusting them to represent your interests in the best manner possible. To protect the public—and the integrity of the legal profession—each state has its own code of ethics that lawyers must follow. These are usually called the “rules of professional conduct.”

The American Bar Association publishes the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which lists standard ethical violations and best practices for lawyers. Some states have adopted the model rules as their own ethical rules, while others use it as a guide and modify or add rules. In any case, most states' rules cover issues such as communicating with clients, charging fees, handling client funds, and avoiding conflicts of interest.

Common complaints by clients include:

  • Failing to communicate with the client. Lawyers have a duty to keep their clients reasonably informed about the status of their cases, to respond promptly to requests for information, and to consult with their clients about important decisions in their cases (for example, whether to accept a settlement offer).
  • Not returning the client's documents. A client’s file is generally considered to be the property of the client. When a client fires a lawyer and asks for the file, the lawyer must promptly return it. In some states, such as California, the lawyer must return the file even if attorneys’ fees haven’t been paid in full.
  • Lawyer incompetence. Lawyers must have the knowledge and experience to competently handle any case that they take on. They must also be sufficiently prepared to handle matters that come up in the case, from settlement negotiations to trial.
  • Conflicts of interest. Lawyers owe a duty of loyalty to their clients, which means they must act with the client’s best interests in mind. This includes avoiding situations that would create a conflict of interest—such as representing two clients on opposite sides of the same case or taking on a new client who wants to sue an existing client.
  • Financial matters. Misplacing or stealing client funds, refusing to hand over money owed to a client, or charging clearly excessive fees are all ethics violations. However, a simple dispute over how much you owe your lawyer in legal fees is generally not an ethics matter. Most of the time, these disputes are resolved through fee arbitration—an informal process where a neutral third party hears from both sides and makes a decision.

State Attorney Disciplinary Boards

Each state has a disciplinary board that enforces state ethics rules for lawyers. The board is usually an arm of the state’s supreme court or bar association and has authority to interpret ethics rules, investigate potential violations, conduct evidentiary hearings, and administer attorney discipline. Depending on the offense, the agency might:

  • issue a private reprimand (usually a letter sent to the lawyer)
  • issue a public reprimand (usually published in the agency’s official reports and a local legal journal or newspaper)
  • suspend the lawyer (meaning that the lawyer cannot practice law for a specific time)
  • disbar the lawyer (meaning that the lawyer loses their license to practice law), and/or
  • order the lawyer to pay restitution—in the form of money—to the client.

Most state disciplinary boards have websites where you can search for a lawyer by name and see if the lawyer has a history of disciplinary actions against them.

Filing an Ethics Complaint Against a Lawyer

In most states, you can file your complaint by mailing in a state-issued complaint form or a letter with the lawyer's name and contact information, your contact information, a description of the problem, and copies of relevant documents. In many states, you can lodge your complaint online. Some states accept complaints over the phone.

Some states allow anonymous complaints if the problems could impact the general public, while others don’t. Either way, it can be difficult for the agency to investigate a complaint without the cooperation of the complaining party. The board needs to gather evidence before disciplining an attorney, and in some cases, the only available evidence is the testimony of the complaining party. Or, the board might need to know the identity of the complaining party in order to investigate at all—for example, if a client alleges that the lawyer stole funds from a client account, the agency would need to know which client account to focus on.

In many cases, complaints come from the lawyer’s own clients. However, other attorneys and even judges sometimes file complaints against attorneys for improper behavior.

Steps in an Investigation Into an Attorney Ethics Complaint

In most cases, a board of lawyers and non-lawyers will review the complaint. If there’s a potential ethical violation, the board will give the lawyer a copy of the complaint and an opportunity to respond.

In some states, the complaining party has a chance to comment on the lawyer's response and request an investigation. If there's no evidence of a violation, the board will dismiss the case and notify you. If the violation is minor, a phone call or letter to the lawyer usually ends the matter. For serious violations, the board will file formal disciplinary charges and hold a hearing. Boards try to resolve disciplinary complaints as quickly as possible, often within 90 days to six months. For complex matters involving formal charges, though, the process can take as long as one to two years.

The purpose of a state disciplinary board is to uphold the legal profession's ethical standards, not to compensate wronged clients for their losses. If you’re looking for compensation, you'll need to file a malpractice lawsuit. However, legal malpractice lawsuits can be very difficult to win. Among other things, you must show that your lawyer made a significant mistake in your case and that you suffered a monetary loss because of it. In other words, you must prove that you would have won your case—or received more in compensation—had it not been for your lawyer’s mistake.

Attorney Disciplinary Boards by State

You can find information for your state's disciplinary board below, including its name, address, and a link to its website, where you can find more information about filing a complaint.

About the Author

Sachi Clements Attorney · University of San Francisco School of Law

Sachi Clements has served as a legal editor at Nolo, specializing in employment law and workers’ compensation law. Before joining Nolo, Sachi practiced law for several years in San Francisco, first representing injured plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits, then advising businesses on employment and corporate matters. Sachi received her law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude.

Jessica Gillespie MSLIS · Long Island University

Jessica Gillespie is a Legal Editor and Nolo’s Research Director. Her articles appear on Nolo.com, CriminalDefenseLawyer.com, and Lawyers.com.

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