GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2005
SESSION LAW 2005-237
HOUSE BILL 896
AN ACT to provide the state bar with an appeal of right from final orders of the disciplinary hearing commission and to increase the maximum amount of the annual membership fees for members of the state bar.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 84-28(h) reads as rewritten:
"(h)
There shall be an appeal of right by either party from any final order of
the Disciplinary Hearing Commission imposing admonition, reprimand,
censure, suspension, stayed suspension, or disbarment upon an attorney, or
involuntarily transferring a member of the North Carolina State Bar to
disability inactive status to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Review
by the appellate division shall be upon matters of law or legal inference. The
procedures governing any appeal shall be as provided by statute or court rule
for appeals in civil cases. A final order which imposes disbarment or
suspension for 18 months or more shall not be stayed except upon application,
under the rules of the Court of Appeals, for a writ of supersedeas. A final
order imposing suspension for less than 18 months or any other discipline
except disbarment shall be stayed pending determination of any appeal of
right."
SECTION 2. G.S. 84-34 reads as rewritten:
"§ 84-34. Membership fees and list of members.
Every active member of the North Carolina State Bar shall,
prior to the first day of July of each year, pay to the secretary-treasurer an
annual membership fee in an amount determined by the Council but not to exceed two
hundred dollars ($200.00), three hundred dollars ($300.00), and
every member shall notify the secretary-treasurer of the member's correct
mailing address. Any member who fails to pay the required dues by the last day
of June of each year shall be subject to a late fee in an amount determined by
the Council but not to exceed thirty dollars ($30.00). All dues for prior years
shall be as were set forth in the General Statutes then in effect. The
membership fee shall be regarded as a service charge for the maintenance of the
several services authorized by this Article, and shall be in addition to all
fees required in connection with admissions to practice, and in addition to all
license taxes required by law. The fee shall not be prorated: Provided, that no
fee shall be required of an attorney licensed after this Article shall have
gone into effect until the first day of January of the calendar year following
that in which the attorney was licensed; but this proviso shall not apply to
attorneys from other states admitted on certificate. The fees shall be
disbursed by the secretary-treasurer on the order of the Council. The secretary-treasurer
shall annually, at a time and in a law magazine or daily newspaper to be
prescribed by the Council, publish an account of the financial transactions of
the Council in a form to be prescribed by it. The secretary-treasurer shall
compile and keep currently correct from the names and mailing addresses
forwarded to the secretary-treasurer and from any other available sources of
information a list of members of the North Carolina State Bar and furnish to
the clerk of the superior court in each county, not later than the first day of
October in each year, a list showing the name and address of each attorney for
that county who has not complied with the provisions of this Article. The name
of each of the active members who are in arrears in the payment of membership
fees shall be furnished to the presiding judge at the next term of the superior
court after the first day of October of each year, by the clerk of the superior
court of each county wherein the member or members reside, and the court shall
thereupon take action that is necessary and proper. The names and addresses of
attorneys so certified shall be kept available to the public. The Secretary of
Revenue is hereby directed to supply the secretary-treasurer, from records of
license tax payments, with any information for which the secretary-treasurer
may call in order to enable the secretary-treasurer to comply with this
requirement.
The list submitted to several clerks of the superior court shall also be submitted to the Council at its October meeting of each year and it shall take the action thereon that is necessary and proper."
SECTION 3. This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to final orders of the Disciplinary Hearing Commission issued on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 21st day of July, 2005.
s/ Marc Basnight
President Pro Tempore of the Senate
s/ James B. Black
Speaker of the House of Representatives
s/ Michael F. Easley
Governor
Approved 2:01 p.m. this 29th day of July, 2005