If you do not maintain a trust account, a trust account is not maintained on your behalf, and you do not need a trust account because you are not responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15—other than the disclosure and agreement requirements in rule 1.15(b) pertaining to depositing a flat fee paid in advance into a lawyer’s or law firm’s operating account—you can answer “no” to the Screening Question: “At any point during the reporting period of January 1, 2025–December 31, 2025, or, if you are a new licensee who must pay your initial license fees pursuant to rule 2.12 of the Rules of the State Bar, from your date of admission through the following December 31, 2025, or the due date for payment of fees, whichever is earlier, were you responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions governing the safekeeping of funds of clients and other persons under rule 1.15 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct?” After submitting that response and declaring the information is true, your compliance with CTAPP will be deemed complete.

If your practice does not require a client trust account, you do not need to open one to report it to the State Bar as part of the CTAPP requirements. If you have questions about using trust accounts, including whether you are responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15 or whether you need a trust account, please contact the State Bar’s Ethics Hotline research service at 800-238-4427 (toll-free in California). The Ethics Hotline might be able to provide helpful citations and resource references. The Ethics Hotline cannot provide legal advice, nor tell you how to comply with any of the CTAPP requirements, including the self-assessment.

A lawyer who has no responsibility to comply with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15 and a lawyer who is responsible for complying only with the disclosure and agreement requirements in rule 1.15(b) pertaining to depositing a flat fee paid in advance into a lawyer’s or law firm’s operating account, can comply with their reporting requirements by answering “no” to the screening question as to whether they were responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions governing the safekeeping of funds of clients and other persons under rule 1.15 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct and thereafter submitting their declaration. Lawyers who have no such responsibilities include:

• A government lawyer-employee who is not responsible for the safe keeping of entrusted funds;
• An in-house counsel who is employed by their client and does not receive or hold client funds or funds entrusted by others;
• Law professors who do not represent clients that involve any entrusted funds and do not otherwise receive or hold entrusted funds;
• A lawyer in a large firm who only performs document review, has no interaction with any clients, and has no responsibilities to carry out any of the duties under rule 1.15;
• A lawyer who bills for fees and costs after completion of the work and therefore does not take advance fees and their practice does not involve the receipt of any other funds in which a client or third party has an interest (e.g., client settlement funds, etc.); and
• A lawyer who does not receive or hold any entrusted funds except for flat fees paid in advance and properly deposited into a lawyer’s or law firm’s operating account in accordance with the disclosure and agreement requirements in rule 1.15(b) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

Please check column 2 (Application Type) of the Step 2 account grid. If the account was registered through Agency Billing you can only update the Account Connection to “Disassociated/Added in Error.” To do so, please see FAQ 3.3.4. For all other changes, including adding a balance, firm name changes, etc., please contact your firm administrator. 

If your account was previously registered as a “Ind. CTA or Non-CA IOLTA” account type, you will be required to update your account type to “IOLTA,” “non-CA IOLTA,” or “non-IOLTA.” 

If you were not previously required to provide an open date, you will be required to provide the open date for each of your registered accounts. 

If the account was registered through My State Bar Profile, you can edit some details of an existing account. To do so, you should:

1. Locate the account you wish to disassociate in your list of accounts.
2. Click on the plus sign (+) on the right-hand side of the screen to expand options.
3. Select the “Edit Balance,” “Update Connection,” “Update Account Type,” “Edit Close Date,” “Edit Open Date,” or “Edit Firm Name” tab depending on what information you want to update.
4. Update the information.
5. Click the “Save” button.

Under Business and Professions Code section 6212, attorneys that established an IOLTA account pursuant to subdivision (a) of Business and Professions Code section 6211, may hold IOLTA accounts only at eligible financial institutions. Rule 1.15(a) of the California Rules of Professional Conduct generally requires that trust accounts for California clients be maintained in California. You are permitted to hold client funds in an IOLTA account outside California if your client is from somewhere other than California or if your California client has a substantial relationship with the other jurisdiction and has provided written consent. If your practice meets those criteria and you do not have a California IOLTA, you may select “I do not have a California IOLTA” as your response.

For purposes of this reporting requirement, board service for a legal aid nonprofit would qualify because all board work with such an organization is enabling the delivery of legal services to the indigent (since these organizations primarily serve indigent California residents). Please note that some legal aid providers and other nonprofits for which attorneys provide pro bono legal services may also ask attorneys to report pro bono hours, but the definition for pro bono legal services may vary for their purposes. Attorneys should confirm definitions with the entity before reporting pro bono hours to the entity.  

No. Working in a law office or judge’s chambers is insufficient to get credit for legal study under the LOS Program.

An applicant becomes eligible to take the FYLSX after completion of their first year of law study. If your second session, which completes the first year, ends prior to the final eligibility deadline for the current FYLSX, you are strongly encouraged to apply for the FYLSX, as it will be considered your first eligible administration in the calculation of your legal study credit.

The final eligibility deadline is two weeks prior to the exam. All deadlines for the FYLSX can be found on our First-Year Law Students’ Examination webpage.

No. All persons newly admitted to the State Bar of California must take the New Attorney Training Program courses produced by the State Bar and offered through this e-learning portal. 

No other courses will satisfy completion of the New Attorney Training requirement for new admittees.

Payments will be made through a third-party vendor, Wells Fargo, using their E-Bill Express platform.

No. You must contact the federal court clerk to ascertain if the filing must be served on a specific custodial record keeper. 

You must file an application with the court to appear on behalf of the client in the related case. Please refer to rule 9.40(c) of the California Rules of Court. The filing submitted to the court must include a copy of a proof of service showing that all parties and the State Bar of California have been served. You must also remit the fee to the State Bar of California with a copy of the application.

The application must state:

• The applicant's residence and office address;
• The courts to which the applicant has been admitted to practice and the dates of admission;
• That the applicant is a licensee in good standing in those courts;
• That the applicant is not currently suspended or disbarred in any court;
• The title of each court and cause in which the applicant has filed an application to appear as counsel pro hac vice in California in the preceding two years, the date of each application, and whether or not it was granted; and
• The name, address, and telephone number of the active licensee of the State Bar of California who is the attorney of record.

A PLL must: 

• Expressly refer to themselves orally and in writing as a Provisionally Licensed Lawyer and/or participant in the State Bar’s Provisional Licensure Program and not describe themselves as a fully licensed lawyer or imply in any way orally or in writing that they are a fully licensed lawyer.
• Follow the same professional conduct rules as all fully licensed lawyers.
• Agree to be subject to the disciplinary authority of the Supreme Court of California and the State Bar with respect to the laws and rules governing the conduct of lawyers.
• Attest that they will not practice California law other than under the supervision of an approved Supervising Lawyer during the time they are provisionally licensed.
• Be employed by or volunteering at the firm (as defined in rule 9.49) where the Supervising Lawyer works, which must have an office located in California.
• Immediately report the termination of supervision by their Supervising Lawyer to the State Bar.  

“IOLTA” stands for Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. IOLTA is a method of raising money, primarily for providing legal services to those unable to afford them. 

The State Bar’s Legal Services Trust Fund Program collects the interest generated by IOLTA accounts and distributes the funds to more than 100 nonprofit legal aid organizations that provide civil legal aid to indigent Californians.  

You can look up the IOLTA-funded organizations, and you can learn more about IOLTA accounts on the State Bar’s website.  

Effective August 1, 2023, lawyers must comply with Rule of Professional Conduct 8.3, which requires a lawyer to report certain misconduct by another lawyer. The Rule 8.3 Reporting Requirements page provides more information about this reporting obligation.

California criminal prosecutors are required to notify the State Bar when they file criminal charges (felony or misdemeanor) against an attorney.[7]

California courts are required to notify the State Bar when an attorney is convicted of any crime;[8] when an attorney has been found in contempt;[9] when an attorney has been sanctioned $1,000 or more (except for discovery sanctions);[10] when an attorney has been found in violation of certain statutes;[11] or when a civil judgment has been entered against an attorney for fraud, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, or gross negligence committed in a professional capacity.[12]

Insurance companies are required to notify the State Bar upon receipt of a claim or action against an attorney for fraud, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, or gross negligence committed in a professional capacity.[13]

The insurance commissioner reports workers’ compensation fraud to the State Bar.[14]

Banks submit reports to the State Bar when an attorney trust account is overdrawn.[15]

The State Bar is statutorily authorized to receive Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI)[16] from the California Department of Justice for purposes of admission, discipline, and regulation of attorneys.[17]

The State Bar is statutorily authorized to receive subsequent arrest notification services[18] for attorneys.[19]

We offer a variety of online courses, the majority of which qualify for Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit, with a focus on required credits such as legal ethics and attorney competency. All courses are self-paced, allowing you to start, pause, and continue learning whenever it works best for you. 

Yes, payments are processed through a secure gateway, and we do not store your card details. 

Your device may be referring to an earlier memory cache (version) of the course and may not be refreshing correctly. Try carrying out each of these options until you resolve the issue:

1. Clear your browser’s memory cache/history.
2. Try using a different Internet browser. The following are optimal:
   Windows 7/10: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11 or above
   iOS: Safari
3. Try launching the course on a different device.

Disciplinary action for violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct or the State Bar Act ranges from private reproval to disbarment.

The Probation Unit of the Office of Chief Trial Counsel monitors attorneys’ compliance with the conditions imposed on suspensions and reprovals.

The State Bar Court also may put attorneys on involuntary inactive status if they appear to pose a serious threat to the public.

If a State Bar investigation indicates that an attorney’s conduct only bordered on a violation or was a minor breach, State Bar prosecutors may choose an alternative to discipline.

The State Bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel could decide to:

• Send a Directional or Warning Letter to the attorney, and close the case.
• Issue an Admonition informing the attorney that no further action will take place as long as they stay out of trouble for two years. 
• Settle on an Agreement in Lieu of Discipline that requires the attorney to fulfill specially tailored remedial conditions.

No, the Ethics Hotline does not provide written opinions or research memoranda. Assistance is offered by phone, and staff will identify relevant rules, cases, and ethics opinions during the call.

The Ethics Hotline is a confidential research service provided by the State Bar of California. It offers guidance to licensed attorneys on questions related to their professional responsibilities under the Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act.