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Both arbitration and mediation involve a neutral third party. In arbitration, the arbitrator hears evidence and arguments, and then issues a decision that may be binding or nonbinding. In mediation, the mediator helps the parties reach their own voluntary agreement.
No. Both sides must agree to mediation. The State Bar will notify the opposing party if mediation is requested.
If you received a Notice of Client’s Right to Fee Arbitration form from the attorney, you have 30 days from the date you received it to submit your arbitration request form to the program. You must also submit your arbitration request if you first wish to mediate the fee dispute.
If you do not file the request form within 30 days of receiving the notice, you will lose your right to arbitrate your fee dispute. A telephone call or letter to the program requesting arbitration will not protect that right. You must be sure that the request form is complete and submitted with any required filing fee.
If the attorney has already filed a lawsuit against you for unpaid fees, you may elect either to respond to the lawsuit or request fee arbitration. If you file a response to the lawsuit, you will lose your right to arbitrate the fee dispute. If you request arbitration, the lawsuit will be stayed, but you should file the appropriate notice of automatic stay with the court. To preserve your right to arbitrate, you should file a request for arbitration promptly.
Your request for mediation is part of the State Bar request for arbitration, so it will follow the same timelines listed above.
No. The mediator will not decide any issues related to attorney misconduct and/or malpractice and has no authority to make any determinations regarding the attorney’s conduct or to discipline attorneys for professional misconduct.
If you wish to file a disciplinary complaint with the State Bar of California about your attorney’s conduct, you may do so online. Please keep in mind that a discipline complaint and a request to arbitrate and mediate a fee dispute are separate matters. Filing a complaint may result in disciplinary action against the attorney; however, the result may or may not require the attorney to refund fees.
To help you decide whether to file a complaint, visit the Want to File a Complaint webpage.
If you think you have a separate claim for legal malpractice, you should seek legal counsel.
If you are seeking a refund of attorney’s fees that you have already paid, you may request fee mediation as a preliminary option along with arbitration as long as you are still within the legal time limit for filing a lawsuit about the fee dispute. To preserve your right to arbitrate, and to potentially mediate a fee dispute, you should file a request for arbitration promptly.
For disputes filed with the State Bar, simply check the box agreeing to mediate on the request for fee arbitration form. Some local bar associations offer fee mediation in addition to fee arbitration. Find local fee arbitration programs.
Yes. Mediation is voluntary and either side can decline to mediate. All parties must agree for a mediation to go forward.
Mediations will take place by videoconference. Usually, the parties are in separate areas to start but may be brought together later in the process. The mediator will typically meet separately with one party, and then the other, to understand their perspectives and to identify areas of potential agreement. This “shuttle diplomacy” will take place until an agreement is reached, or until it is clear to the mediator that it is not possible for the parties to reach an agreement. If an agreement is reached, it will be memorialized in a writing called a settlement agreement.
You may be represented by an attorney, but it is not required. You can arrange for an interpreter to attend the mediation with you.
The mediation is confidential. This means that nothing said in a mediation can be used as evidence in any later proceeding by any party at the mediation.
The decision to agree to mediate is entirely up to you, but the attorney will also have to agree in order for the mediation to occur.
If the dispute is eligible to be filed with the State Bar for fee arbitration, you will have the option of agreeing to mediation as part of the request for arbitration. Some local bars also offer fee mediation, but most local programs only offer fee arbitration.
When you complete the Request for Arbitration with the State Bar, you will be asked to indicate whether you are interested in mediating the fee dispute. Once your request is accepted, including receipt of payment of the applicable fee arbitration filing fee, the State Bar will serve your request to the opposing party. As part of the opposing party’s written reply to the request, they will indicate whether they agree to mediate the fee dispute prior to arbitration.
If both parties agree to mediation, a mediator will be assigned to help you and attorney try to reach a settlement of your dispute, and you will receive further instructions at that time.
By law, all lawyers who handle small amounts of money for their clients, or money that is held for a short period of time, must participate in the program.
They must open interest- or dividend-bearing trust accounts at Eligible Financial Institutions and deposit all small and short-term sums into these accounts. They also must report annually to the State Bar whether or not they held a client trust account (including IOLTA) at any time during the prior year.
Once the account is designated an IOLTA account, lawyers are not responsible for ensuring that the interest is accumulated and forwarded to the State Bar.
The financial institutions with which the funds are deposited are responsible for complying with the law, and the IOLTA Program is responsible for monitoring compliance.
If your deceased attorney was part of a law firm or law partnership, that firm would maintain custody of your file.
If your deceased attorney was a sole practitioner, you will need to obtain new counsel. Generally, the executor or administrator of the attorney's estate is responsible for notifying clients and returning their files. In some instances, the local superior court may appoint a practice administrator to handle these duties.
In other instances, the deceased attorney's law practice may be sold to another member of the bar. (Such sales are governed by ethical limitations outlined in the Rules of Professional Conduct).
Finally, there are unfortunate instances in which an attorney dies leaving no responsible person in charge of the law practice. In those instances, the State Bar or local county bar associations may assist in winding down the law practice (after obtaining authorization from the Superior Court).
Your first step should be to contact the law offices of your deceased attorney to determine whether your file is available. If you are unsuccessful, you may contact the State Bar Office of Chief Trial Counsel: 800-843-9053
The Tester ID was displayed when you paid for the test, on the payment confirmation webpage. It was also emailed to the account you used when you registered with the State Bar or, for those not licensed in California, to the email address you entered when you started the Self-Study payment process. If you cannot find the email, please check your spam or junk folder.
If you fail the exam, the course will allow you to click “Retry” to retake the exam. You may retake the exam as many times as needed until you obtain a passing score. Because you must complete all lessons before reaching the Final Assessment, each lesson will be unlocked and available for review.
A failing score will allow you to review which questions you answered incorrectly. It is advisable to take your time and use the navigation menu to review the lesson covering that topic before retaking the Final Assessment.
While a licensee is on inactive status, that licensee cannot practice law. An inactive licensee who engages in the practice of law may be guilty of a misdemeanor. (See Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 6125–6126, 6068, subd.(a), & 6106. See also In the Matter of Burke (Review Dept. 2016) 5 Cal. State Bar Ct. Rptr. 448.) Additionally, a licensee on inactive status may have a duty to inform their client(s) or a tribunal that they are ineligible to practice law. (See Rules of Professional Conduct 1.4 and 3.3.) If you have further questions about the unauthorized practice of law, please contact the State Bar’s Ethics Hotline research service at 800-238-4427 (toll-free in California). The Ethics Hotline cannot provide legal advice, nor tell you how to comply with any of the CTAPP requirements, including whether to answer “yes” or “no” in any portion of the CTAPP reporting requirements.
Reinstatement of your license requires payment of any applicable fees, completion of the past due CTAPP reporting requirements, and applying for reinstatement. To submit payment of applicable fees, please log in to My State Bar Profile and click the “Pay Fee” link on the CTAPP Annual Reporting tile on your Compliance Dashboard or click the blue “Make a payment” button on the Profile Summary page to go to the “Annual Fee” page. You should go to the Annual Fee page to pay outstanding fees even if you have already paid your annual licensing fee for 2026. From there, click the blue “Calculate and pay my fees” button to see a breakdown of the fees owed. Click continue and follow the steps to complete your payment.
If you were involuntarily enrolled as inactive for noncompliance in 2026, you can complete your CTAPP reporting in My State Bar Profile and then complete and submit the first page of the CTAPP Noncompliance Reinstatement Form. If you were involuntarily enrolled as inactive for CTAPP noncompliance in 2023, 2024, or 2025, you will need to complete and submit the first page of the CTAPP Noncompliance Reinstatement Form and the attached CTAPP reporting forms for all missing years.
For help registering your trust accounts in Step 2 of CTAPP in My State Bar Profile, please see the Client Trust Account Updates Guide.
The required self-assessment is a tool to help attorneys evaluate their current practices and to provide citations to relevant rules and other references, including sections of the Handbook on Client Trust Accounting for California Attorneys. The objective is to promote awareness of duties and facilitate thoughtful consideration of any possible changes to an attorney’s current practices.
Given the great variety of practice settings, including situations where an attorney’s practice is conducted in part or completely in another state with different rules, an attorney might appropriately respond “no” to a self-assessment item. Responding “no” should not be considered a wrong answer when that response accurately reflects an attorney’s current practices. However, if you respond “no” to any question, you may want to consider carefully whether you should make changes to your trust account management practices. Even if you decide not to change your trust account management practices, you should consider documenting in your records the purpose of any “no” responses. The self-assessment questions may be reviewed if you are selected for a compliance review. Documentation will assist the reviewer to quickly understand the purpose of the firm’s practice.
In taking the self-assessment, if an attorney is unsure about how California rules and recordkeeping standards apply to a specific practice setting, an inquiry to the Ethics Hotline research service at 800-238-4427 (toll-free in California) can be helpful. The Ethics Hotline might be able to provide more citations and resource references than the ones included in the self-assessment. The Ethics Hotline cannot provide legal advice, nor tell you how to comply with any of the CTAPP requirements, including the self-assessment.
Only by thoughtfully and honestly completing the self-assessment will an attorney realize the benefits of this compliance tool. Please keep in mind that the self-assessment questions are framed in the present tense and as such, they do not elicit information about prior conduct. Most importantly, what is learned from the self-assessment should inform an attorney’s future conduct in providing competent and professionally responsible services when handling funds and property of clients and others.
The State Bar encourages, but does not require, active California licensees to provide pro bono legal services each year. While providing pro bono or reduced legal fee services is not mandatory, licensees are required by Business and Professions Code section 6073.2 to annually report the amount of these services performed each year. Licensees will report either their hours in ranges (e.g., less than 1 hour, 1–5 hours, 6–10 hours, 11–19 hours, etc.), that they did not track their pro bono or reduced fee legal services hours, that they did not complete any pro bono or reduced fee legal services hours, or that they decline to answer.
An e-learning portal is a personalized website for accessing e-learning courses and other educational content.
Yes, however, access to a course completion certificate and resource materials for a course that you have completed will be available for only 30 days from the date of completion.
E-Bill Express accepts debit cards, credit cards, and ACH payments.
Rule 9.40 of the California Rules of Court does not set a limit on the number of appearances an out-of-state attorney may make as PHV. However, the court determines if the applicant is ineligible for PHV due to multiple appearances.
Client Trust Accounting (CTA) School provides an overview of the California Rules of Professional Conduct and relevant provisions of the State Bar Act and Rules of the State Bar relating to client trust accounting. The course is designed to help attorneys understand their fiduciary responsibilities, avoid common trust accounting violations, and maintain compliance. It is self-paced and available 24/7 on the State Bar’s E-Learning Portal. It replaces the previously offered live sessions.
The general requirement is that the report must be made within 30 days of the time you have knowledge of the triggering event.[1] Exceptions:
Reporting duties are not stayed while a sanction order is on appeal.[4]
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