The types of eligible debt included in the Fresh Start Settlement Program are debt accrued prior to January 1, 2025, as follows:

• Disciplinary Costs awarded against you pursuant to Business and Professions Code Section 6086.10, subsection (a). These are costs ordered by the State Bar Court or Supreme Court of California.
• Monetary Sanctions awarded against you pursuant to Business and Professions Code Section 6086.13, subsection (a). These are costs ordered by the State Bar Court or Supreme Court of California.
• Client Security Fund (CSF) reimbursement, including interest and processing costs, owed by you pursuant to Business and Professions Code Section 6140.5, subsection (c). 
• Superior Court money judgments entered on any of the above debt.

For most individuals, it takes less than five minutes from logging in to signing the Settlement Agreement.

The entire settlement must be paid by December 31, 2025. No exceptions. If you do not pay the new settlement amount by December 31, 2025, the Settlement Agreement will be terminated. You will owe the original amount of the debt (less what you have paid) and the State Bar reserves all rights to pursue, or continue to pursue, all available legal remedies to recover the total owed debt, including without limitation reporting the debt to FTB, credit reporting agencies, entry of a Superior Court money judgment and/or pursuing legal actions.

Yes, upon receipt of the full settlement amount, within two weeks the State Bar will file appropriate documentation to satisfy the judgment and remove any property liens.

The DEI Leadership Seal program recognizes bronze, silver, and gold seal recipients, based on the number of Action Items implemented. 

• Employers that implement five Action Items are eligible to be recognized as bronze-tier recipients. 

• Employers that implement seven Action Items are eligible to be recognized as silver-tier recipients. 

• Employers that implement nine Action Items are eligible to be recognized as gold-tier recipients. 

All participating employers, regardless of tier, must commit to implementing the first two Action Items and then select from the remaining eight.

The program will have annual application windows for participating employers to indicate their commitment to, or implementation of, five of the ten Action Items. These dates will be posted on our website. Please allow approximately two months for State Bar staff to review and respond to applications.

Committed participating employers will then have up to one year to implement the Action Items before being recognized as seal recipients and receiving the DEI Leadership Seal to use on their own materials. For example, committed participating employers who applied in 2026 must demonstrate implementation of five of the ten Action Items by spring 2027 to receive the DEI Leadership Seal.

In support of the mission to “support... efforts for greater access, and inclusion in, the legal system,” the State Bar aims to encourage and incentivize legal employers to take action to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in their organizations. Similarly, promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal system is a key priority of the State Bar’s 2022–2027 Strategic Plan. A more diverse, accessible, and inclusive legal workplace improves the experience of employees and their clients. A legal profession that better reflects the diversity of California’s communities can improve public access to, and fair treatment in, the legal system.

The CTAPP reporting deadline is the same as the licensee’s deadline for paying their license fees (Rule 2.5(C) of the Rules of the State Bar). The annual renewal cycle deadline is March 30. This is also the deadline for other requirements (e.g., MCLE compliance, etc.). (Rule 2.11 of the Rules of the State Bar.) For new attorneys, the deadline is 45 days from the invoice date for their fees (Rule 2.12 of the Rules of the State Bar).

If a lawyer is a signatory on a trust account, exercises managerial or primary administrative oversight for a trust account, or is otherwise responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct—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—the lawyer is responsible for those funds. The lawyer remains responsible even if other lawyers are also responsible for the safekeeping of funds. The lawyer is ultimately responsible even if nonlawyers are assigned certain accounting tasks for those funds; for example, bookkeeping and banking related to client trust accounts. (See Rules Prof. Conduct, rule 5.3.)

Accounting and recordkeeping activities are only one part of a lawyer’s duties to properly handle entrusted funds. Other duties include, for example, the responsibility for giving notice to the client or other person that funds were received on behalf of the client or other person and identifying and resolving disputes about entitlement to trust funds. These duties ordinarily are not the job of a firm’s bookkeeper. All of these responsibilities are considered nondelegable duties. The proactive regulation, reporting, and monitoring of CTAPP are intended to promote a lawyer’s compliance and prevent avoidable financial harm to clients. The only aspect of CTAPP reporting that can be fulfilled by the lawyer’s firm is the annual registration of client trust accounts by a firm or organization that is registered with the State Bar’s Agency Billing platform.

A licensee is “responsible for client funds and funds entrusted by others under the provisions of rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct” within the meaning of this rule if, at any point during the reporting period, they acted as a signatory on a trust account—even if there was no money in the account, exercised managerial or primary administrative oversight for a trust account, or were otherwise responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct—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. The requirements and prohibitions in rule 1.15 are not limited to banking and recordkeeping duties and include, for example, the responsibility for giving notice to the client or other person that funds were received on behalf of the client or other person and the duty to identify and discharge liens.

Lawyers who were responsible for entrusted funds in the reporting period must also register, or have their firm register through the State Bar’s Agency Billing application, all client trust accounts, take a self-assessment of client trust account management practices, and certify their compliance with requirements of rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.