Wild Bill wrote:
The significance of the time is that in PA, an attorney suspended for "more than one year" must take 36 hours of continuing legal education courses, including 12 hours of ethics, before petitioning for reinstatement.
He should also get tagged with the case costs when the order is entered.
I'm glad I read to the end of the thread, because I was about to ask exactly this. Usually "sentences" being a day less than or a day more than a full year has some legal ramification.
My first thought was that it may be that a suspension longer than a year means that reinstatement is not automatic. Basically, if Berg doesn't show he has improved his ethics by a year from when the suspension begins, this could be a much longer suspension.
When Berg petitions for reinstatement, do you know if the presumption is
against reinstatement, with Berg having the burden to prove fitness, or is it the opposite? I think it is entirely likely that he will continue to engage in misconduct as a pro se litigant during his suspension.
It would be nice to ensure that the Pennsylvania Bar has access to information about his continuing misconduct, as it reflects on the threat to the public from this buffoon regaining his license.
Frankly, I hope the Bar rejects this discipline as insufficient and makes it for two, three, five years, or if there is such a length of time, whatever it takes to create a presumption against reinstatement.