CLIENT PROTECTION FUND

The State Bar of Arizona has established the Client Protection Fund, a program that investigates claims and compensates clients who have lost money due to the dishonest acts of their lawyers. Each Arizona lawyer helps fund the program through annual mandatory contributions; no tax dollars are used in this program. Payments to clients are at the discretion of the Fund's Board of Trustees.

In order for a client's loss to be eligible for consideration by the Board: 1) the loss must have occurred within three years of filing the claim; 2) the loss was due to the dishonesty of the lawyer acting in an attorney-client relationship or other fiduciary capacity to the client; 3) the dishonest act was theft, conversion, embezzlement, failure to return unearned fees where virtually no work was performed, or other acts of deceit proximately causing the loss; and 4) the lawyer is disbarred, dead, on disability inactive status, under a disciplinary suspension of more than six months, or convicted of a related felony.

Claim forms can be found at the bottom of the Client Protection Fund's Declaration of Trust or you can request one by e-mailing Karen Weigand at the State Bar. For more information, call 602-340-7286.