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State Bar of California Publishes Reports Outlining Fee Increase Needs

Three Interdependent Reports Form Blueprint for Fiscal Stability to Maintain and Improve Public Protection

As required by the Legislature, the State Bar has published three reports detailing its funding needs to support its public protection mission in 2025 and beyond. The three interdependent reports provide lawmakers, who approve the fee bill every year, with recommendations and options to ensure that the State Bar’s funding adequately supports its mission. 

The State Bar has had just one fee increase in 25 years, and had the base mandatory licensing fee, currently $404, been adjusted for inflation in that time, it would now be over $700. While California is the most expensive state in the continental United States, the attorney licensing fee ranks 18th below states like Nevada, Arizona, and Connecticut. Read more information about the licensing fee.

“Coupled with rising costs, stagnant fees have put the State Bar in a very real fiscal bind, posing a risk to public protection,” said Board Chair Brandon Stallings. “We are looking forward to the productive dialog these reports will spark—with our licensees and other stakeholders as well as with our partners in the Legislature—on what funding is needed to meet the public’s expectations of performance and accountability.”

Justification for a Fee Increase details the need for a 2025 fee increase of $125 per active licensee and $31 per inactive licensee, to both maintain and increase public protection.

The report recommends that to stabilize funding for the State Bar and increase predictability for California attorneys, the Legislature approve an annual adjustment to account for inflation in future years. It also proposes a new progressive structure to assess fees scaled according to practice sectors. Under this structure, solo practitioners, nonprofit attorneys, and actively licensed retirees would see little to no change next year, while the largest increases would go to attorneys in large firms and corporations.  A funding request for IT infrastructure will be finalized at a later date.

Recommendations for Codifying a Formal Disciplinary Diversion Program describes a proactive, three-pronged program that would enable the State Bar to handle low-level matters more efficiently and fairly so that the Office of Chief Trial Counsel (OCTC) can focus on matters posing the greatest risks to public protection. Fully funding diversion is expected to reduce disciplinary case volume by up to 20 percent, so the program would pay for itself by 2026.

Progress Report on Discipline System Case Processing Standards and Analysis of Office of Chief Trial Counsel Staffing Needs highlights the dozens of changes OCTC has made in recent years intended to improve its effectiveness and streamline case processing times. While these changes are showing an impact, there is insufficient staffing to process cases as quickly as they come in, and the backlog remains an intractable issue. To meet its recommended case processing standards and reduce the backlog, OCTC needs additional staff. The fee increase request includes an element for OCTC staffing that if funded would add a total of 57 positions—hired in equal increments of 19 positions per year over three years—to OCTC’s current headcount of approximately 300 full-time employees.

The reports are interdependent. For example, if the Diversion Program is not funded, the OCTC case processing need would increase substantially.

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The State Bar of California's mission is to protect the public and includes the primary functions of licensing, regulation and discipline of attorneys; the advancement of the ethical and competent practice of law; and support of efforts for greater access to, and inclusion in, the legal system.