What Happens When a Lawyer Gets Suspended in Massachusetts
When an attorney in Massachusetts gets suspended from practice, it is not a quick bureaucratic stamp somewhere. The Supreme Judicial Court handles disciplinary matters at the highest level, and the Board of Attorney Supervisors runs the day-to-day investigation. A lawyer finds out they are suspended when a formal citation arrives, usually from the office of the Chief Justice for Administration and Management. That citation details the violation and the proposed suspension period. The lawyer then has a window of time to respond or accept the discipline. I have seen this play out more times than I want to count. The typical mistake people make is thinking a suspension means the lawyer can still show up to court and argue. It does not. Once the suspension order is issued, the attorney must notify every court where they have a pending case within seven days. Failure to do that is a separate violation on top of whatever landed them there in the first place. Courts in Suffolk County are particular about this. I had a case once where a lawyer ignored the notice and kept filing motions, and the judge sanctioned them personally. That cost more than the original suspension would have.
Checking Attorney Suspended From Practice Massachusetts Status
The fastest way to verify whether an attorney is currently suspended is the Massachusetts Board of Attorney Supervisors website. You can look up any licensed lawyer by name and see their current disciplinary status. The database shows active suspensions, disbarments, probation terms, and informal reprimands. The information is updated within a business day of any court order, but it is not real-time. If a suspension just went into effect this morning, there might be a lag. There is also the Massachusetts Bar Association's attorney directory, which cross-references with the board. It is slightly slower to update than the board's own site but easier to navigate if you do not know the exact spelling of the attorney's name. I tend to check both. One time I caught a discrepancy where the board showed a lawyer as suspended but the bar association still listed them as in good standing. The board had the correct information, but it had not propagated to the BAR site yet. That difference caused confusion for a client who was trying to find a new lawyer.
The Mechanics of Suspension
Suspension in Massachusetts comes in different flavors. There is summary suspension, which happens immediately when an attorney is convicted of a felony or a serious crime. The court orders it without a full disciplinary hearing. Then there is disciplinary suspension, which results from the board's investigation into professional misconduct. This can range from a few months to a year or more. The length depends on the severity and whether there are prior violations. During a suspension, the attorney cannot practice law. That means no client meetings about legal matters, no drafting documents for clients, no appearing in court, and no giving legal advice for compensation. I have talked to suspended lawyers who tried to work around this by having an unsuspended colleague handle the filings while they did the research. That is unethical and can extend the suspension. The Board of Attorney Supervisors watches for exactly that kind of thing. One detail most people miss is that a suspended attorney still has to complete continuing legal education credits during the suspension period. The board requires this as a condition of eventual reinstatement. If they fall behind on CLEs while suspended, that becomes an additional hurdle when they try to get their license back. I worked with someone who thought they could skip CLEs during suspension and nearly lost their reinstatement application because of it. They ended up completing six extra credits just to get back to zero.
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What Happens After Suspension
Reinstatement is not automatic. A suspended attorney must file a petition with the Board of Attorney Supervisors asking to get their license back. The board reviews the petition and may hold a hearing. The attorney needs to show they have complied with all conditions of the suspension, paid any fines, completed required CLEs, and demonstrated rehabilitation. For suspensions under two years, the process is usually straightforward if everything is in order. Longer suspensions or those involving fraud or dishonesty get more scrutiny. I remember handling a reinstatement matter where the attorney had been suspended for six months over a conflict of interest issue. They thought the worst was behind them and that reinstatement would take a couple of weeks. It took four months because they had not properly documented their remediation steps. The board wanted proof that they had changed their conflict-checking procedures, not just a letter saying they were sorry. I helped them gather engagement letters from new clients, revised office policies, and a signed compliance affidavit. That documentation made the difference between a quick approval and a hearing. The cost of reinstatement is another thing people underestimate. There is a filing fee, and if the case goes to a hearing, there can be additional costs for legal representation at the reinstatement proceeding itself. Budget anywhere from two thousand to five thousand dollars if you need to fight it. Most people settle before a hearing, which brings the total down closer to the filing fee plus any restitution ordered.
Practical Steps If You Are Dealing With a Suspended Attorney
If you hired a lawyer and they tell you they have been suspended, you need to act fast. Request your file from them immediately. Under Massachusetts rules, they are obligated to return all your documents within a reasonable time. If they refuse or delay, file a complaint with the Board of Attorney Supervisors right away. Do not wait and hope they get their license back. The clock is ticking on your legal matters. Also check whether your lawyer has properly notified the court if you have any pending cases. If they have not, you may need to file a motion to substitute counsel or appear pro se until you find someone new. I once had a situation where a suspended attorney simply stopped responding to their clients and disappeared. Their cases went to default because no one informed the court. That was avoidable if the attorney had followed the notification rules. If you are looking up Attorney Suspended From Practice Massachusetts records to verify someone's status, do it before you hire them and periodically after. A lawyer can be in good standing today and suspended tomorrow. Running a quick check on the board's website takes about three minutes and saves a lot of trouble later. Some people skip this step because they feel weird about background checking their own lawyer. That hesitation comes back to haunt them.
The bottom line is that suspension is a serious but not always terminal event for a Massachusetts attorney. The system has procedures for it, and most lawyers do get reinstated if the underlying conduct was not egregious. But the process is bureaucratic and slow, and the people who understand how it works ahead of time handle it much better than the ones who figure it out after the fact.
