Illinois lawyers next year are going to have to increase the profession's subsidy of individuals who have been victimized financially by dishonest members of the bar.

The Supreme Court announced Sept. 14 that the 2007 registration fee will increase $50, from $239 to $289, for lawyers in practice more than three years, and $15, from $90 to $105, for beginning practitioners.

The increase will be split evenly, with $25 allocated for the Client Protection Program (CPP) and $25 for general operating expenses of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

The level of reimbursements to defrauded clients of disciplined lawyers has risen exponentially since 1994, when the court-ordered CPP replaced the former Client Security Fund maintained voluntarily by the Illinois State Bar and Chicago Bar Associations.

Payments during the past 12 years totaled $4,844,825 for approved claims – averaging $403,735 per year while increasing from $162,111 for 26 claims in the first year to $951,173 for a record 179 claims against 46 lawyers in fiscal 2005.

In those dozen years, a total of 2,525 claims were filed. Only 1,181 were approved, leaving $22,253,574 in claims that were not reimbursed due to caps and pro-rations.

The funds were taken directly from ARDC revenues without a specific allocation, resulting in overall operational deficits of $442,840 and $443,643 during the two most recent fiscal years.

Supreme Court Rule 780 requires the ARDC to administer the CPP program and pay claims from accumulated revenues, which have not grown at the same rate as reimbursement requests.

Income from registration fees rose only 2.2 percent to $12,158,815 from fiscal 2004 to 2005, while payment of approved CPP claims increased 54 percent in that period.

In its annual report, the ARDC noted that the spike in CPP awards can be attributed in large part to the impairment of some lawyers by addictions and mental illness.

ARDC identified 69 impaired lawyers among the 189 for whom CPP claims were paid between 1998 and 2005. Those 69 generated $1,080,639 in reimbursements – 40 percent of the total $2,702,014 approved claims paid during those years.

Gambling by 12 disciplined lawyers, coupled in some cases with addiction and/or depression, was the cause of client payments totaling $524,284 – almost equal to the total caused by 57 other lawyers impaired by alcohol, drugs and mental illness.

“Gambling was by far the most costly of the impairments identified,” the report noted, adding that in cases of two other disciplined attorneys “there was a suggestion of gambling-related impairments that could not be confirmed.”

The report stressed the importance of ARDC staff “being trained to recognize gambling addictions” and to focus “on blocking the lawyer's ability to access other clients' money.”

The Client Protection Program illustrates “the damage done when a lawyer betrays the trust of clients,” the ARDC reported. “The victims of lawyer misconduct are often the most vulnerable among us.”