Moral Turpitude, Dishonesty, Fraud, Corruption or Concealment: Rules of Procedure of the State Bar of California

Rule 2.11 of the Rules of Procedure of the State Bar of California provides for the disbarment or actual suspension of an attorney for misconduct, including moral turpitude. The rule was revised and renumbered on July 1, 2015. The rule previously was designated as 2.7. The 23-page document catalog embedded at the end of this post includes the 2016, 2014, and 2012 versions of the rule. 

Under rule 5.126, a serious offense is defined as conduct involving dishonesty, moral turpitude, or corruption, including bribery, forgery, perjury, extortion, obstruction of justice, burglary or related offenses, intentional fraud, and intentional breach of fiduciary relationship. 

This compilation also includes the moral turpitude section from the California Compendium on Professional Responsibility Index, published by the State Bar. Under California law, there are more than 100 forms of attorney misconduct that are considered acts of moral turpitude. Common forms include:

• Advancing untrue facts prejudicial to opposing party. 
• Concealing material information. 
• Misleading the court. 
• Acts of deception. 
• Omission of material facts from documents. 
• Misrepresentation and concealment of adverse and material facts. 
• Dishonesty. 
• Misrepresentations to opposing counsel or pro per. 
• Overreaching. 

Under California law, codified at Code of Judicial Ethics canon 3D(2), judges are required to report, or otherwise correct attorney misconduct, including moral turpitude, dishonesty and concealment.

For more information about moral turpitude and attorney misconduct, visit the California Attorney Misconduct page at Sacramento Family Court Report.