Notice - Proposed Budgets of the Attorney Disciplinary and Regulatory System Entities - Comments Requested by November 24

The Supreme Court has before it the proposed budgets for the attorney disciplinary and regulatory entities that derive their funding, in part, from annual attorney registration payments. Those entities are:

• The Disciplinary Oversight Committee (DOC), which funds both the Office of Attorney Ethics and the Office of Board Counsel;
• The Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection (CPF);
• The Lawyers Assistance Program (LAP);
• The Board on Continuing Legal Education (CLE); and
• The Board of Bar Examiners (BBE).

The Court has directed that the proposed budget materials be published for comment. Those documents are attached.

As set forth in the attached materials, the annual attorney registration fee in 2024 and 2025 was $267 (for attorneys admitted five through forty-nine years), after having been raised in both 2022 and 2023. Prior to those increases, the rate had been flat for nine years.

For 2025, the annual fee of$267 was allocated among the various dedicated funds as follows:

For 2026, both the DOC and the BBB seek new funding for the upcoming cycle, as follow:

• The DOC recommends that the DOC component of the annual attorney registration fee be increased by $24 ( from $201 to $225).
• BBB requests an additional $3 through attorney registration, while other income would be generated through increased fees for direct services (from $6 to $9)

The supporting materials set forth the justification for those increases. If these two requests are incorporated as increases to the annual attorney registration rate, the fee for 2026 will be $294.

The LAP is not requesting an increase of the annual attorney registration system for this year, but does advise that an increase may be necessary in future years to fund programming.

Please send any comments in writing by Monday, November 24, 2024 to:

Clerk of the Supreme Court
Comments on Proposed Disciplinary Budget
Hughes Justice Complex; P.O. Box 970
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0970

Comments may also be submitted by email to Comments.Mailbox@njcourts.gov

The Supreme Court will not consider comments submitted anonymously. Thus, those submitting comments by mail should include their name and address and those submitting comments by email should include their name and email address. Comments submitted in response to this notice are subject to public disclosure.