Each year in early July the Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (OLPR) and the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board (LPRB) publish an annual report summarizing the Year in Discipline, as it were. Not the type of reading typically picked up by anyone other than ethics wonks and insomniacs, but here are some of the highlights:
- Budget surplus growing. Yes, you read that correctly. The Office has a reserve of $2.7 million, almost equal to its entire annual budget, which is projected to grow by roughly $100,000 a year. Although OLPR is funded almost entirely by the registration fees lawyers pay each year ($122 of the current annual fee), they have been subject to the same salary freeze as the rest of the judicial branch for the past two years and will continue to be frozen for at least the next two years. Water, water everywhere . . .