Section 93.142. Filing of annual fee form by attorneys

(a) Transmission of form. Enforcement Rule 219(c) provides that on or before May 15 of each year the Attorney Registration Office shall transmit to all attorneys required by the rule to pay an annual fee, except those attorneys who have elected electronic filing, a form required by subsection (b) of this section; and that on or before May 15 of each year subsequent to the year in which an attorney elects electronic filing, the Attorney Registration Office shall transmit to such attorney a notice by e-mail to register by July 1.

(b) Filing of annual fee form. Enforcement Rule 219(d) provides that on or before July 1 of each year all attorneys required by the rule to pay an annual fee shall file with the Attorney Registration Office a signed or electronically endorsed form prescribed by the Attorney Registration Office in accordance with the following procedures:

(1) The form shall set forth:

(i) The date on which the attorney was admitted to practice, licensed as foreign legal consultant, granted limited admission as an attorney participant in defender and legal services programs pursuant to Pa.B.A.R. 311, or issued a Limited In-House Corporate Counsel License, and a list of all courts (except courts of this Commonwealth) and jurisdictions in which the person has ever been license' to practice law, with the current status thereof.

(ii) The current residence and office addresses of the attorney, each of which shall be an actual street address or rural route box number, and the Attorney Registration Office shall refuse to accept a form that sets forth only a post office box number for either required address. A preferred mailing address different from those addresses may also be provided on the form and may be a post office box number. The attorney shall indicate which of the addresses, the residence, office or mailing address, as well as telephone and fax number will be accessible through the website of the Board (http://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/) and by written or oral request to the Board. Upon an attorney’s written request submitted to the Attorney Registration Office and for good cause shown, the contact information provided by the attorney will be nonpublic information and will not be published on the Board’s website or otherwise disclosed.

Official Note

The Note to Enforcement Rule 219(d)(1)(ii) explains that public web docket sheets will show the attorney’s address as entered on the court docket.

(iii) The name of each Financial Institution, as defined in § 91.171 (Definitions), within or outside this Commonwealth in which the attorney on May 1 of the current year or at any time during the preceding 12 months held funds of a client or a third person subject to Rule 1.15 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct. The form shall include the name and account number for each account in which the attorney held such funds, and each IOLTA Account shall be identified as such. The form provided to a person holding a Limited In-House Corporate Counsel License or a Foreign Legal Consultant License need not request the information required by this subparagraph.

Official Note

If an attorney employed by a law firm receives fiduciary funds from or on behalf of a client and deposits or causes the funds to be deposited into a law firm account, the attorney must report the account of deposit under this subparagraph.

(iv) Every account not reported under subparagraph (iii), that held funds of a client or third party, and over which the attorney had sole or shared signature authority or authorization to transfer funds to or from the account, during the same time period specified in subparagraph (iii). For each account, the attorney shall provide the name of the financial institution (whether or not the entity qualifies as a ‘‘Financial Institution’’ under RPC 1.15(a)(4)), location, and account number.

(v) Every business operating account maintained or utilized by the attorney in the practice of law during the same time period specified in subparagraph (iii). For each account, the attorney shall provide the name of the financial institution, location and account number.

(vi) A certification reading as follows: ‘‘I certify that all Trust Accounts that I maintain are in financial institutions approved by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for the maintenance of such accounts pursuant to Pennsylvania Rule of Disciplinary Enforcement 221 (relating to mandatory overdraft notification) and that each Trust Account has been identified as such to the financial institution in which it is maintained.’’

(vii) A statement that any action brought against the attorney by the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security for the recovery of monies paid by the Fund as a result of claims against the attorney may be brought in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny, Dauphin or Philadelphia County.

(viii) Whether the attorney is covered by professional liability insurance on the date of registration in the minimum amounts required by Rule of Professional Conduct 1.4(c). Rule 1.4(c) does not apply to attorneys who do not have any private clients, such as attorneys in full-time government practice or employed as in-house corporate counsel.

Official Note

The Disciplinary Board will make the information regarding insurance available to the public upon written or oral request and on its website. The requirement of Rule 219(d)(3) that every attorney who has filed an annual fee form or elects to file the form electronically must notify the Attorney Registration Office of any change in the information previously submitted within 30 days after such change will apply to the information regarding insurance.

(ix) Such other information as the Attorney Registration Office may from time to time direct.

(2) Payment of the annual fee shall accompany the form. IOLTA, trust, escrow and other fiduciary account checks tendered in payment of the annual fee will not be accepted. If the form and payment are incomplete or if a check in payment of the annual fee has been returned to the Board unpaid, the annual fee shall not be deemed to have been paid until a collection fee, and one or both of the late payment penalties prescribed in § 93.144(a)(1) and (2) of these rules if assessed, shall also have been paid. The amount of the collection fee shall be established by the Board annually after giving due regard to the direct and indirect costs incurred by the Board during the preceding year for checks returned to the Board unpaid. On or before July 1 of each year the Office of the Secretary shall publish in the Pennsylvania Bulletin a notice of the collection fee established by the Board for the coming registration year.

(3) Every attorney who has filed the form or elects to file the form electronically shall notify the Attorney Registration Office of any change in the information previously submitted, including e-mail address, within 30 days after such change.

(4) Upon original admission to the bar of this Commonwealth, licensure as a Foreign Legal Consultant, issuance of a Limited In-House Corporate Counsel License, or limited admission as an attorney participant in defender and legal services programs pursuant to Pa.B.A.R. 311, a person shall concurrently file a form under this section for the current registration year, but no annual fee shall be payable for the registration year in which originally admitted or licensed.

The provisions of this § 93.142 amended through May 4, 1984, effective May 5, 1984, 14 Pa.B. 1547; amended March 1, 1991, effective March 2, 1991, 21 Pa.B. 827; amended September 11, 1992, effective with respect to assessment years commencing July 1, 1992 and thereafter, 22 Pa.B. 4624; amended June 11, 1993, subsection (b)(1)(ii) is effective with respect to assessment years commencing on and after July 1, 1993; amended November 4, 1995, effective immediately, 25 Pa.B. 4696; amended April 5, 1997, effective immediately, 27 Pa.B. 1643; amended July 30, 1999, effective immediately, 29 Pa.B. 4053; amended August 5, 2005, effective immediately, 35 Pa.B. 4301; amended April 18, 2008, effective April 19, 2008, 38 Pa.B. 1812; amended August 7, 2009, effective immediately, 39 Pa.B. 4725; amended August 6, 2011, effective immediately, 41 Pa.B. 4202; amended November 2, 2012, effective November 3, 2012, 42 Pa.B. 6864; amended January 30, 2015, effective March 2, 2015, 45 Pa.B. 544. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (364205) to (364207).