LOS ANGELES — The State Bar Court of California recently suspended Dale Irving Gustin, a Paso Robles attorney, for not complying with the terms of a previous disciplinary order from June 2016 in which he filed "meritless litigation."
According to the Nov. 21 decision, the attorney initially was suspended for at least six months until he paid court sanctions of $8,000 on June 17, 2016. Following his reinstatement, Gustin was ordered to serve three years' probation during which time he was required to adhere to several set conditions. One of the stipulations was passing the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. Gustin failed to meet this requirement and a new suspension order was issued.
According to court documents, the original suspension stemmed from the attorney’s misconduct in one matter. Gustin stepped in as a substitute attorney in a discrimination law suit against the Kern County Superior Court. Gustin allegedly filed improper motions during the case that the State Bar of California deemed to be “meritless litigation.”
When Gustin began working on the case, he attempted to add a superior court judge to the list of defendants but was unable to due to a time bar. To circumvent the roadblock, the attorney said that the plaintiff, who had previously identified the judge in a deposition, had only recently discovered the judge was one of the persons who allegedly harassed her. Gustin incurred an initial sanction of $5,115 for the litigation.
The San Luis Obispo County attorney was admitted to the California State Bar in 1977 after graduating from the Glendale University College of Law. The attorney’s disciplinary history dates to May 1995 when he was placed on probation. Since the mid-1990’s, Gustin has incurred a private reproval and another suspension in June 2014 for various charges of misconduct in two client matters, including mishandling his client trust account.