SAN FRANCISCO (Northern California Record) — Alhambra attorney Craig Eugene Munson faces disbarment following a California State Bar Court recommendation for alleged probation violations.
Munson allegedly failed to submit quarterly and final reports, didn't attend the State Bar of California ethics school and didn't reply to an office of probation inquiry, according to the seven-page decision and order of involuntary inactive enrollment June 14 by the state bar court.
The state bar's recommendation is pending final action by the California Supreme Court, an appeal before the state bar's review department or expiration of time in which parties can request further review within the state bar court.
The state bar court's recommendation included an order that rendered Munson involuntarily enrolled as an inactive member of the State Bar of California. That order was effective three calendar days after service, according to the recommendation.
Munson failed to participate in person or via counsel and state bar's decision and order for disbarment was entered by default. In such cases, in which an attorney fails to participate in a California State Bar disciplinary proceeding despite adequate notice and opportunity, the bar invokes Rule 5.85, which provides the procedure for the state bar to recommend an attorney’s disbarment. The state bar's entry for default was entered in January.
Munson's recommended discipline was among the dispositions filed earlier this month by the state bar court's hearing department for June.
Munson was admitted to the bar in California on Dec. 11, 1988, according to his profile at the state bar website.
Munson's disbarment is his third discipline in California, according to the decision and order and information on his state bar profile. In June 2014, Munson received a stayed one-year suspension and was placed on two years' probation with six months of actual suspension "for his multiple acts of probation violations," the decision and order said.
In January 2012, Munson received a stayed one-year suspension and was placed on two years' probation after he stipulated to three counts of misconduct in three cases.
In a much earlier discipline, in December 2008, Munson received a stayed one-year suspension and ne placed on a year's probation with 30 days of actual suspension over allegedly commingling personal and business funds in his client trust account.