Minnesota Legislature
Office of the Revisor of Statutes
MINNESOTA COURT RULES
PROFESSIONAL RULES
Rules on Lawyers Professional Responsibility
Rule 10.Dispensing with Panel Proceedings
(a)Agreement of parties.
The parties by written agreement may dispense with some or all procedures under Rule 9 before the Director files a petition under Rule 12.
(b)Admission.
If the lawyer admits some or all charges, the Director may dispense with some or all procedures under Rule 9 and file a petition for disciplinary action together with the lawyer's admission. This Court may act thereon with or without any of the procedures under Rules 12, 13, or 14.
(c)Criminal conviction or guilty plea.
If a lawyer pleads guilty to or is convicted of a felony under Minnesota statutes, a crime punishable by incarceration for more than one year under the laws of any other jurisdiction, or any lesser crime a necessary element of which involves interference with the administration of justice, false swearing, misrepresentation, fraud, willful extortion, misappropriation, theft, or an attempt, conspiracy, or solicitation of another to commit such a crime, the Director may either submit the matter to a Panel or, with the approval of the Chair of the Board, file a petition under Rule 12.
(d)Other serious matters.
In matters in which there are an attorney's admissions, civil findings, or apparently clear and convincing documentary evidence of an offense of a type for which the Court has suspended or disbarred lawyers in the past, such as misappropriation of funds, repeated nonfiling of personal income tax returns, flagrant noncooperation including failure to submit an answer or failure to attend a prehearing meeting as required by Rule 9, fraud and the like, the Director may either submit the matter to a Panel or upon a motion made with notice to the attorney and approved by the Panel Chair, file the petition under Rule 12.
(e)Additional charges.
If a petition under Rule 12 is pending before this Court, the Director must present the matter to the Panel Chair, or if the matter was not heard by a Panel or the Panel Chair is unavailable, to the Board Chair or Vice-Chair, for approval before amending the petition to include additional charges based upon conduct committed before or after the petition was filed.
(f)Discontinuing Panel proceedings.
The Director may discontinue Panel proceedings for the matter to be disposed of under Rule 8(d)(1), (2), or (3).
(Amended July 22, 1982; amended effective July 1, 1986; amended effective July 1, 1987; amended effective January 1, 1989; amended effective March 1, 1991; amended effective July 1, 2009.)