Is it possible that a lawyer will have a disciplinary sanction and it will not show up in Avvo?
Yes, in three cases. The first case involves something called “private” sanctions. Bar associations can discipline an attorney in private and that disciplinary sanction does not appear in the public record. If it is not in the public record, we will not know about it. The second case is that in some states, the bar association or court may give access to data that only goes back so many years. The third case is that a bar association may post the record of a lawyer’s sanction after we collect his or her information from the public records or we are unable to access this information.
