Rule 209. Complaints and Immunity.
(a) Complaints submitted to the Board or Disciplinary Counsel shall be confidential. See Rule 402(e) (relating to access to disciplinary information and confidentiality). Unless and until formal charges are filed and the complainant is designated as a witness at the prehearing conference, or Disciplinary Counsel determines that the complaint contains exculpatory material, the complaint shall not be provided to the respondent-attorney. At or after the prehearing conference, the senior or experienced hearing committee member or the special master may enter a protective order on cause shown to prohibit disclosure of the complaint or parts of it to the public.
(b) Members of the Board, members of hearing committees, special masters, Disciplinary Counsel and staff shall be immune from civil suit for any conduct in the course of their official duties. All communications to the Board, a hearing committee, special master, or Disciplinary Counsel relating to misconduct by a respondent-attorney and all testimony given in a proceeding conducted pursuant to these rules shall be absolutely privileged and the person making the communication or giving the testimony shall be immune from civil suit based upon such communication or testimony. For purposes of this subdivision (b), the staff of the Board shall be deemed to include conservators and sobriety, financial or practice monitors appointed pursuant to these rules or the rules of the Board.
(c) Complaints against members of the Board involving alleged violations of the Disciplinary Rules or these rules shall be handled in the same manner as other complaints, except that if action is required by the Board, the Board shall notify the Supreme Court which shall appoint an Ad Hoc Disciplinary Board comprised of five former members of the Board who shall discharge the functions of the Board and have all the powers of the Board with respect to that one matter only.
(d) Complaints against Disciplinary Counsel involving alleged violations of the Disciplinary Rules or these rules shall be submitted directly to the Board and assigned to a reviewing member of the Board for disposition.
Note
The provisions of this rule recognize that the submission and receipt of complaints against attorneys, and the investigation, hearing, decision and disposition of such complaints, are all parts of a judicial proceeding conducted pursuant to the inherent power of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The immunity from civil suit recognized to exist in subdivision (b) is that which exists for all participants in judicial proceedings under Pennsylvania law, so long as their statements and actions are pertinent, material and during the regular course of a proceeding.
Source The provisions of this Rule 209 amended December 6, 1989, effective December 23, 1989, 19 Pa.B. 5421; amended March 30, 1990, effective April 21, 1990, 20 Pa.B. 2150; amended May 16, 1994, effective June 4, 1994, 24 Pa.B. 2792; amended April 1, 2005, effective April 16, 2005, 35 Pa.B. 2208; amended October 26, 2005, effective immediately upon publication of this Order in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and shall apply to all matters thereafter commenced and to those matters pending at the time in which a petition for discipline or a petition for reinstatement has not be filed, 35 Pa.B. 6226; amended June 14, 2011, effective in 30 days, 41 Pa.B. 3526; amended April 18, 2019, effective in 30 days, 49 Pa.B. 2209; amended March 22, 2022, effective in 30 days, 52 Pa.B. 1974. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (406135) to (406136).
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