The state may treat the disbarment of an attorney as proof of unfitness to hold a real estate license, [California's] Third District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.
The court upheld an order of the Department of Real Estate denying Bernard Jerome Berg�s application for a real estate license, which was based on Berg�s disbarment for excessive and fraudulent billing. Both the DRE and the court rejected Berg�s contention that the disbarment proceedings were unfair and should not be treated as proof of misconduct.
Berg, of San Francisco, practiced from 1959 until 1996, when he was placed on involuntary inactive status. He was disbarred in 1998.
The disbarment stemmed in part from his activities as Cumis counsel in 41 dental malpractice actions. Dentists Insurance Company, which represented all of the insureds, sued in 1988, accusing Berg of �bulk billing��charging for three minutes of attorney time for every page of material received, whether he actually reviewed it or not, resulting at times in billings for more than 24 hours of a single day.
Details here from the Metropolitan News-Enterprise. Or read the Court's opinion.