A new rule adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court will require private-practice attorneys who don’t obtain malpractice insurance to take an online assessment regarding professional responsibility. The requirement would start in 2018.

On Wednesday, the high court adopted an amendment to Supreme Court Rule 756(e), which regulates disclosure of malpractice insurance, to stipulate that Illinois attorneys who aren’t covered under malpractice insurance must take part in a four-hour, interactive self-assessment that will be administered by the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission.

According to an announcement from the court, the mandatory, free assessment will include questions about how attorneys operate their practices. Continuing, the announcement says, it’s intended to help lawyers think about protocols they can establish to avoid disciplinary complaints.

The rule change is a part of what’s known as Proactive Management Based Regulation, or PMBR — a system for regulating attorneys that’s been adopted in places like Australia, Canada, England and Wales. The approach, according to the Supreme Court’s announcement, is “intended to help minimize many of the risks that lawyers face in the private practice of law.”

Illinois is the first state to adopt a rule requiring attorneys to comply with PMBR.

“Traditionally, attorney regulation has tended to be reactive,” Chief Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier said in the statement. “Enforcement efforts have come into play only after a problem has arisen. PMBR represents a fundamentally different approach. As its name implies, PMBR is aimed at helping lawyers avoid disciplinary problems before they occur.”

Karmeier noted that the new approach should go over well.

“[T]he changes are a vital step in implementation of that new strategy. PMBR promises a new level of protection for the public, and the [c]ourt is optimistic that it will be embraced by practicing attorneys with the same level of enthusiasm expressed by the numerous professional bodies that have urged its adoption.”

The rule change comes after the ARDC last year saw its lowest number of complaints filed against lawyers since 1988, according to James J. Grogan, the ARDC's deputy administrator and chief counsel.

Though complaints are down, the ARDC’s leaders have been studying PMBR over several years to determine what steps Illinois could take to further prevent attorney disciplinary issues from arising.

James R. Mendillo, chairman of the ARDC and a partner at Freeark, Harvey, Mendillo P.C. in Belleville, said the required assessment is a part of the ARDC’s efforts to proactively deter attorney misconduct.

“We are very optimistic that it will reduce complaints,” Mendillo said. “We have every reason to believe that this is a better answer than what we’re doing.”

Mendillo said PMBR has been discussed frequently at recent National Organization of Bar Counsel meetings, but Illinois is the first state to move forward with a mandatory rule. Colorado has also been studying PMBR closely.

“I’m always impressed at how far advanced Illinois is compared to many other jurisdictions. We certainly are a leader. We took the bull by the horns with this. We’re very optimistic,” Mendillo said. “We’ve worked hard on it. We think it’s an excellent idea. We seem to have unanimity among various factions of the bar. We’re doing it to make life easier for lawyers, really.”

Grogan said there’s been a “sea change” in recent years regarding how to best approach attorney discipline that’s moving away from being strictly reactive.

“The thought is that regulation just can’t be punishment-oriented. Certainly, that’s going to be a function, that we have to remove from practice those people who are a danger to the public and the courts, but so much can be done for lawyers out there in terms of educational support,” he said.

The ARDC found through a survey it conducted during its annual registration process last year that among Illinois’ 13,500 sole practitioners, 41 percent had no malpractice insurance.

The point of PMBR isn’t to sell malpractice insurance, Grogan said, but rather to offer an assessment similar to one that those who have malpractice insurance must go through to obtain the insurance. The assessment, Grogan said, makes attorneys think about risks within their practice and can help them to build a better practice.

Sole practitioners without malpractice insurance will be required to take the PMBR assessment, which the ARDC is currently developing, every other year. Attorneys who take it will receive four hours of free Continuing Legal Education credits. It will also be available for other lawyers to take.

Mendillo said the procedure may be altered in the future depending on how attorneys receive the assessment and whether it shows positive results.

Grogan said the ARDC will be working in conjunction with the other groups including the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, the CLE board and other agencies to develop its PMBR assessment.

“We’re really enthused and it shows the Supreme Court’s commitment to building a better future,” Grogan said.

Grogan said the assessment results will be confidential. The ARDC will not be able to access the results for disciplinary proceedings and they will not be discoverable, he said.

“We might be able to report information in the aggregate but we’re not going to know anything about what people did to answer those assessments,” Grogan said.