Martin Reiner

October 10, 2014

MARTIN BARNETT REINER [#144024], 56, of Beverly Hills, was suspended from the practice of law for six months and ordered to take the MPRE, comply with rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court and make restitution. The order took effect Oct. 10, 2014. A State Bar Court hearing judge found Reiner culpable of violating three court orders issued by workers’ compensation administrative law judges from 2007 to 2010. Reiner sought review, making the same argument he made at trial that the orders were not final because a federal lawsuit he filed was still pending. Reiner requested his case be dismissed and made other claims, including that the State Bar prosecutor and hearing judge should be disqualified and that the State Bar Court lacked jurisdiction to hear his case. A three-judge bar court review panel adopted the hearing judge’s findings and rejected Reiner’s procedural claims, finding less weight in mitigation. The first of the orders Reiner violated imposed a $2,500 sanction on Reiner after he sent a disparaging letter to a three-judge panel calling them imbeciles. The second order, which also imposed a $2,500 sanction, stemmed from Reiner accusing a trial judge of being corrupt, incompetent and a liar. The third involved a $2,500 sanction and $1,000 in attorney fees for “bad faith tactics,” including removing an attorney’s name from the court minutes and later threatening her with a lawsuit if she appeared in court. Two years after the filing of the last order and three weeks before his disciplinary trial, he filed a federal lawsuit claiming the orders violated his constitutional rights, naming the hearing judge and a State Bar prosecutor, among others, as defendants. Reiner only received limited mitigation for 17 years of discipline-free practice “in light of his ongoing refusal to comply with the court orders.” The panel also noted that “his misconduct is not aberrational and creates a risk of future misconduct.”