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Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6051 · Article 3. Investigations, Examining Committee, Subpoenas, and Other Proceedings

Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6051

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

The State Bar Court or the chief trial counsel may report the fact that a person under subpoena is in contempt of the subpoenaing body to the superior court in and for the county in which the proceeding, investigation or other matter is being conducted and thereupon the court may issue an attachment in the form usual in the superior court, directed to the sheriff of the county, commanding the sheriff to attach the person and immediately bring him or her before the court.

On the return of the attachment, and the production of the person attached, the superior court has jurisdiction of the matter, and the person charged may purge himself or herself of the contempt in the same way, and the same proceedings shall be had, and the same penalties may be imposed, and the same punishment inflicted, as in the case of a witness subpoenaed to appear and give evidence on the trial of a civil cause before a superior court.

In lieu of the procedure specified above, the court may enter an order directing the person alleged to be in contempt to appear before the court at a specified time and place and then and there show cause why he or she has not attended or testified or produced the writings as required. A copy of the order shall be served upon that person. If it appears to the court that the subpoena was regularly issued and no good cause is shown for the refusal to appear or testify or produce the writings, the court shall enter an order that the person appear, testify, or produce writings, as the case may be. Upon failure to obey the order, the person shall be dealt with as for contempt of court.

A proceeding pursuant to this section shall be entitled “In the Matter of (state name), Alleged Contemnor re State Bar (proceeding, investigation or matter) No. (insert number).”

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 659, Sec. 41. (AB 3249) Effective January 1, 2019.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=6051.
Text hash
sha256 c1ce2c4082342a80a4d26b541274d7d291ecd5ce7909662ec1a155b99d8034eb
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.