Attorney discipline statistics in Texas over the past 10 years show a grievance system that's surprisingly flat, despite steady increases in the state's lawyer population.

The number of complaints that ended in sanctions climbed and dipped over the decade with no clear trend but always stayed in the range 400 to 600 per year. The number of sanctions is lower because one attorney might have multiple complaints resolved with one sanction.

But over the past 10 years, the disciplinary counsel's office has doled out between 315 to 415 sanctions each year.

'1991 grievance system'

Austin legal ethics solo practitioner Jim McCormack, a former Texas Bar chief disciplinary counsel, said those total sanction numbers are on par with a review he did many years ago that looked at the grievance system spanning back to the 1990s.