According to the Illinois Attorney’s Registration and Disciplinary Record, an infamous copyright troll John Steele is not authorized to practice law in Illinois. Voluntarily inactive:

It’s quite a radical way to avoid disbarment. Will John incarcerate himself to avoid jail?

On a serious note: inactive status does not actually mean “auto-disbarment”: if an attorney does not want to pay Bar fees, he can voluntarily temporarily suspend himself. And it is perfectly normal… unless motives are questionable… oh, well.

Here is the rule:

Lawyers who register as inactive must pay an annual fee of $105.00. Inactive status lawyers may not practice law based upon their Illinois license or hold themselves out as being so authorized. An inactive lawyer may resume active status by submitting written or online notification of the intent to do so, and by paying the balance of the fee active lawyers must pay for the registration year in which active status is resumed. Inactive lawyers are also subject to a $25.00 per month late fee if registering late.

So in theory he can reinstate himself by simply paying the outstanding balance and clicking a button. Yet in light of the current investigation, it is not likely John will be practicing in Illinois again (or anywhere else, because Illinois is the only state where he is licensed). It is clear that this is not about saving on fees. If I had to guess I’d say that’s why he did it: to be able to say “You can’t sanction me! I’m not a practicing attorney anymore!” Won’t fly, of course.

Coverage

Boing Boing: Copyright troll dodging disbarment by resigning from the bar? by Cory Doctorow.

Update

1/15/2015

Apparently this crook is back in Illinois. This time he is seemingly up to extorting businesses over ADA violations, a dangerous game Paul Hansmeier keeps playing. As I commented on the Techdirt article linked above,

Despite my sometimes heated words towards trolls, I’m not a vindictive person, not at all: many former abusers faded into obscurity, good for them. Nonetheless, I state (logically — not only emotionally) that Paul Hansmeier and John Steele must be incarcerated ASAP: there is absolutely no hope that they will stop harming innocent people.

Followup