6243. (a) (1) When a contract for legal services is required in writing pursuant to Section 6148, or is subject to Section 1632 of the Civil Code, an attorney providing immigration reform act services shall provide a written notice informing the client that he or she may report complaints to the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice, to the State Bar of California, or to the bar of the court of any state, possession, territory, or commonwealth of the United States or of the District of Columbia where the attorney is admitted to practice law. The notice shall include the toll-free telephone numbers and Internet Web sites of those entities.
(2) The notice shall be in English and in one of the languages of the forms translated by the State Bar pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b), if the contract for immigration reform act services was negotiated in one of those languages.
(3) The notice shall be attached or incorporated into any written contract for immigration reform act services. If the notice is attached to a written contract, it shall be signed by both the attorney and the client.
(b) (1) The State Bar shall provide the form of the notice required in subdivision (a) and shall post the form and translations on its Internet Web site. The State Bar shall translate the form into the following languages: Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Armenian, Persian, Japanese, Russian, Hindi, Arabic, French, Punjabi, Portuguese, Mon-Khmer, Hmong, Thai, Gujarati. The State Bar, upon request, may translate the forms into other languages.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), an attorney providing immigration reform act services who meets the criteria of subdivision (b) of Section 6241 shall be responsible for adding and translating the name of, toll-free telephone number of, and information on the Internet Web site for, the bar of the court of any state, possession, territory, or commonwealth of the United States or the District of Columbia in which he or she is admitted to practice law.
(c) Failure to comply with any provision of this section renders the contract voidable at the option of the client, and the attorney shall, upon the contract being voided, be entitled to collect a reasonable fee.
(d) This section shall become operative when the State Bar posts on its Internet Web site the form and translations required by paragraph (1) of subdivision (b). The State Bar shall post the form and translations as soon as practicable, but no later than 45 days after the effective date of this section.
(Added by Stats. 2013, Ch. 574, Sec. 2. (AB 1159) Effective October 5, 2013. Section operative on date prescribed by its own provisions.)