KARA-AN V. PINEDA (DISBARMENT)

Records show that the evidence adduced by the complainant is insufficient to warrant the imposition of the supreme sanction of disbarment.

DISBARMENT is the most severe form of disciplinary sanction, and as such, the power to disbar must always be exercised with great caution, only for the most imperative reasons and in clear cases of misconduct affecting the standing and the moral character of the lawyer as an officer of the court and member of the bar.

Accordingly, disbarment should not be decreed where any punishment less severe such as a reprimand, suspension, or fine would accomplish the end desired.