As a result, the State Bar was forced to lay off 500 of its 700 personnel on June 26, 1998. For six months, the State Bar's attorney disciplinary system was nonfunctional. On December 3, 1998, the Supreme Court of California unanimously held that it had the power to impose an emergency annual fee of $171.44 on all California lawyers to fund the attorney disciplinary system. See "In re Attorney Disciplinary System", 19 Cal. 4th 582 (1998). By then, the backlog of unprocessed complaints had soared to 6,000.