by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The Florida Bar is proposing an alternative for those who let their fingers do the walking when it comes time to choose a lawyer.
Citing a national survey that said about half of Americans get their lawyer from the Yellow Pages, the Bar is touting its online directory of board-certified lawyers as an alternative to the phone book.
The directory is broken down by city and specialty area, providing a more organized approach to choosing an attorney by scanning phone book and billboard ads, said Bar spokesperson Lisa Garcia.
“We’re really trying to get the word out to people about legal board certification and how it can benefit customers when they’re choosing lawyers,” said Garcia.
The directory is available via a link at the Bar’s website or directly accessible at www.flabar.org/
certification.
Garcia said the Bar launched a statewide awareness campaign about board certification in response to the growing number of people looking to advertising to help them choose a lawyer. It can be difficult for those customers to pick the most qualified attorney from hundreds of ads, said Garcia.
The Bar’s directory lists only attorneys who have met the Bar’s objective standards for board certification. Those attorneys have gone through a rigorous certification process that requires them to demonstrate experience and expertise in a particular area of law, said Garcia.
“In this directory, you know you’re sorting through highly-qualified attorneys,” she said.
Just 3,800 of Florida’s 75,000 lawyers are board certified. The certification process requires an attorney to show substantial experience in a given area of law, pass an examination and receive a satisfactory assessment from peers.
Certified attorneys are the only lawyers allowed to identify or advertise themselves as board certified specialists or experts. The Bar currently certifies lawyers in 20 specialty practice fields.
The voluntary certification program began in 1982 as a means to help the public choose lawyers. The internet has made the service even more accessible, said Garcia.