A report on judicial evaluations, proposed disciplinary rule and policy changes, and procedural rule amendments will occupy the Bar Board of Governors when it begins the 2007-08 Bar year at its Aug. 17 meeting in Palm Beach.
It will be the first meeting with new Bar President Francisco Angones presiding.
Scheduled to report is the Supreme Court Commission on Judicial Evaluations. The commission, when it met in June at the Bar Annual Convention, voted against setting up a special entity to perform judicial evaluations to help educate voters.
The Disciplinary Procedure Committee will report on several issues. Coming to the board for a final vote will be an amendment to Bar Rule 4-7.10, which clarifies that Bar members may not accept referrals from private lawyer referral services which do not follow Bar rules.
The board will also have a final vote on Standing Board Policy 15.90, which is aimed at keeping judges informed when they have referred a lawyer to the Bar’s disciplinary process. That change stemmed from a recommendation from the Commission on Lawyer Regulation, which heard complaints from judges that they never heard back after making a complaint to the grievance system.
The board is also scheduled to get its first look at several items that will be on its October agenda for final approval. Those include Rule 3-7.18 on expunging disciplinary records to allow the Bar to dispose of documents from cases, all more than 15 years old now, that resulted in private reprimands. (Private reprimands were ended as a disciplinary option in 1990.)
The committee is also proposing an amendment to Rule 4-1.5, which is the test of reasonableness for fees and costs for legal services.
The board will also receive three sets of three-year cycle procedural amendments. Those will deal with the Rules of Judicial Administration, Family Law Rules, and Appellate Court Rules.
— Courtesy The Florida Bar