The Florida Bar’s new program for posting the 10-year disciplinary history of Bar members on its Web site will go online Aug. 1.
Communications Committee Chair Tim Sullivan updated the Bar Board of Governors recently on its previously approved plans for making some public disciplinary records available online.
Because of technology and other considerations, the start-up date was moved from July 1 to Aug. 1.
Here’s how the program, approved earlier this year by the board, will work:
Lawyers who have received an admonishment, reprimand, suspension, or disbarment (including resignations for disciplinary reasons) in the prior 10 years will have that information noted on their biography page of the Bar’s Web site.
For cases closed after July 1, 2007, there will be a digital link to the formal complaint filed with the Supreme Court, the referee’s report and/or the consent judgment, and the final Supreme Court order. Also noted will be the availability of other public records associated with the case through contact with the Bar.
For cases closed before July 1, 2007, initially there will be a notation of the discipline and an e-mail address where consumers can write for copies of the complaints, reports, orders, and other public records. In addition, the Bar has begun to digitally scan those files. At the outset, the files for the previous two years — about 700 disciplinary records — will be scanned. The entire files will be scanned so that if members of the public request other public parts of the file, that data will be available in electronic format.
After that initial scanning is done, the Bar will proceed with scanning older cases.
Overall, there are about 3,265 disciplinary cases in the four categories over the past decade. Preliminary estimates indicate it would take one full-time employee about four years to scan these years of disciplinary records. The committee has been told that the Bar plans to use temporary staff and law students to review and scan the older files.
The Communications Committee has been studying the online posting of some disciplinary records for the past year, as a follow-up to one of the recommendations of the Special Commission on Lawyer Regulation.
The initial online posting of the grievance records also comes as a private company has requested and obtained the past five years of Bar public disciplinary records. That company is setting up a nationwide, online rating service for lawyers and intends to use the records as part of the rating for Florida lawyers.
— Courtesy The Florida Bar