by David Ball
Staff Writer
Last fiscal year, the Florida Bar collected more than $21 million in dues and fees from its 81,500 members to support its operation as the lawyers’ governing body in Florida.
But for that $265 annual fee paid by each attorney, about 45 percent was used to investigate and pursue disciplinary action against lawyers who broke the law or violated the Bar’s professional ethics. That equates to about $116 of each attorney’s dues and nearly $9.5 million of the Bar’s total statewide income.
A chart compiled by the Florida Bar shows how the total cost of discipline, the percentage of dues used to pay for discipline and the cost of discipline per Bar member has slowly increased since the 2003-04 fiscal year. However, other statistics in the same chart show a trend of decreasing disciplines when compared to the total population of Bar members.
Overall, Kenneth Marvin, director of lawyer regulation for the Florida Bar, said the costs have remained steady given the annual fluctuations — usually increases — in salary payments, rent fees and other costs associated with regulating attorneys.
“Most of the money is spent on salaries,” said Marvin. “We have five different branch offices throughout the state in Tallahassee, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa and Miami. Obviously, with all of those offices there is rent involved. And rent does not go down.”
Marvin said the salary costs include about a half-dozen attorneys in each office with about a dozen support staff members and other various administrative personnel. The total cost of discipline also includes the Attorney Consumer Assistance Program (ACAP), which is the department that handles client complaints and can even resolve some problems before a complaint is filed.
The Bar investigated 9,063 complaints in 06-07, which equates to one complaint for every nine Bar members. A little more than 390 of those complaints, or 11.1 percent, resulted in final punishment orders that include disbarment, suspension, public reprimands and others.
The most telling statistic is when those final punishment orders are compared to the total cost of discipline. Last year, it cost the Florida Bar $24,201 for each final order issued. That’s down from $25,801 the year before, up from $22,313 the year before that and down from $25,868 in 03-04.
Jacksonville attorney and former Florida Bar President Hank Coxe said that policing the conduct of attorneys is a major issue in every state, and Florida has a reputation as a nationwide leader in regulation and discipline. The numbers, he said, are simply the facts of Bar life.
“It’s not a cost of doing business as much as a cost of ensuring protection of the public,” said Coxe, Bar president from June 2006 to June 2007. “And with what is now a little over 82,000 members, it’s the nature of the animal that the Bar has the obligation to protect the public, and at the same time not be unfair to members.”
Coxe knows the Florida Bar is pursuing disciplines efficiently and effectively after chairing a two-year committee that investigated the Bar’s entire regulatory process from 2004-06.
One disciplinary recommendation now incorporated into Bar regulations was that all reprimands had to take place in front of the entire Bar Board of Governors.
“The sentiment of the majority was it was an important and effective way to deter misconduct,” he said.
Another change made it possible for the Bar to discipline an attorney as soon as his guilt was proven in court. Previously, it waited until the judgment of conviction was final and the sentence was imposed.
“There were serious concerns both within and without the legal community that a lawyer found guilty of a serious offense could continue to practice law,” said Coxe.
Coxe said ultimately, the Bar can’t be responsible for the amount of lawyer violations, just how they are dealt with. He said beyond law school ethics classes and continuing education on ethics and professionalism, it’s up to the character of each lawyer.
“I remember a comment that former (Florida Supreme Court) chief justice (Major B.) Harding made to me years ago,” he said. “One theory says, you can have ethics courses and professionalism courses, but if your mother didn’t teach you right, what are we supposed to do about it?”
Open Chart in new window
This chart from the Florida Bar shows the total costs of pursuing disciplinary actions against attorneys and what percentage of Bar members’ dues go towards those costs. It also breaks out the various types of disciplines handed down.