The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors has reauthorized 13 legislative positions for the legislative sessions in the next two years.
Legislation Committee Chair Greg Coleman presented the positions at the board’s December meeting in Orlando.
All had been prior Bar positions at one time, Coleman said, adding under Bar policy all legislative positions sunset every two years. The committee had examined them and determined they should be re-enacted, he said, and the wording is virtually identical to the previous positions.
The board unanimously approved the recommendations. The approved positions are:
• Opposing any constitutional amendments that would alter the Supreme Court’s oversight of the legal profession or the discipline of persons admitted to practice law in Florida.
• Opposing amending the constitution to alter the Supreme Court’s authority to adopt practice and procedural rules for the courts or that would change the way by which the Legislature may repeal such rules.
• Supporting the Supreme Court’s certification on the need for new judges.
• Supporting adequate funding for the court system, including state attorneys, public defenders, and private court-appointed counsel.
• Supporting allowing state agencies to pay Bar annual membership fees and continuing legal education expenses for attorneys they employ.
• Supporting legislation to create reasonable student loan financial assistance for government and legal aid attorneys who serve more than three years.
• Supporting adequate funding for the Florida Access to Civil Legal Assistance Act.
• Supporting legislation to require that a child have a meaningful opportunity to consult with an attorney before waiving the right to counsel in a delinquency proceeding.
• Opposing the indiscriminate use of chains and shackles on juveniles in court proceedings, and supporting a ban on such indiscriminate use in juvenile courts in court rules and legislative and executive branch policies.
• Supporting legislation to waive civil court costs and fees for those whose income is equal to or less than 150 percent of federal poverty guidelines.
• Supporting adequate funding by the federal government of the Legal Services Corporation, and opposing any funding cuts.
• Supporting federal legislation to amend §120 on the Internal Revenue Code to restore, increase, and make permanent the exclusion from an employee’s gross income an employer’s contributions to group legal service plans.
• Supporting a substantial pay increase for federal judges.
Those positions will join an earlier legislative policy approved by the board, which opposes legislation or policies that undermine the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine.
— Courtesy Florida Bar News