A proposed rule upping requirements for lawyers returning from lengthy suspensions has been approved by the Florida Bar’s Board of Governors.
The board, at its Sept. 25 meeting in Hollywood, unanimously endorsed the amendments to Rule 3-7.10 proposed by the Disciplinary Procedure Committee. The changes will go to the Supreme Court for its review next year.
DPC Chair Andy Sasso said the Supreme Court requested the board look at the issue and expressed concerns about lawyers returning to practice after a lengthy suspension or period of ineligibility to practice. Lawyers suspended 90 days or less are automatically reinstated. But those suspended for 91 days to three years must petition for reinstatement to membership in good standing, and a referee is appointed to preside over the matter.
Some lawyers have waited years, sometimes longer than a decade, after their suspensions have ended to seek reinstatement, and Sasso said the court was concerned about the competency of those lawyers.
“They’ve asked for some standards for reinstatement,” he said. “The primary focus is education.”
As amended, the rule provides that lawyers suspended three years or longer must demonstrate their competency by taking 10 CLE credits for each year or part of a year they were ineligible to practice, Sasso said. They can also show competency if they worked as a law clerk, paralegal, or legal educator during their period of ineligibility.
Those who have been ineligible to practice for five years or longer, he said, will have to retake the Florida portion of the bar exam.
The changes also apply to lawyers who have involuntarily been placed on the inactive list for incapacity not related to misconduct.
Sasso also reported on three other items the committee is working on. One, which will come to the board for a vote at its December meeting, raises from $15,000 to $75,000 the disputed amount in a case handled by the Bar’s Fee Arbitration Program that can be handled by a single arbitrator. Sasso said it was difficult to find three arbitrators for the number of cases greater than $15,000 but less than $75,000, and the change will expedite the handling of those matters.
The committee is also reviewing the Bar’s standing board policies on public reprimands, and is considering a change where all public reprimands would continue to be published. However, where certain conditions exist, such as harm to the public, a pattern of misconduct, and other similar factors, reprimands would be administered in person by the Bar president at board meetings.
The last item being considered by the committee, Sasso said, is possible changes to trust accounting rules. The committee is considering changes to prevent attorneys from using a rubber signature stamp to sign trust account checks, prohibit them from signing blank trust account checks, and prevent non-lawyers from signing trust account checks.
— Courtesy Florida Bar News