On November 19, 2009 the Florida Supreme Court released Opinion No. SC08-1890, approving a number of rule changes related to the discipline of attorneys.

These changes may affect the accuracy of the information posted below, so please review this opinion carefully.

Read the SC08-1890 opinion

Among other things, the new rules:

• provide that all sanctions in cases opened on or after March 17, 1990 are public (Note: admonishments marked "not to be published" are not "confidential;" the Court directs that these admonishments will not appear in Southern Reporter or the Bar News, but can be posted on the Bar's website and provided on request to a member of the public.)
• allow contempt proceedings, including emergency suspensions, for lawyers who fail to respond to Bar grievance inquiries
• allow the Bar to seek an emergency suspension when a lawyer is disciplined in another jurisdiction
• provide that if, at any time before the filing of a formal complaint, bar counsel, staff counsel, and the designated reviewer all agree that appropriate reasons indicate that the formal complaint should not be filed, the case may be returned to the grievance committee for further action
• require that if civil penalties are requested, the referee's case management order must contain a notice to the respondent regarding the respondent’s burden to show an inability to pay a civil penalty (as set forth elsewhere in the rules)
• set a time limit for a motion to tax costs in a referee proceeding
• establish a procedure for taxing costs in disciplinary proceedings before the Supreme Court, where the Court reverses a referee's finding but does not remand the case to the referee
• provide that grievance cases can be referred to the fee arbitration program (when Bar staff counsel and parties agree)

Training requirement

In addition, the new rule will require that to be eligible for appointment as a referee, a judge must have previously served as a judicial referee in proceedings instituted before February 1, 2010, at 12:01 a.m., or must have received the referee training materials approved by the Supreme Court of Florida and certified to the chief judge that the training materials have been reviewed.

These rules changes take effect on February 1, 2010.