What to Do If You Receive A Grievance From The Florida Bar

Consider hiring competent Bar defense counsel who can help maintain objectivity. She or he will be able to assess the problems you are facing and discuss the potential outcomes, as well as assist you in drafting and/or reviewing your responses. Bar defense counsel can research to determine whether, in light of all of the facts alleged in the grievance and in your response and supporting documentation, what you did constituted professional misconduct under the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar.

Your attorney can help assess whether one or multiple rule violations may be contemplated.

Get a copy of the complainant's file to your attorney as soon as possible, if applicable. Communication logs, notes, bank records, and emails need to be disclosed in order for counsel to provide candid advice and to explore all defenses you may have. Copies of your cell phone bills and office phone bills can be helpful establishing who called whom and when. A copy of the court’s docket sheet may be helpful as well.

Did office equipment malfunction, natural disaster, or other emergency cause all or part of the problem? If so, get an affidavit from the repair providers, or explain in your own affidavit exactly how the emergency situation impacted the subject of the complaint.

Obtain affidavits from persons who have knowledge of the fact pattern of the complaint and your defense theories. Affidavits from your office staff regarding a customary practice of promptly returning phone calls, providing copies of documents to clients, and keeping your clients informed of case progress will likely help. If there was a referring attorney or co-counsel involved, get an affidavit from that attorney as well.

If the complaint involves an area of the law in which Florida currently offers Board Certification, get an affidavit from a Board Certified lawyer that she or he has reviewed the file, and your actions were consistent with the ethical practice of law in that area.

If possible, offer to work out a resolution of the problem with the complaining party through their attorney and The Florida Bar's Attorney-Consumer Assistance Program. The grievance may simply be a matter of misunderstanding between you and the complainant. Your willingness to "step up to the plate " will be helpful.

Do not attack the complainant out of sheer frustration, and do not delay your reply. The response period is typically fifteen (15) days from the date of your receipt of the grievance, and failure to timely respond could be a separate ethics violation, even if you have a valid defense for your failure to respond. See Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-8.4(g).

Failure to respond comprehensively at the outset may result in a perfectly good defense being missed when the matter is further reviewed by The Florida Bar. A competent attorney who has represented himself or herself without seeking the help of experienced Bar defense counsel may have placed him or herself in greater jeopardy by not paying careful attention, making admissions against interest, omitting some available defenses, and failing to make any due process objections and claims.

Contact Elizabeth Today For A Free Consultation!