Florida Bar Grievance Defense

Our experienced St. Johns County Florida Bar grievance defense lawyers can help you appropriately defend your bar complaint. As former committee members and chairs of the Florida Grievance Committee in the Seventh Circuit, all three of our attorneys have experience from both sides of the process in being on the enforcement side and in defending our clients who have been grieved. A list of the current members and brief explanation of this committee can be found here.

If you have received correspondence from Florida Bar counsel regarding a bar complaint against you and you are required to respond, then you need to take swift and thorough action. Call an experienced bar grievance attorney immediately. The Bar does not penalize you or make any assumptions as to the veracity of the complaint if you “lawyer up”. However, without counsel, you may inadvertently end up making your situation worse without guidance from a lawyer who understands the process. Do not wait or become lackadaisical about the severity of the situation just because you think the complaint does not have merit and will go away on its own. It will not go away on its own and if you do not treat the situation with care, then the situation could end up much worse than it would have had you been proactive earlier on in the process. If you are required to respond, then it must be taken seriously immediately. A response must be timely and a failure to respond to the Florida Bar inquiry is itself a violation of Florida Bar Rule 4-8.4(g).

After you receive a complaint that requires a response, our St. Johns County Florida Bar grievance defense lawyers are able to assist with the initial response. Once the response is filed, then the bar counsel will review the information provided and decide how to move forward. At that point, the bar counsel can decide to close the file, request more information, or forward the file to his or her grievance committee to be investigated further. A grievance committee is comprised of both lawyers and nonlawyer members, and usually there are two members assigned to each file to investigate. After the investigating members conduct their investigation, they present their findings to the committee for a vote to determine whether there is probable cause showing that you violated the rules of professional conduct and discipline is warranted. There are several possible outcomes at the committee level that do not end with a finding of probable cause and which do not become public record. These alternative outcomes include a letter of advice, diversion, or a finding of no probable cause without any further action. A letter of advice is a letter from the Florida Bar attorney that often gives feedback on what should have been handled differently and how to handle such situations in the future better. A finding of no probable cause means that the committee voted that no action was needed at all and that there is no probably cause to demonstrate a violation of the rules. Diversion is an agreement entered into by the attorney to complete multiple tasks, and once all tasks are completed, then the matter is resolved and closed. There are many different tasks that can be included in a diversion contract, including CLEs, completion of certain programs with the Florida Bar, etc. If the committee does find probable cause and the case if filed, then the disciplinary outcomes could include a finding of misconduct, a public reprimand, suspension, or disbarment.

Having representation sooner than later in this process can be absolutely key. Please do not wait to get a neutral opinion of your complaint from an attorney with experience in this process. We all know the saying that “a lawyer who represents himself/herself has a fool for a client,” and this is definitely no exception. No matter what phase you are in at this point, please call us today at (904) 829-3035 to set your consultation to review your grievance matter with our St. Augustine Florida Bar grievance defense attorneys.