No Civil Mediation Of Bar Discipline Matters

The Florida Supreme Court has amended its Rules of bar discipline procedures

The Florida Bar (Bar) filed a petition proposing amendments to rules 3-7.6 (Procedures Before a Referee) and 3-7.10 (Reinstatement and Readmission Procedures). The petition was in response to a referral from the Court to consider amendments to the rules in accordance with the Court’s recent decision in Florida Bar re Murtha, 327 So. 3d 256, 259 (Fla. 2021), wherein this Court held that the referee’s order requiring civil mediation in this Bar reinstatement proceeding was inappropriate and noting that the Court would separately refer the issue to the Bar to consider a rule on the issue of mediation. The Board of Governors of The Florida Bar unanimously approved the proposal. The Bar published the proposal for comment in The Florida Bar News, and no comments were received. Having considered the Bar’s report, the Court hereby adopts the amendments as proposed. The more significant amendments are discussed below.

First, in rule 3-7.6, language is added under new subdivision (f)(3) to provide that civil mediation is not available to the parties but grievance mediation under chapter 14 is permitted as applicable. Additionally, new subdivision (h)(5)(C) is added and provides language to mirror rule 3-7.11(d)(1) to emphasize that witness and document subpoenas must be issued by the referee.

Next, in rule 3-7.10, a sentence is added to subdivision (f) prohibiting a referee in Bar reinstatement proceedings from referring a petition for reinstatement to civil or grievance mediation. Finally, multiple grammatical amendments are made throughout both rules for clarity and consistency with In re Guidelines for Rules Submissions, AOSC06-14 (Fla. 2006).

Accordingly, we amend the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar as reflected in the appendix to this opinion. New language is indicated by underscoring; deletions are indicated by struck-through type.

(Mike Frisch)