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Board of Governors Meeting Preview – May 2024

The following  at the May 10, 2024, meeting of the Board of Governors as of today; changes may occur before the meeting. Please contact  if you have any input or questions.

The Board of Governors will be considering  for FY 2024-25. The proposed spending plan, which was revised after being published for member objection, projects $43.2 million in revenues and $48.4 million in expenses for an operating loss of $5.2 million. The proposed revenue reflects a 1.5% increase from FY 2023-24, and a 6.6% increase in expenses over the same period. The deficit is partially offset by investment income from the Long-Term Fund, which contained $71.3 million on March 31. The Bar’s executive director filed an objection as a procedural move so the budget could be revised to reflect $108,000 in additional CLE revenues that were accidentally omitted and an additional section management fee. There is also a Florida Bar member who filed an objection that expressed a concern about the size of the deficit and expressed his opinion that TFB should raise dues.

The general fund budget and the Certification Fund, Client Security Fund, Litigation Fund, Fixed Asset Fund and Bar Section Funds, which the board must also approve, are available. All budgets will be forwarded to the Supreme Court for final consideration.

The board is expected to consider a proposed amendment to Rule 3-7.18 (Disposition of Inquiries or Complaints Referred to the Bar by Members of the Judiciary). The proposed amendments would make it clear that inquiries or complaints referred to the Bar by members of the judiciary should be “information obtained during the course of the member of the judiciary’s official duties as a judicial officer” and that a judicial referral “does not include allegations of violations of canons, rules, or law relating to judicial elections.” The amendments are up for final action by the board. The Supreme Court will have final approval.

The board will be asked to consider a proposed amendment to Rule 1-7.3 (Membership Fees) to eliminate the prorated fees for new members who join the Bar in the final quarter of the fiscal year. Most new Florida Bar members join either in the first quarter of the fiscal year, or the final quarter, Bar records show. Some members who join in the final quarter are going delinquent in the next fiscal year because they had paid the prorated fee and didn’t realize it was not for the full first year, according to a staff analysis.

Bar staff determined that the fiscal impact of not collecting the prorated amount would be offset by administrative savings of removing the need to communicate with those delinquent members and the manual reinstatement process for those members. The proposal would go to the Supreme Court for final approval.

The board will also consider a proposed amendment to Rule 4-7.20 (Exemptions from the Filing and Review Requirement), as directed by the Supreme Court. The proposed amendment would add a subdivision (h) “advertisements and other communications regarding legal services made by or on behalf of a legal aid organization, which is a not-for-profit business entity as defined elsewhere in these rules.”

The revision would make it clear that legal aid organizations are not required to file their advertisements and other communications for Bar review. The Supreme Court requested the revision in an August 1, 2023, letter, after reviewing recommendations from the Bar’s Special Committee on Greater Public Access to Legal Services.