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Daily News Summary

The purpose of this summary provided by the Communications Department of The Florida Bar is to present media coverage that may be of interest to members. Opinions expressed in the articles are attributable solely to the authors. The Florida Bar does not adopt or endorse any opinions expressed below. For information on previous articles, please contact the publishing newspaper directly.

October 04, 2024

  1. The Florida Bar

    NEW NSU LAW STUDY REVEALS LEGAL MALPRACTICE TRENDS IN FLORIDA

    The Florida Bar | Article | October 04, 2024

    A new study of legal malpractice in Florida shows that insurers pay an average of $154,000 per claim and that lawyers who are the subject of a claim pay an average of $11,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. When it comes to being the subject of a legal malpractice claim, men far outpace women, 83% to 16%, and the average lawyer targeted by a malpractice claim has 22 years of experience. “Legal Malpractice in Florida: A Statistical Profile,” by Nova Southeastern University Law Professors Robert Jarvis and Debra Moss Vollweiler, appears in the October 1 editions of St. Mary’s Journal on Legal Malpractice and Ethics. The study is based on more than 4,500 claims reported by 100 insurance companies over a 44-year period.

  2. Civil Justice Legal Discipline

    FIVE MORE POSSIBLE CRONIES OF BROWARD’S ‘MOTHER TERESA’ CHARGED IN HER $196M FRAUD

    Miami Herald | Article | October 02, 2024

    While the Broward fraudster who ran a $196 million Ponzi scheme out of a Pompano Beach strip mall sits in federal prison awaiting sentencing, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged five people with helping execute the scam. Last week, the SEC filed complaints against West Miami-Dade lawyer Karina Fernandez and four others for their roles in the MJ Capital Funding securities fraud and operating as unlicensed brokers. The scam was run by North Lauderdale’s Johanna Garcia, MJ Capital’s president. The SEC charges seek to recover money earned by the scam, to impose civil penalties and limit future financial activities. Fernandez, who graduated from Tulane Law and became a Florida Bar member in 2019, ran a team of 64 sales agents as an MJ Capital manager. She raised relatively little compared to the other four, the complaint against her said, but Fernandez brought MJ Capital to the digital world through Zoom meetings and activity on an Instagram page, “Entrepreneur | Lawyer on Instagram.”

  3. Judicial Discipline

    JUDICIAL PANEL: ORANGE JUDGE ASHTON ENGAGED IN ‘INAPPROPRIATE CONDUCT’

    Orlando Sentinel | Article | October 03, 2024

    Orange County Judge Jeff Ashton engaged in “inappropriate conduct” while on the bench — shouting at people, showing bias against some attorneys and behaving “in a manner that was not patient, dignified or courteous,” according to a notice filed Wednesday [Oct. 2] by the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC). Ashton, who serves in the 9th Judicial Circuit and is running for re-election in November, now must respond to the charges levied this week by the JQC. The JQC investigates complaints about judges and could recommend the Florida Supreme Court discipline Ashton, who has been a judge for five years. “Your repeated unwillingness or inability to govern your behavior raises questions about your fitness for judicial office, and the foregoing behavior constitutes inappropriate conduct,” the JQC wrote in its notice.

  4. Legal Education

    UF LAW SCHOOL TOPS ALL STATE SCHOOLS WITH 90% OF THEIR STUDENTS PASSING BAR EXAM ON FIRST TRY

    Florida Politics | Article | October 03, 2024

    The University of Florida (UF) Levin College of Law now leads the rest of the Sunshine State’s law schools for students who passed the Florida Bar exam on their first try. The UF law school had 90% of its students who took the bar exam pass it. The result comes after UF initiated a three-year program to increase the rate of students who clear the test. The 90% passage rate for first attempts leads the state, a UF news release said Thursday [Oct. 3].

  5. Legal Aid

    FROM THE JBA PRESIDENT: HELENE VICTIMS NEED OUR HELP

    Jacksonville Daily Record | Column | October 03, 2024

    Jacksonville Bar Association President Christian George writes: “The events of this past week when Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida and then wreaked destruction northward all the way to the Carolinas reminded me of 2017 when Jacksonville sustained catastrophic damage from Hurricane Irma’s storm surge and wind . . . Due in part to my experience and my career, we are uniquely equipped to deal with situations like this storm. . . In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, thousands of Floridians need help and, as lawyers, we can and should provide assistance in these trying times . . . The Florida Bar’s Young Lawyers’ Division is administering The Florida Bar’s Disaster Relief Hotline. We need volunteers as the number of calls is currently more than the number of attorney volunteers. It does not matter if you haven’t handled insurance claims, landlord-tenant claims, or if you are familiar with FEMA. Victims may be forced to make important decisions alone, without the advice of a lawyer, unless we get more volunteers. Visit flayld.org/get-involved/disaster-relief-fema-hotline/ to learn more or sign up.”

  6. Civil Justice

    FLORIDA FEDERAL JUDGE RULES FALSE CLAIMS ACT QUI TAM PROVISIONS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL

    Daily Business Review | Article | October 02, 2024

    U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle entered a precedent-setting order on a pending motion to dismiss in which she concluded that the qui tam provisions of the Federal False Claims Act violate Article II of the U.S. Constitution. The case involves a False Claims Act action, where the defendant, Florida Medical Association, moved for a motion to dismiss Clarissa Zafirov’s complaint. Zafirov, the plaintiff, alleged that the defendants were involved in fraudulent activities to boost the money they received through a program involving Medicare Advantage. She claimed that doctors were encouraged to bring patients for medically unnecessary office visits. Zafirov claimed that these activities violated the False Claims Act. Zafirov has been leading the prosecution for five years after the government chose not to intervene. In her order, Judge Mizelle ruled that Zafirov is exercising quintessential executive powers, being effectively an officer of the U.S. But because the President doesn’t appoint relators, the FCA’s qui tam provisions run afoul of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.

  7. Judiciary

    THIS ATTORNEY JUST ROSE TO JUDGE UNDER A NEW FLORIDA LAW

    Daily Business Review | Article | October 03, 2024

    Gov. Ron DeSantis made a judicial appointment, elevating a Florida lawyer to the state court. The appointee, Charles “Garrett” Hill of Lake City, will serve as a judge on the Columbia County Court. Hill has served as an Assistant State Attorney for the Third Judicial Circuit since 2020. The Third Circuit serves the counties of Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee, and Taylor in Florida’s “Big Bend” region. The judicial vacancy was created by the enactment of HB 5401. In March, the Florida House of Representatives passed the bill, which subsequently passed in the Senate. The governor approved the bill in May, and the law took effect July 1.

  8. Civil Justice

    FIVE FLORIDIANS WITH DISABILITIES SAY STATE IS VIOLATING THEIR RIGHTS

    Florida Phoenix | Article | October 02, 2024

    Five Medicaid beneficiaries and their caregivers allege in a federal lawsuit that the DeSantis administration is allowing medical contractors to deny, reduce, or terminate care for Floridians with disabilities while ignoring legally mandated safeguards. Filed in Tallahassee federal court by pro bono attorney Nancy Wright, Southern Legal Counsel, and Legal Services of Greater Miami, the complaint accuses the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) of mismanaging a Medicaid program that provides home and community-based services to  people 18 and older and living with a disability, and 65 and older who qualify for nursing home care, with the goal of preventing them from being institutionalized. The complaint asks the court to block the state from allowing state-sponsored Medicaid managed care plans from placing what the plaintiffs say are arbitrary limits on services and from creating administrative barriers that the lawyers contend boggle beneficiaries and their caregivers. The plaintiffs and their caregivers allege the state is violating their due process and equal rights protections as well as the American with Disabilities Act.

  9. Civil Justice

    FEDERAL JUDGE REJECTS FLORIDA CHALLENGE TO ACCREDITATION SYSTEM FOR COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES

    News Service of Florida | Article | October 03, 2024

    U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra Wednesday [Oct. 2] rejected a challenge by the state of Florida to the constitutionality of the accreditation system for colleges and universities. The system plays a critical role in higher education because schools must be accredited for students to receive federal financial aid. Florida alleged, in part, that the federal government delegates too much authority to private accrediting agencies to carry out the system. But Judge Becerra granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss the case, finding that the state’s “sweeping criticism of the legislative scheme by which the federal government provides students with financial aid for their postsecondary education collapses distinct functions of the process, disregards undisputed facts, and then uses legal standards that are not controlling to urge the court to deny the (federal government’s) motion.”

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