Should paralegals be regulated?
Should paralegals be regulated?
Lawmakers ask the Bar to study the issue
The Bar Board of Governors has approved the creation of a new special committee to study whether paralegals in Florida should be regulated.
The new panel was recommended by the Program Evaluation Committee and approved by the board at its June 3 meeting. Incoming Bar President Alan Bookman announced he will be appointing members to the new panel and is welcoming suggestions for members.
PEC Chair Richard Tanner said bills were introduced in the House and Senate to regulate paralegals earlier this year. Lawmakers agreed not to push those measures if the Bar agreed to study the issue and make its own proposals.
The Special Committee on Paralegal Studies is set to report to the board before the March 2006 start of the next legislative session, Tanner said.
Bookman noted the four legislators who wrote the Bar about the issue asked for a report by September 1, but he said that is unrealistic. He also said he had written the four legislators and invited their participation, as well as invited help from the Bar’s sections.
“The bills did not go anywhere, but the legislature is asking the Bar to get with the Florida Alliance of Paralegal Associations and hopefully come up with a recommendation,” Bookman said.
“I think we need to hear from the legislature; I think we need to hear from the education aspect; and I think we need to hear from lawyers who use paralegals in their practice,” he said. “Additionally, I’d like to have an office administrator on that committee.”
He said board member Ross Goodman, who teaches a paralegal course at the University of West Florida, will chair the committee.
The issue could be very important to lawyers. Bookman noted one of the filed bills provided that when lawyers submit their bills to courts for payment, they could only get reimbursed for paralegals who are licensed under the proposed legislation.
