ABOTA reduces jury trial requirement to enhance membership opportunities
'The intention is not to dilute the skills and personal character required to be invited to join ABOTA, rather, it is to keep our organization viable'
The invitation-only American Board of Trial Advocates, a national organization founded in 1958, has revised its membership requirements, state leaders announced Wednesday.
FLABOTA President Rebecca Brock, a Palm Beach attorney, said in a newsletter that new member recruitment was a “hot topic” at a weekend national board meeting in Nashville.
Brock noted that the board voted to revise the ABOTA constitution and bylaws and pointed to Article III (1) Membership and Bylaw IV Trial Experience, which now require at least seven jury trials (rather than 10 jury trials) and 100 points to qualify for membership.
The revisions were based on research and designed to enhance options for chapters to continue recruiting skilled trial lawyers while maintaining the integrity of ABOTA, Brock said.
“The intention is not to dilute the skills and personal character required to be invited to join ABOTA,” Brock wrote, “rather, it is to keep our organization viable.”
The letter urges Florida chapter members to consider new candidates “who will continue to enthusiastically promote our mission of preserving the right to a civil jury trial, the independence of the judiciary, professionalism, and civility.”
In recent years, some Florida trial lawyers have expressed a concern about their ability to meet requirements for completing a minimum number of trials, or requirements to participate in a minimum number of oral arguments, to maintain board certification.
More civil cases are resolving without trial, and appellate judges are scheduling fewer oral arguments, the attorneys contend. Some also pointed to the Family Law Section’s Bounds of Advocacy, which encourage the resolution of family disputes by agreement.
In an August 22 order — In Re: Amendments to Rules Regulating The Florida Bar — Rules 6-3.5 and 6-3.6, Case No. SC2024-0237, the Supreme Court approved a Florida Bar proposal to retain more board-certified attorneys by revising certain certification standards.
The order took effect October 21.
Among other things, the revisions will allow certification committees to waive “quantitative” practice requirements — including a minimum number of trials — for applicants who have been continuously certified for 14 years, and otherwise meet the requirements.
The Bar argued that “as lawyers mature in their careers, they find it harder to meet the specific quantitative requirements because they take fewer, but more complex cases.”
