No new fees Bar budget approved
Meeting virtually March 25, the Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve an approximately $45 million Bar general fund budget proposal, watched a demonstration of online dispute resolution product, and launched a special committee for improving access to justice.
The approximately $45 million annual spending plan, which requires Supreme Court approval, maintains a 22-year trend of avoiding member fee increases.
Wide swings in the financial markets in recent weeks have slowed the Bar’s investment income, but the Bar’s finances remain sound, said Budget Committee Chair Jeremy Branning.
“We reviewed the five-year projections for the operating fund and are pleased to report that we are not likely, unless market conditions deteriorate considerably, to be discussing a fee increase for the immediate future,” he said.
The proposed general fund budget anticipates $40.1 million in total operating revenues, essentially unchanged from the previous year. Operating expenses of $44.6 million are projected to rise less than 1% over the current year’s budget level.
The Bar’s projected $2.3 million operating loss is typical, and relatively unchanged from the previous year.
The current year’s budgeted loss is being helped by a “significant amount of unused salary and benefit costs not being realized due to staff vacancies that are going unfilled,” Branning said.
The budget will be posted for public comment and submitted to the Supreme Court in June.
Online Dispute Resolution
In other business, the board watched a COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery Task Force presentation of competing online dispute resolution platforms.
When he assumed office last summer, Tanner requested that the task force be extended for a year to review the potential for an automated platform for the resolution of small-value civil claims up to $1,000. The task force has focused on two competing vendors.
Executives with Matterhorn demonstrated a “Turbo Court” online dispute resolution system that the company launched in 2004 in Lee County.
Turbo Court can now connect with all 67 of Florida’s court clerks, all 20 judicial circuits, and the court system’s E-Filing Portal, said Alex Zilberfayn, a company vice president.
“We are uniquely positioned to assist the Bar and the courts in this endeavor,” he said.
The system allows users to go to a website and file claims, make offers, or request a mediator 24 hours a day. The system helps parties create a settlement agreement that a judge can approve remotely.
Automated tutorials are available in multiple languages, Zilberfayn said.
A competing system, Modria by Tyler Technologies, is in use in the 18th Circuit, said task force Co-Chair Jay Kim.
Tyler’s Stephanie Ives demonstrated how the system would manage an imaginary consumer’s demand for $889 from an appliance dealer who allegedly sold a defective refrigerator.
“If either party thinks that they can’t reach a resolution, they can request the help of a mediator,” Ives said. “The mediator has the ability to generate documents for parties to sign.”
Tanner said he was impressed.
“When I came to the board almost a year ago, the data was very clear that the most acute point was small civil claims,” he said. “This seemed like a logical task for us, as a Bar, to take on.”
The task force expects to make a final recommendation in May. If the board approves, the proposal will be forward to the Florida Courts Technology Commission for further review.
But when it does, the task force will have a different name.
The board voted unanimously to approve a Program Evaluation Committee recommendation to extend the task force another year and rename it the “Special Committee on Changes to the Practice of Law.”
In addition to the automated platform, Tanner asked the task force earlier this year to monitor a growing number of Supreme Court work groups and committees.
One of them, the District Court of Appeal Workload and Jurisdiction Assessment Committee, generated a majority recommendation to create a Sixth District Court of Appeal.
The Supreme Court approved it, and the Legislature earlier this month appropriated $50 million for a Sixth DCA headquarters in Lakeland, as well as funding for seven district court of appeal judgeships.
In addition to Sixth DCA implementation and realignment of judicial circuits in the First, Second and Fifth districts, the task force is monitoring Supreme Court workgroups on the Improved Resolution of Civil Cases, Trial Court Technology Strategies, Judicial Practices in Trial Courts, and Sanctions for Sham and Vexatious Litigation.
Kim said the task force has already begun drafting proposed comments to Workgroup on Improved Resolution of Civil Cases proposed rule amendments.
Greater Access
In a related matter, the board approved a Program Evaluation Committee proposal to create a Special Committee for Greater Public Access to Legal Services.
Tanner called for the committee after the Supreme Court, in a March 3 letter, announced that it would not adopt most recommendations from its Special Committee to Improve the Delivery of Legal Services.
The board strongly opposed the recommendations, which included testing nonlawyer ownership of law firms, fee splitting with nonlawyers, and expanding the work paralegals could perform.
However, the Supreme Court directed the Bar to provide alternative proposals to “improve the delivery of legal services to Florida consumers and … assure Florida lawyers play a proper and prominent role in the provision of these services.”
Tanner said he consulted with President-elect Gary Lesser because the committee’s mission will extend past June, when Lesser is sworn into office.
The special committee will be on a tight deadline to forward its recommendations to the Supreme Court by December 31, Lesser said.
“We will be making appointments to the committee, which President Tanner will be pushing out in April,” Lesser said. “We have an opportunity here to make a significant difference in greater access to justice and we need to get going on that.”
Other Business
In other business, the board approved a Program Evaluation Committee recommendation to discontinue offering letterhead, business cards, and electronic templates to former Bar presidents that use the term, “Office of Former President,” or “Office of the Immediate Past President.”
There is no official “office,” for past presidents and board members wanted to avoid confusion that a past president speaks for the Bar, Tanner said.
The board also:
• Approved adding Member Options property and casualty insurance to the Member Benefits Program to replace Geico, a member benefit that expired in February. The Member Option benefit will be posted to the Member Benefits page on the Bar’s website when it becomes available.
• Civil Procedure Rules Committee proposed amendments to Rule 1.453 (Jury Request to Review Testimony). The proposed amendment would provide guidance for when a civil jury requests to review testimony presented at trial. The proposed amendment would mirror a similar rule for criminal matters.
• Family Law Procedure Rule Committee proposed amendments to 12.200 (Case Management and Pre-Trial Conferences). Suggested by a judge, the proposed amendment would delete a final sentence in subdivision (c) and conform the rule to current practice.
• Proposed legislative position requests from the Family Law, Elder Law, and Business Law sections.
