Board to take up judicial questionnaires, suspensions.

A proposed questionnaire for trial court candidates and action on proposed rule amendments that would set new requirements for suspended Bar members who wait more than three years to end their suspensions will be among issues coming to the Board of Governors at its July 17 meeting in Naples.

The meeting, which starts the 2009-10 Bar year, will be the first presided over by new Bar President Jesse Diner and new President-elect Mayanne Downs. It will also be the traditional joint meeting with the Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors, which will sit in for the start of the board's meeting before retiring to conduct its own business.

The court candidate questionnaire is the recommendation of the Judicial Administration and Evaluation Committee. The board has already approved in concept a "self-disclosure statement" as a way to help inform voters about circuit and county court candidates' experience and qualifications.

The Program Evaluation Committee, which recommended approval of the concept, has been working with the JAEC on the precise wording of the questionnaire. The JAEC's initial proposed form asks about education background, work experience, number of trials, hearings, arbitrations, mediations and the like, participation in certifications, public service and military record, and for any criminal or disciplinary history. It also asks candidates for a 100-word or less statement explaining why they want to be a judge.

The form has drawn the strong support of the Bar's Citizens Forum, which particularly advocated for the essay question.

Critics have questioned the propriety of asking judicial candidates to fill out a questionnaire, but the JAEC has argued it will help educate voters. It also noted that special interest groups are sending questionnaires to the candidates. The Bar can act as a neutral source of information, the committee said, and candidates who fill out the Bar form can reject those from special interests, saying they've provided the necessary information through the Bar.

Not worked out yet is a way of distributing the forms to trial court candidates, collecting them, and then getting the information out to the public.

The issue on reinstating suspended members came to the board in a letter from the Supreme Court, which expressed concerns about the abilities of lawyers who wait years to end their suspensions.

Under Bar rules, lawyers suspended for up to 90 days are automatically reinstated. Those suspended for 91 days or longer (the maximum suspension is three years) must apply for reinstatement and undergo a Bar hearing where they, among other things, must demonstrate rehabilitation. In some cases, lawyers wait several years--sometimes more than a decade--before seeking reinstatement.

Board member Murray Silverstein, chair of the Disciplinary Procedure Committee, told the board in May that justices were concerned that "if you've been suspended for a period longer than three years and you have been delayed in reapplying, you could go several years without having to demonstrate fitness and competence."

The proposed rule requires those lawyers to show they have taken 10 CLE credits for each year or part of a year they were suspended, and demonstrate they are current with changes in the law. Proof of compliance could be shown by working as a law clerk, paralegal, or teaching legal issues during the suspension.

In cases where the suspension has lasted more than five years, the rule provides the lawyer must retake and pass "the Florida portions of the The Florida Bar examination and the multistate professional responsibility examination."