GettingEthOp

ANSWERS TO YOUR ETHICS QUESTIONS: WHO YA GONNA CALL?

Timothy P. Chinaris

The Florida Bar devotes substantial resources to answering Bar members’ ethics questions. Your bar dues support these services, so consider contacting the Bar when facing an ethical question or dilemma. Bar services in the ethics area include:

Informal oral or written advisory opinions. Florida Bar staff attorneys provide informal advisory opinions to requesting members. These informal opinions are issued in response to the inquiring lawyer’s individual situation. More than 18,000 such opinions were rendered last year.

How to get an informal opinion:

• For an oral opinion M-F from 9a-5p, call the “Ethics Hotline” directly at 1-800-235-8619 (or call 1-850- 561-5780 and leave a message).

• For a written opinion, write to Florida Bar Ethics Department at 651 E. Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2300, or email the Bar at eto@flabar.org.

• Procedural rules are set forth in Florida Bar Procedures for Ruling on Question of Ethics (see especially Rule 2(a) and Rule 3). These Procedures are available in the September directory issue of the Florida Bar Journal and online at the Bar’s web site (under “Regulation” then “Ethics Information”).

• You must be a member of the Florida Bar who is asking about your own contemplated (future) conduct.

• You must NOT be asking about: question of law; your past conduct; another lawyer’s conduct; matter that is the subject of a pending Bar grievance.

• To get a written informal opinion, you must write to the Bar with your question. Oral opinions will be given in response to telephone calls.

• If you disagree with the written opinion you receive, you may appeal it to the Professional Ethics Committee and, ultimately, to the Board of Governors.

• All Florida Bar ethics opinions, both informal and formal, “are advisory only and shall not be the basis for action by grievance committee, referees, or the board of governors except upon application of the respondent in disciplinary proceedings.” Rule 1, Florida Bar Procedures for Ruling on Questions of Ethics.

Formal advisory opinions. These are written opinions published by the Professional Ethics Committee or the Board of Governors. Formal advisory opinions Typically they address questions of interest to a large segment of the Bar membership. Formal opinions are rendered only after notification is given to the Bar membership (though publication in the Florida Bar News) and comments from all interested Bar members are thoroughly considered. (Applicable procedural rules are set forth in Florida Bar Procedures for Ruling on Question of Ethics; see especially Rule 4 and Rule 5.) As with informal opinions, formal opinions are advisory only.

Lawyer advertising opinions. Written opinions concerning lawyer advertising issues are rendered under a different process. See Chapter 15, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.

Research tools. The formal advisory opinions are in a searchable database on the Florida Bar web site. Also on the Bar’s web site (under “Regulation” then “Ethics Information”) are links to: the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct; Frequently Asked Ethics Questions; Informational Packets about popular topics such as Attorney’s Liens, Business Arrangements, Closed Files, and Referral Fees; Researching Ethics Questions; and the quarterly “Ethics Update” newsletter covering recent developments in Florida ethics.