Title: In Re: Amendment to Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 3-5.2

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

Supreme Court of Florida 
 
____________ 
 
No. SC2023-0108 
____________ 
 
IN RE: AMENDMENT TO RULE REGULATING THE FLORIDA BAR 
3-5.2. 
 
August 31, 2023 
 
PER CURIAM. 
 
 
The Court, on its own motion, is considering an amendment to 
Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 3-5.2 (Emergency Suspension and 
Interim Probation or Interim Placement on the Inactive List for 
Incapacity Not Related to Misconduct).1   
Previously, this Court asked the Bar to consider proposing 
amendments to Bar Rule 3-5.2 to allow temporary suspension 
orders to be issued in cases where an attorney has been charged 
with a felony by indictment or information in state or federal court.  
The Bar prepared a proposal responsive to the Court’s letter, but 
after reviewing the Bar’s petition, we declined to amend Bar Rule 3-
 
1.  We have jurisdiction.  See art. V, § 15, Fla. Const.; R. 
Regulating Fla. Bar 1-12.1.   
 
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5.2 at that time.  We later proposed an alternative amendment to 
the rule, which we published for comment in the February 2023 
edition of The Florida Bar News.  Comments were received from the 
Bar, the Florida Public Defender Association, and the Florida 
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  Having considered the 
sua sponte proposal and the comments received, we hereby adopt 
the amendment with one modification. 
Bar Rule 3-5.2(a)(1) currently states that on petition from the 
Bar, and as supported by one or more affidavits, this Court may 
suspend a lawyer on an emergency basis when the facts alleged in 
the affidavit(s), if unrebutted, show clearly and convincingly that 
the lawyer appears to be causing great public harm.  This Court 
proposed adding a sentence stating that a felony charge alleging 
conduct reflecting adversely on the lawyer’s fitness to practice law 
can constitute clear and convincing evidence that the lawyer’s 
continued practice of law would cause great public harm.  In 
consideration of the comments received following publication, we 
modify this new sentence to clarify that the felony charge 
underlying the suspension must be “by an indictment or 
information in state or federal court.”  
 
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Accordingly, we amend the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar 
as reflected in the appendix to this opinion.  New language is 
indicated by underscoring.  The amendment shall become effective 
October 30, 2023, at 12:01 a.m. 
 
It is so ordered. 
MUÑIZ, C.J., and CANADY, LABARGA, COURIEL, GROSSHANS, 
FRANCIS, and SASSO, JJ., concur. 
 
THE FILING OF A MOTION FOR REHEARING SHALL NOT ALTER 
THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS AMENDMENT. 
 
Original Proceeding – Florida Rules Regulating The Florida Bar 
 
Joshua E. Doyle, Executive Director, F. Scott Westheimer, 
President, Roland Sanchez-Medina, Jr., President-elect, and 
Elizabeth Clark Tarbert, Division Director, Lawyer Regulation, The 
Florida Bar, Tallahassee, Florida; Howard L. “Rex” Dimmig, II, on 
behalf of the Florida Public Defender Association, Inc., Bartow, 
Florida; and Jason Cromey on behalf of the Florida Association of 
Criminal Defense Lawyers, Pensacola, Florida, 
 
 
Responding with comments 
 
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APPENDIX 
RULE 3-5.2.  EMERGENCY SUSPENSION AND INTERIM 
PROBATION OR INTERIM PLACEMENT ON THE 
INACTIVE LIST FOR INCAPACITY NOT RELATED 
TO MISCONDUCT 
(a) Petition for Emergency Suspension. 
 
(1) Great Public Harm. The Supreme Court of Florida may issue 
an order suspending the lawyer on an emergency basis on petition 
of The Florida Bar, authorized by its president, president-elect, or 
executive director and supported by 1 or more affidavits 
demonstrating facts personally known to the affiants that, if 
unrebutted, would establish clearly and convincingly that a lawyer 
appears to be causing great public harm. The fact that a lawyer has 
been charged with a felony by an indictment or information in state 
or federal court may, for the purposes of this rule, constitute clear 
and convincing evidence that the lawyer’s continued practice of law 
would cause great public harm when such felony charge alleges 
conduct reflecting adversely on the lawyer’s fitness to practice law. 
 
(2)-(3) [No Change] 
 
(b) – (n) [No Change]