How Can I Check if a Florida Attorney Has Been Censured or Disciplined by Any Legal or Ethics Committee in the Past?

Hiring an attorney for your personal injury case is like choosing candidates for a job – you’d want to vet the interviewees and conduct a background check, right?

The same goes for Florida personal injury attorneys. If they’re going to handle your life and your money, they’d better not be carrying around any legal baggage themselves.

You will want to verify whether he or she has been censured or disciplined by the Florida Bar Association in the past and what caused that disciplinary action.

Did he fail to pay an expert witness? Was she comingling client funds with personal funds?

In this day and age, it’s easy to find out whether an attorney has angered the Powers That Be. The Florida Bar has collected much of the information already. Here are the ways to find out about any specific problems and what punishment was meted out:

• Visit the State Bar of Florida website
• On the homepage, you will see the Find a Lawyer feature on the right-hand side.
• Type in the first and last name of the lawyer you’ve been interviewing.

The profile for that Florida-licensed attorney should appear. Profile information is required to be available to the public and should include:

• Name
• Bar number
• Mailing address
• Email
• Personal bar URL
• VCard
• County
• Circuit
• Admitted date
• 10-year disciplinary history
• Law school

For disciplinary information beyond what is provided on the website, you would need to contact the Florida Bar Association at 850-561-5600. However, they have put together a pamphlet with Frequently Asked Questions, and your query might be somewhere in there.

If you would like additional information, the Florida Bar Ethics Hotline has provided many resources for both attorneys and non-attorneys, including an advisory hotline (with actual attorneys, though their opinions are non-binding) at 800-235-8619.

Need more help? Talk with an Enjuris-listed Florida law firm!