Board okays new program to streamline grievance intake A new program to streamline intake of grievances concerning lawyers filed with The Florida Bar has been approved by the Board of Governors, but it came with a separate warning that Bar reserves are eroding. Budget Committee Chair Jesse Diner said the Budget Committee approved the Attorney-Consumer Assistance Program, which had been proposed by the Disciplinary Procedure Committee. The board followed by adding its endorsement. The program screens incoming grievance complaints from clients and attempts to identify those which can be quickly resolved, including the use of the Bar’s mediation program. A test program at the Tampa Bar branch office won rave reviews from both attorneys and clients. “ACAP is a tool designed to reestablish lines of communication between lawyers and people having problems with those lawyers, and in doing so stop such problems from becoming disciplinary complaints,” said Bar Counsel Tony Boggs. “If it’s a low level, almost a no-harm, no-foul case, it gives us a vehicle for bringing them together.” Another benefit, Boggs said, is it also allows the Bar to work with clients in the vast majority of cases where their complaints do not rise to the level of actionable grievances. Even if the Bar can’t prosecute a grievance, it frequently can help those clients reach a resolution they are satisfied with, he said. Staff should be hired for the program by the beginning of the year, he said, and it is expected to begin operation around March 1. While in the short term it will cost money to start, in the long run it should slow the growth of Bar staff by reducing the number of grievance cases that have to be investigated, Boggs said. Diner said the program will cost $229,000 for the rest of the Bar fiscal year, which ends June 30. Of that, $203,000 will come from general revenues and the rest from other sources. The action came after Diner told the board that its deficit for the 1999-2000 fiscal year was higher than anticipated. It was originally estimated to be around $750,000, but actually came in at around $1 million. The previous year, the Bar lost around $53,000. That was the first time since 1990, when the Bar raised membership fees from $140 to $190, that the Bar had run a deficit. The Bar would have lost around $2 million in 1999-2000, but earnings on its investment portfolio offset about half that amount, Diner said. So far, the Bar still has operating fund reserves of $10 to $11 million, he said, and the Budget Committee has a goal of not letting that fall below one third of the annual operating budget. That is currently about $26 million. One extra negative effect of the deficits is, as the Bar dips into its reserves to meet operating expenses, reducing the amount available for investment. That in turn cuts investment income, which adds to the deficit problem, he said. In response to a question, Diner said there was no one particular area that caused last year’s deficit to exceed projections, but rather smaller items. He added that CLE and advertising revenues were down $250,000 each. “You haven’t raised membership fees for 10 years. You’ve been at $190 for 10 years, and that’s a long time,” Diner said. If adjusted for inflation, he noted, the annual membership fee would now be $252. On a related issue, Investment Committee Vice Chair Jerald Beer said that panel has slightly changed its investment formulas in an attempt to raise earnings and help offset the budget deficit projections. Those changes have 55 percent of the Bar’s investments in equities — the first time stock holdings have been over 50 percent — and 45 percent in bonds, cash or cash equivalents. For the 1999-2000 year, Beer reported that the Bar earned about 8 percent, even after a 0.5 percent loss for the second quarter, which ended June 30. But the Bar has made up all of those losses and more as of the August 31 this year, he told the board. Board okays new program to streamline grievance intake October 1, 2000 Regular News
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