Florida General and Solo Practice: Current Awareness

This week, FloridaBarNews.TV highlights the cautionary tale of one Florida Bar member's recent run-in with a malware attack on his law firm in West Palm Beach. Attorney James “Randy” Ackley has an unusual but urgent message for fellow Bar members .

This week, FloridaBarNews.TV highlights how the Florida Supreme Court has set new rules for referral services and now companies that link consumers and lawyers must comply with the new Bar rules. The Florida Supreme Court has accepted Bar-proposed amendments to lawyer referral service rules that widen their application to any “qualifying provider” that links consumers and lawyers. But the court also ordered the Bar to submit a rule within 90 days that prohibits a lawyer from accepting clients from any entity that in addition to legal services also refers callers to any nonlegal professional work stemming from the same incident.

This week, FloridaBarNews.TV highlights the development of the Legal Accelerator, which is now accessible to Florida Bar members when they login to their member portal on the Bar’s website. The Legal Accelerator - a initiative of The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division - functions similarly to the Google search engine. A question is typed into a search field, and any number of mentoring videos that answer the question appear on screen. Over 1,000 videos created by lawyers are available for viewing, and the tool is ideal for less-experienced lawyers in their first few years of practice. The Legal Accelerator will serve as a virtual mentor, YLD President Zack Zuroweste said. “A lot of new lawyers go at it alone,” he said. "(But with the Accelerator), if they’ve got a phone or a laptop, they can get answers to basic questions that all lawyers have in their first few years of practice, he said, without having to scroll through hundreds of website pages."

This week, FloridaBarNews.TV highlights a recent technological development at the Florida Supreme Court: the court's new podcast. Titled, "Beyond The Bench," the Supreme Court's first leap into this digital realm is the latest in its sweeping Court Communication Plan, which the state’s high court unanimously approved in late 2015. It calls for Florida’s courts to consider taking advantage of advances in communications technology, such as social media and podcasting. The plan also emphasizes the importance of time-proven principles of effective communication, such as building and maintaining relationships of trust with your audience.

This week, FloridaBarNews.TV breaks down the new member portal that The Florida Bar unveiled April 3rd. The Florida Bar is migrating to a new member portal that Florida lawyers will use to electronically interact with the Bar. The new MyFloridaBar portal will help members more easily conduct membership and e-commerce activities with the Bar. It will be phased in throughout the year, and will be used for the 2017 annual membership fee season. And Members will receive an initial welcome email from the Bar explaining how the new system will work. So what are you waiting for -- get signed up today!