GRIEVANCE COMMITTEES

The board will appoint grievance committees as provided in this rule. Each grievance committee has the authority and jurisdiction required to perform the functions assigned to it, which are as follows.

(a) Circuit Grievance Committees. The board will appoint at least 1 grievance committee for each judicial circuit of this state and as many more as the board chooses. These committees will be designated as judicial circuit grievance committees and, in circuits having more than 1 committee, will be identified by alphabetical designation in the order of creation. These committees will be continuing bodies notwithstanding changes in membership, and they will have jurisdiction and the power to proceed in all matters properly before them.

(b) Special Grievance Committees. The board may appoint grievance committees for the purpose of investigations or specific tasks assigned in accordance with these rules. These committees will continue only until the completion of tasks assigned, and they will have jurisdiction and power to proceed in all matters assigned to them. All provisions concerning grievance committees apply to special grievance committees, except those concerning terms of office and other restrictions imposed by the board. Any vacancies occurring in a special grievance committee will be filled by the board, and any changes in members will not affect the jurisdiction and power of the committee to proceed in all matters properly before it.

(c) Membership, Appointment, and Eligibility. Each grievance committee will be appointed by the board and must have at least 3 members. At least one-third of the committee members must be nonlawyers who are not current or former members of The Florida Bar or any other state bar, including the District of Columbia. All appointees must be of legal age and, except for special grievance committees, must be residents of the circuit or have their principal office in the circuit. The lawyer members of the committee must have been members of The Florida Bar for at least 5 years and in good standing and eligible to practice law in Florida at the time of appointment to the committee. A member of a grievance committee must not perform any grievance committee function when that member:

(1) is related by blood or marriage to the complainant or respondent;

(2) has a financial, business, property, or personal interest in the matter under consideration or with the complainant or respondent;

(3) has a personal interest that could be affected by the outcome of the proceedings or that could affect the outcome; or

(4) is prejudiced or biased toward either the complainant or the respondent. On notice of the above prohibitions, the affected members should recuse themselves from further proceedings. The grievance committee chair has the power to disqualify any member from any proceeding in which any of the above prohibitions exist and are stated orally on the record or memorialized in writing by the chair.

(d) Terms. The terms of the members are for 1 year from the date of administration of the oath of service on the grievance committee or until their successors are appointed and qualified. Continuous service of a member may not exceed 3 years. A member may not be reappointed for a period of 3 years after the end of the member’s term; but, the expiration of a member’s term of service does not disqualify the member from concluding any investigation or participating in disposition of cases that were pending before the committee when the member’s term expired. A member who continues to serve on the grievance committee under the authority of this subdivision is not counted as a member of the committee when calculating the minimum number of public members required by this rule.

(e) Officers. The designated reviewer of the committee will designate a chair and vice-chair who must be members of The Florida Bar.

(f) Oath. Each new member of a committee must subscribe to an oath to fulfill the duties of the office. These oaths will be filed with the executive director and placed with the official records of The Florida Bar.

(g) Removal. The designated reviewer of a grievance committee or the board of governors may remove any member of a grievance committee from office.

(h) Grievance Committee Meetings. Grievance committees should meet at regularly scheduled times, at least once every 3 months, and either the chair or vice-chair may call special meetings. Grievance committees should meet at least monthly during any period when the committee has 1 or more pending cases assigned for investigation and report. The time, date, and place of regular monthly meetings should be set in advance by agreement between the committee and chief branch discipline counsel. Amended June 8, 1989 (544 So.2d 193); July 23, 1992, effective Jan. 1, 1993 (605 So.2d 252); April 25, 2002 (820 So.2d 210); on December 8, 2005, the Supreme Court of Florida issued a revised version of its original October 6, 2005 opinion adopting this amendment, effective January 1, 2006 (SC05-206); amended November 9, 2017, effective February 1, 2018 (234 So.3d 632); amened September 5, 2024, effective November 4, 2024 (SC2024-0029).