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![handle is hein.barjournals/flabn0033 and id is 1 raw text is:
Comrmittee Prference Forms are at flord bar:org
Forty-four years ago. Francisco Frank Angones landed in South
Florida ronm Cuba. alone, without even his parents, as part of a program
called Peter Pan that broughlit Cuban children to this country.
Now inore than four eventful decades later - which have seen
Angones both achieve greatly and give back to his profession and
coimunuiity - he has been elected 2006-2007 president-elect of The
Florida Bar, following the close of election filing December 15.
Angones was the only candidate to submit enough signatures to
qualify. Around 690 signatures are required and Angones submitted
more than 3,000. He will be sworn in as president-elect at the June Aln-
nual Meeting, when President-elect Hank Coxe is sworn in as president.
Then in June 207. Angones will become the first Cuban-born president
of The Florida Bar.
1 feel both extremely honored for the support that I got from other
lawyers not only in South Florida but throughout the state and I'm truly
lhumiblcd. Angoies said. I cane to the United States without my par-
cuts in 1961I in a program called Peter Pan Ihis parents did join hint four
months later], antd sonte 40 years later, I'm going to be president of The
Florida Bar. Only in America.
Angones said lie was inspired to seek tle Bar's top spot by former
President C. Clyde Atkins. who went on to beconc chief judge of the
federal court's Southent District of Florida. He recalled how Atkins wound
up overseeing the desegregation of South Florida schools, and arranged
to have his grandchildren moved from parochial to public schools.
lie believed in leading by example, he said. He was kind, gentle,
yet firn in principle.
Those are traits Angones hopes to bring to what lie sees as some
tough challenges for the Bar.
I think more and more it has become important for The Florida Bar to
interact with the legislature and the executive branch, lie said. We are
See Angones, page 5
Volume 33, Number 1
floridabar.org
Board says it's unethical to mine hidden data from e-texts
By Gary Blankenship
Senior Editor
The Bar Board of Governors is asking
whether an ethics opinion or Bar rule is
needed to regulate mining of metadata from
electronic documents, but in the meantime,
governors didn't want to leave any doubt
how they felt about it.
Tine board, at its December 16 meeting
in Amelia Island, voted unanimously for a
motion to express its sentiment that
metadata mining is something lawyers
should not do.
I have no doubt that anyone who re-
ffDr Amen.V 3
Tile Supreme Court has directed The
Florida Bar to draft a procedure whereby a
medical liability claimant may waive the rights
granted by Amendment 3, which limits con-
tingency fees in medical malpractice cases.
The court acted December 14 in case no.
SC05-1150. At ie Bar Board of Governors
meeting two days later, Bar President Alan
Bookman announced lie is appointing a spe-
cial committee to write tle rule.
The court directed that the proposed
amendment to Bar Rule 4-1.5(f)(4)(B):
- Acknowledge the provisions of Art. 1,
§26 of the Florida Constitution. That section
contains the limitations approved by voters
in November 2004, which sets fees in medical
malpractice cases to 30 percent of the first
See Waiver, page 5
Rating The Bar's
UPL Efforts
Florida lawyers were recently asked to rate
The Florida Bar on its investigation and pros-
ecution of unlicensed practice of law viola-
tions. The percentalge of respondents who
said the Bar should be more aggressive in
UPL enforcement has increased significantly
since 2003, from 55 percent .to 63 percent.
Poor
14%
Excellent
/6%
Fair Good
36% 44%
Source: The Florida Bar's 2005 Membership
I _. _:__ t ..'. .
ceives a document and mines it ... is un-
ethical, unprofessional, and un-everything
else, said board member Jake Schickel,
who made the motion that tile board ex-
press its disapproval at the practice.
If you're unfamiliar with metadata, you
are not alone. Several board members said
they hadn't heard of it until it came lip at
their December meeting.
Basically, metadata is information a word
processing or document creation program
keeps about the history of that document.
This history includes changes, deletions,
additions, which persons have accessed
the document, and electronic notes that
have been attached at various times. Such
information is not visible on the screen,
but it can be held in the background.
See Metadata, page 15
January 1, 2006t
Board wants to see more study on the issue
By Gary Blankenship
Senior Editor
Members of the Bar Board of Gover-
nors said they are sensitive to the desire
of paralegals for recognition of their im-
portaice to the legal system, but pro-
posed bills in the legislature to license and
regulate paralegals aren't the best way.
The board's vote to oppose HB 395 and
SB 906 as originally filed, followed the rec-
ommendation from the Special Committee
to Study Paralegal Regulation. Bar Presi-
dent Alan Bookman also announced at the
board's December 16 meeting that he was
extending the life of the committee, pursu-
ant to its recommendation.
The Bar's stance oil the bills was also
endorsed by the Legislation Committee.
There are some things that don't make
sense in the legislation as proposed. That
is truly why this [paralegal] committee
needs to keep on looking at it, said Presi-
dent-elect designate Frank Angones,
chair of the Legislation Committee. It
doesn't look like the legislation as cur-
rently proposed has a great possibility of
passing. Nonetheless, we did recognize
See Paralegals, page 13
Members may comply with the new rule online at floridabar.org
To protect clients of an attorney who
unexpectedly dies or otherwise becomes
unable to practice, the Florida Supreme
Court recently amended Bar rules - at the
Bar's request - to provide that members
who practice in-state must designate an
inventory attorney.
The amendment to Rule 1-3.8 takes ef-
fect January 1, and the best and easiest
way to designate an inventory attorney is
to do it online at floridabar.org.
Inventory attorneys take possession of
the files of a member who dies, disappears,
is disbarred or suspended, becomes delin-
quent, or suffers involuntary leave of ab-
Only those members who
practice in Florida -
regardless of where they
live - must make a
designation.
sence due to military service, and no other
responsible party capable of conducting
the member's affairs is known. The inven-
tory attorney has the responsibility of no-
tifying all clients that their lawyer is no
longer able to represent them. The inven-
tory attorney also may give the file to a
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client for finding substitute counsel; may
make referrals to substitute counsel with
the agreement of the client; or may accept
representation of the client, but is not re-
quired to do so.
Designated inventory attorneys will be
contacted when the need arises and will be
asked to serve. Because circumstances
change, the designated inventory attorney
is not obligated to serve. Inventory attor-
neys are not directly compensated but may
receive reimbursement from The Florida Bar
for actual costs incurred while carrying out
See Inventory, page 4
v~aut 80f or 66 now Budge
The circuits need 40, the counties, 24, and DCAs, two
By Mark Killian
Managing Editor2Circui
The state needs 66 new judges to fulfill
the guarantee of timely and meaningful fournew--dge
access to justice for the people of Florida, By Jan Pudlow
according to the Supreme Court. Senior Editor
In its annual certification opinion re- Finally, the 20th Judicial Circuit will
leased December 15, the court said Florida receive some desperately needed new
needs 40 new circuit, 24 new county, and judges.
two new district courts of appeal judges. December's.special legislative ses-
Writing for a unanimous court, Chief sion rectified a situation that gave ev-
Justice Barbara Pariente said the gap be- ery circuit in the state at least one new
tween the certified need and the authoriza- judge in the 2005 regular session except
tion of new judges was significantly Southwest Florida's bustling 20th.
narrowed during the 2005 legislative ses- See 20th Circuit, page 21
sion when 55 new judgeships were created.
Another four also were authorized in December's special session.
However, even with the new positions, judicial workload remains high, Chief
Justice Pariente said. Florida, the nation's fourth largest state, ranks second highest
among the 10 largest states in filings per judge. Remarkably, as of 2003, our general
See New Judges, page 9
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