The Supreme Court of Florida approved an amendment to Florida Bar Rule 4-7.14, to align with a federal court ruling that allows lawyers and law firms, not board-certified by the Florida Bar, to make claims of specialties or expertise in their advertisements.
In 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle held that non-certified lawyers could legitimately have the skills and experience of certified lawyers; that Rule 4-7.14 unfairly restricted lawyers who practice in areas where certification is not available; and that law firms could truthfully claim to have expertise if they had experienced lawyers.
After reworking their initial proposed amendment, the Florida Board of Governors filed their suggested modifications to Rule 4-7.14 last year. The changes to the rule now says that lawyers may not claim to have specialization or expertise in an area of law unless they are certified by the Bar, the ABA, a Bar-accredited plan, or “can objectively verify the claim based on the lawyer’s education, training, experience, or substantial involvement in the area of practice in which specialization or expertise is claimed.”
The revised Rule 4-7.14 also allows law firms to advertise claims of expertise in an area of practice if it can show that at least one of its lawyers can meet those standards and if all firm lawyers cannot meet those standards, their claims must have a disclaimer that not all of its lawyers specialize or have expertise in that area of practice.
The Supreme Court of Florida enacted these amendments in In re: Amendments to Rule Regulating The Florida Bar 4-7.14, Case No. SC18-2019, which you can find here.
The rule amendments are effective August 26. Read more about the revised Rule 4-7.14 here.
