SC08-1278 – The Florida Bar v. Gary Elvin Doane

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State: Florida

Docket No: SC08-1278

Case Date: 05/20/2010

Preview:Supreme Court of Florida
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2010 CASE NO.: SC08-1278 Lower Tribunal No.: 2008-90,049(02S) 2008-90,094(02S) THE FLORIDA BAR Complainant(s) vs. GARY ELVIN DOANE Respondent(s)

Upon consideration of the report of the referee and the briefs in this case, the referee's findings of fact and recommendations of guilt are approved. The referee's recommended sanction is disapproved and the Court hereby directs that respondent receive a public reprimand to be administered by the Board of Governors of The Florida Bar at a date and time to be determined by the Board. Respondent is further placed on probation for one year, effective immediately, under the following terms and conditions: (1) attendance at the next scheduled Advertising Workshop of The Florida Bar; and (2) prior to publication, approval of all advertisements by The Florida Bar's Standing Committee on Advertising. Further, Respondent is hereby enjoined from the use of the term "Expert" or "Experts" in all legal advertisements and any trade name. Judgment is entered for The Florida Bar, 651 East Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2300, for recovery of costs from Gary Elvin Doane in the amount of $2,240.46, for which sum let execution issue. Not final until time expires to file motion for rehearing, and if filed, determined.

QUINCE, C.J., and PARIENTE, CANADY, POLSTON, LABARGA, and PERRY, JJ., concur. PARIENTE, J., concurs with an opinion, in which CANADY and PERRY, JJ., concur. LEWIS, J., dissents with an opinion.

PARIENTE, J., concurring. The respondent is not being disciplined because he held himself out as a specialist or expert in an area of law in which he was certified. He is being disciplined because he used the trade name Legal Experts, when he was a sole practitioner who was not certified by The Florida Bar in all fields of specialization. The use of this trade name is misleading to the public. This lawyer had been using this trade name since April 2006, prior to our approval of the Bar`s request to allow lawyers who are board-certified by The Florida Bar to identify themselves as experts. Even as approved, the rules provide that an attorney who is board-certified in a particular area of the law by The Florida Bar may use the designations board certified, specialist, or expert, but he or she needs to include the area of certification. As set forth in rule 4-7.2(c)(6)(A) of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar, a lawyer who is certified by The Florida Bar in a particular area of the law may inform the public and other lawyers of the lawyer`s certified areas of legal practice. Such communications should identify The Florida Bar as the certifying organization and may state that the lawyer is certified,` board certified,` a specialist in (area of certification),` or an expert in (area of certification).` To use the trade name Legal Experts or even Legal Specialists violates the rules in two ways. First, as mentioned, the respondent is a sole practitioner. 2

Second, he can only use the designation legal expert or legal specialist with the area of certification. The use of the trade name in respondent`s legal advertisements and communications is a clear violation of rule 4-7.2(c)(6)(A) and a clear abuse of the Florida certification plan as set forth in chapter 6 of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar. The use of the trade name is misleading to the public, and I concur in the Court`s decision that Gary Elvin Doane should be publicly reprimanded for his actions. CANADY and PERRY, JJ., concur.

LEWIS, J., dissenting. Under rules fashioned by The Florida Bar and approved by a majority of this Court, solo practitioner Gary Elvin Doane became board-certified in the area of civil trial law. According to misdirected rules but rules certainly in full force and effect, he became authorized to use the title expert. Thereafter, Doane utilized advertisements that referred to the trade name of his law firm as Legal Experts, L.L.C. and Legal Experts, P.L. The Florida Bar contends that this trade name and type of advertising violates certain rules regulating lawyers in Florida. Accordingly, the majority now enjoins Doane from the use of either the singular term expert or the plural term experts in all legal advertisements and any t rade name. I dissent from this foreseeable result which is the natural and inevitable

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consequence of this Court allowing lawyers to mislead the public with barsanctioned, advertising-based deception by use of the title expert. Doane has been caught in the tangled morass of problematic rules created by this Court and The Florida Bar in the march for certification of lawyers as experts. The Florida Bar requested and a majority of this Court approved amendments to the rules regulating advertising of legal certifications to allow individual lawyers to identify themselves as experts. See In re Amendments to the Rules Regulating the Fla. Bar, 978 So. 2d 91 (Fla. 2007); In re Amendments to the Rules Regulating the Fla. Bar

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