Florida Bar

Petitioners assert that the current voting procedure effectively and impermissibly operates to disenfranchise the vast majority of the Bar membership. I agree.

The significance of Bar dues cannot be gainsaid. Indeed, failure to pay Bar dues is tantamount to temporary disbarment as it deprives one of the ability to practice law in this state. Fla. Bar Integr. Rule, art. VIII, § 2. One of the considerations which led this Court to approve an integrated bar in 1949 was that it would provide “a fair and equitable method by which each and every lawyer [could] participate in and help bear the burden…