Fill - Free fillable The Florida Bar 651 E. Jefferson Street Tallahassee, PDF form

The Florida Bar

651 E. Jefferson Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2300

Toll Free 1-866-352-0707 (ACAP)

IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS YOU MUST READ PRIOR TO FILLING OUT THE

INQUIRY/COMPLAINT FORM

Please read all instructions carefully before completing the inquiry/complaint form. If the form is not properly

completed it may be returned for correction. You may submit up to a total of 25 pages including the

inquiry/complaint form and exhibits. You may indicate that additional evidence or exhibits are available upon

request. If you have not already done so, you may contact the Attorney/Consumer Assistance Program (ACAP) at

the above toll free number, to see if they can help resolve the matter about which you wish to complain. Please

legibly print or type in black ink only.

PLEASE NOTE: The Florida Bar cannot intervene on your behalf in a civil or criminal case, nor can we give you

legal advice. We do not have jurisdiction to consider complaints against judges and many elected officials. Our

lawyer regulation department considers whether an attorney has violated our rules of conduct and determines

whether, under the totality of the circumstances, The Florida Bar will seek discipline against the attorney. If your

inquiry/complaint is closed, you will receive a written explanation of the reasons for the closure.

PART ONE – Complainant Information. You must give your name, address, email address and phone number.. If

you have already contacted ACAP, please indicate your ACAP reference number in the space provided. If your

inquiry/complaint pertains to a matter currently in litigation, please indicate that in the space provided.

PART TWO – Attorney Information. You must give the name, Bar Number, address, email and phone number of

the subject attorney. The Bar Number and address of the attorney are particularly important as many lawyers have

the same or similar names. You may find the attorney’s Bar Number and contact information by going to

www.floridabar.org and searching under Find A Lawyer. List only one attorney per form (you may copy this

form if you need additional copies). The Florida Bar processes inquiry/complaint forms only against

individual attorneys, not against law firms or offices.

PART THREE – Facts/Allegations. Describe each thing about which you are complaining. Recite all of the details,

in chronological order, supplying dates where possible. Please be aware that simply alleging conclusions without

setting out facts that support those conclusions will result in the need for the Bar to ask you for additional

information and may delay a disposition of your complaint. Please number any additional pages you attach. If you

have letters, documents or other evidence, you should attach photocopies (DO NOT SEND ORIGINAL

DOCUMENTS). It is helpful if you mark your attachments as exhibits (A, B, C, etc.), and refer to them in your

description of your complaint. Please do not bind, staple, tab or index your documents. You may underline but

DO NOT HIGHLIGHT documents under any circumstances. Highlighting will obscure the underlying text

when scanned into our computers. Please do not attach media such as audio tapes, thumb/flash drives, CDs,

oversized documents, or photographs. We cannot process any media that cannot be scanned into the electronic

record. It is not necessary to include a copy of these instructions.

PART FOUR – Witnesses. Your inquiry/complaint will be considered even if there are no witnesses. If you have

witnesses, attach an additional sheet with the name, address and telephone number for each witness, and include a

brief description of the facts about which that witness would testify. If you do not attach a list of witnesses, we will

presume that you have no witnesses, other than the attorney and yourself.

PART FIVE – Signature. You must sign the form and certify under penalty of perjury that your allegations are true.

Unsworn complaints are not considered. Submit the original inquiry/complaint form to our office via U.S. Mail.

Photocopies of your signature are not accepted.

RETURN TO:

The Florida Bar, Attn.: ACAP

651 East Jefferson Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2300

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR COMPLAINANTS AND RESPONDENT-ATTORNEYS

MAILING INSTRUCTIONS

Materials Received That Do Not Comply With These Instructions May Be Returned Or

Not Otherwise Incorporated Into The File

The Florida Bar converts its disciplinary files to electronic media. All submissions are scanned

into an electronic record and hard copies are discarded. To help ensure the timely processing of

inquiries/complaints, responses and rebuttals, please review the following instructions prior to providing

your submission.

1. Please limit your submission to no more than 25 pages including exhibits. If you have

additional documents or material available, please make reference to those documents and/or materials in

your written submission as available upon request. Should The Florida Bar need to obtain copies of any

such documents and/or materials, a subsequent request will be sent to you.

2. Please do not bind, staple, tab or index your documents. You may underline but do not highlight

documents under any circumstances. Please do not submit materials in color. When documents are

scanned in our disciplinary files, highlighting and color will obscure the underlying text.

3. Please do not attach media such as audio tapes, thumb/flash drives, CDs, or photographs. We

cannot process any media which cannot be scanned into the electronic record.

4. Please do not submit your original documents. All documents will be discarded after

scanning and we will not be able to return any originals submitted to our office. The only

original documents that should be provided to our office are the inquiry/complaint form, response and

certificate of disclosure.

5. Whether you are a complainant or a respondent-attorney, please do not submit confidential or

privileged information. Documents submitted to our office become public record. (Respondent-

attorneys may wish to consult Rule 4-1.6 (e) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.)

Confidential/privileged information should be redacted. Such information includes, but is not limited to,

bank account numbers, social security numbers, credit card account numbers, medical records,

dependency matters, termination of parental rights, guardian ad litem records, child abuse records,

adoption records, documents containing names of minor children, original birth and death certificates,

biometric data such as fingerprints, Baker Act records, grand jury records, and juvenile delinquency

records. If information of this nature is important to your submission, please describe the nature of the

information and indicate that it is available upon request. Bar counsel will contact you to make

appropriate arrangements for the protection of any such information (to the extent permitted by law) as

part of the investigation of the complaint.

6. Please provide your submission only one time. Do not submit duplicates via email, facsimile

transmission or by any other means. Do not include these instructions. Respondent-attorneys do

not need to include a copy of the complaint.

Please be aware that materials received that do not meet these instructions may be returned or not

otherwise incorporated into the file. Thank you for your consideration in this respect.

The Florida Bar

Inquiry/Complaint Form

PART ONE (See Page 1, PART ONE – Complainant Information.):

Your Name: _________________________________________________________________________

Organization: ________________________________________________________________________

Address:

____________________________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip Code: __________________________________________________________________

Telephone: ________________________________

E-mail: ________________________________

ACAP Reference No.:

_________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________

__________________________________________

Does this complaint pertain to a matter currently in litigation? Yes ______ No ______

PART TWO (See

Page 1, PART TWO – Attorney Information.):

Attorney’s Name: __________________________________________ Florida Bar No.: ____________

Address: ____________________________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip Code: __________________________________________________________________

Telephone: __________________________________________________________________________

PART THREE (See Page 1, PART THREE

– Facts/Allegations.): The specific thing or things I

complaining about are: (attach additional sheets as necessary)

(Note that this field maxes out at 1800 characters - attach additional sheets as necessary)

PART FOUR (See Page 1, PART FOUR – Witnesses.): The witnesses in support of my

allegations are: [see attached sheet].

PART FIVE (See Page 1, PART FIVE – Signature.): Under penalties of perjury, I declare that

the foregoing facts are true, correct and complete.

_________________________________________________

Print Name

_________________________________________________

Signature

_________________________________________________

Date

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