Supreme Court of Florida

A referee's recommendation that respondent be disciplined by a public reprimand, receive two years probation, and forfeit fees of eight-thousand dollars for her actions during an adoption case is rejected and respondent's cross-appeal for rejection of disgorgement of fees is approved where: 1) although disbarment is the presumptive sanction in a case in which candor and material misrepresentations to the court are at issue, a three year suspension is proper given the mitigating factors; 2) disgorgement is only permitted to the Client Security Fund of the Florida Bar and not to the Florida Bar Foundation since it is not mentioned in the rule; 3) disgorgement does not apply since the fee was not prohibited, illegal, or excessive; 4) fines are not permitted in disciplinary cases; and 5) the award of costs to the complainant was proper since the members should not unnecessarily bear the costs of prosecuting misdeeds of unethical members.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/12/2008
• Published 06/12/2008

Judges

• PER CURIAM.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John F. Harkness, Jr., Executive Director, Kenneth Lawrence Marvin, Director of Lawyer Regulation, and Kristin A. Godwin, Bar Counsel, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, FL, for Complainant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Joyce Sibson Dove, pro se, Tallahassee, FL, for Respondent.