Changes would link lawyers with clients: 'we have to have a level playing field for all groups who wish to be part of the matching world'.

Here's the paradox playing out in Florida: Lawyers, especially young lawyers, complain they don't have enough business, but at the same time too many citizens don't have access to legal services.

Aimed at helping remedy that paradox are proposed new lawyer referral service rules that are less restrictive and designed to open up more opportunities for lawyers to participate, while promoting access to the civil justice system.

Proposed amendments to Rule 4-7.22 (Lawyer Referral Services) and 4-7.23 (Lawyer Directories) were presented at first reading to The Florida Bar Board of Governors in March.

Among the proposed changes are eliminating the requirement for $100,000 malpractice insurance coverage by either participating lawyers or the service; and no longer requiring advertisements to state that the entity is a lawyer referral service and that lawyers pay for referrals. Something the Florida Supreme Court asked the Bar to consider is that the lawyer referral service be owned or operated by a Florida Bar member. The proposed amendments are not recommending that requirement.

Another change is that the words "lawyer referral service" and "lawyer directories" have been replaced by "qualifying provider" because for-profit lawyer referral services are banned in 22 states and not every group that links consumers with lawyers considers itself a lawyer referral service. A qualifying provider could be a for-profit company or a nonprofit referral service.

"We did away with many of the restrictions. I know that is going to be bothersome for a lot of you," Carl Schwait, chair of the Board Review Committee on Professional Ethics, told the BOG.

"I want you to understand what our goal is: to make it easier for referral services, matching services, or online providers--which are now called 'qualifying providers' --to make it easier for them to participate in Florida; to make it easier for the lawyers of Florida to participate in these groups; and to make it easier for the public to find legal assistance."

After hearing oral arguments on May 5, 2015, the Florida Supreme Court gave the Bar until May 24, 2016, to complete a new set of rules. Schwait described how his committee and the board's Technology Committee have been working feverishly to meet the deadline.

Their work is complete, Schwait said, but in order to have enough time to publish information about the proposed amendments in The Florida Bar News and invite Florida lawyers to weigh in with their...