Fee statements are on the way: members may pay their fees online at floridabar.org.

Florida Bar members soon will receive their 2007-08 fee statements, reflecting no increase in annual fees and only minor modifications to the form.

The fees are payable July 1 and are late after August 15.

Also included in the fee statement packet is a letter outlining a new process to receive a new or replacement password for member access to the Bar's Web site. Under the new password process, members will be able to receive a password immediately if the member provides the Bar a valid e-mail address and the last four numbers of his or her Social Security number. (See sidebar, page 8)

Members will receive one of two fee statements: one designed for active members and another for those who have elected inactive status. Annual fees are $265. Inactive members pay $175.

Bar Finance Director Allen Martin reminds members that the fee statement is two-sided and must be completed both front and back and be mailed along with their payments to cover their fees and sections joined.

Under the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, fees postmarked after August 15 will be assessed a $50 late fee. Members who do not pay by September 29 will be deemed delinquent. The delinquency may be cleared by petitioning the Bar, paying the fees, the late fee, and a $150 reinstatement fee.

Members have the option to complete their annual fee statement and pay their fees online via the Bar's Web site at floridabar.org, an option exercised by more than 10,700 members last year. But to do so, members must first be registered on the Bar's Web site. If members have not registered, they can go to www3.flabar.org, click on the "register" link, and then follow the prompts. Instructions for paying Bar fees online also are included with the paper form mailed to members' official Bar addresses.

Challenge for Children

Members also have an option to make a voluntary $45 contribution to The Florida Bar Foundation's Lawyers' Challenge for Children campaign to help bring the benefits of the law and of lawyers to the lives of poor children. The Foundation will dedicate Bar members' contributions to legal assistance to children through grants to legal aid and legal services programs across the state, according to Bar President-elect Francisco Angones. (See sidebar, right)

Angones said lawyer contributions, together with IOTA funds, make legal services possible for low-income children who need help in areas critical to their development

Last year, more than 4,200 Florida lawyers contributed...