Judges encouraged, but not required, to perform pro bono.

Boosting language in the code of judicial conduct, the Florida Supreme Court now encourages judges to perform pro bono public service in limited, nonadversarial ways, rather than just making such community volunteer work permissible.

But when it came to the most controversial proposed change--to require judges and their staff attorneys to annually report their pro bono service, as is required of most other lawyers--the high court declined to take action.

In its unanimous February 20 opinion in combined cases SC02-147 and SC02- 034, the court sided with the less controversial proposal by the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee to "best serve the dual goals of encouraging members of the judiciary and their staffs to engage in pro bono services and extra-judicial activities, while ensuring that the availability of pro bono legal representation for the poor is not diluted or compromised in any way."

The aspirational goal and mandatory reporting requirement, sparking feisty oral arguments and the most letters to the court in opposition, was proposed by the Task Force on Pro Bono Activities by Judges and Judicial Staff, working with The Florida Bar Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services, as a way to increase judicial participation in pro bono activities.

But to do so, the task force and committee acknowledged, it would be necessary "to define broadly the types of services that would constitute pro bono service for justices and judicial staff and to provide specific examples of such service."

The justices said they were reluctant to change the narrow definition set out in 1993, when the Supreme Court adopted a comprehensive pro bono legal service plan for Florida's lawyers. A decade ago, the court noted That while it had a constitutional re sponsibility to ensure access to the justice system, it bad no authority to address, through Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, "uncompensated public service activities not directly related to services for the courts and the legal needs of the poor."

During oral arguments (detailed in the December 1, 2002, issue of the News), Task Force Chair and First District Court of Appeal Judge William Van Nortwick said mandatory reporting, for lawyers has worked so well, he wanted to adopt it for judges, too, in the spirit of enhancing access to the judiciary and promoting a greater culture of pro bono service.

But on behalf of the Florida Conference of Circuit Court Judges, 11th Circuit Chief Judge Joseph Farina...