Quoted

July 20th, 2023

Fla. Bar CTA Program Could Be Win For Solos Across The US

Ethics & Professional Responsibility Partner Tyler Maulsby is quoted in the article, "Fla. Bar CTA Program Could Be Win For Solos Across The US" published by Law360. The article discusses a recent Florida Bar initiative offering all Florida attorneys a free organizing tool to track and make notes on their client transactions and to link the transactions to their bank. The initiative allows for a direct balance of their trust. Tyler is quoted saying, "I can't tell you how many times I've seen a lawyer with a very high volume escrow account operating their entire practice off of a spreadsheet. That can just leave a lot of room for error. And so anything that offers a comprehensive trust account management system with opportunities to incorporate failsafe reconciliations is going to make everyone's life easier."

Despite the many benefits associated with the initiative, Tyler notes that it may put solo practitioner and lawyers inside small firms at a significant disadvantage. He says, "For a solo practitioner, it is your job to be a bookkeeper, or you have to hire one, but still you have to reconcile the account, you have to make sure everything is correct, and you have to spend a lot of time doing that. They don't teach you how to do that in law school. And it's very scary, because the stakes are very high."

According to legal ethics attorneys, a majority of their cases deal with issues that stem from simple bookkeeping errors. Tyler says, "One simple mistake can then compound into multiple mistakes. If there's an error on client number one, it's not caught for several months and then multiple other clients' money passes through the account, that means that error could have resulted in errors on many other clients' accounts. And so now you're dealing with issues with multiple clients."

The program is the first of its kind in the country and Tyler adds that the closest thing he's seen to this program in New York is maybe a free continuing legal education program on how to manage trust accounts. He notes, "You can call the grievance committee, and they can help you through certain cost accounting issues, but a continued resource for your ability to stay organized is very helpful, and I haven't seen anything like this. I would love it if the New York State Bar Association did something like this statewide, but I think the cost would be significant. We have a lot of lawyers, they're a voluntary organization dependent on dues and contributions. And the grievance committee would need to get funding from the courts to do that."

In conclusion, Tyler says, "I think ultimately, any resources that are free or at a very low cost offered to lawyers is a good thing. It's a step in the right direction."

Read the full article here. (Behind paywall)