RULES REGULATING THE FLORIDA BAR--AMENDMENT. The Court adopted proposed amendments to The Florida Bar's Professionalism Expectations, addressing expectations related to billing, the need for diligent representation of clients until dissolution of the lawyer-client relationship, timely service of documents on opposing parties, situations in which a lawyer may prevent a deponent from answering questions, the avoidance of discovery requests unless disclosure is prevented by a legal privilege or valid legal objection, and the need to instruct personnel and encourage clients to abstain from rude, disruptive, and disrespectful behavior.
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FLORIDA RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE--AMENDMENT. Amendments to the following rules were adopted by the Court: Rule 9.020 (Definitions), Rule 9.045 (Form of Documents), Rule 9.200 (The Record), and 9.420 (Filing; Service of Copies; Computation of Time). The amendments addressed various changes that were previously made to the Florida Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration.
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CRIMINAL LAW--PLEA--WITHDRAWAL--POST-APPEAL RESENTENCING. In resolving an interdistrict conflict, the Court held that Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.170(f)'s good-cause standard does not apply during post-appeal resentencing proceedings. Allowing a defendant whose sentence is vacated on direct appeal to withdraw his underlying plea for good cause prior to the imposition of a new sentence would require the Court to infer an independent rules-based exception to longstanding principles of finality, scope of remand, and conviction validity.
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