Opinion
Case No. SC03-1001.
July 2, 2003.
Lower Tribunal No. 2003-00,939(14)NES.
Decision Without Published Opinion.
The Petition for Emergency Suspension filed pursuant to Rule 3-5.2 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar is granted and it is hereby ordered that the respondent is suspended from the practice of law until further order of this Court, and respondent is ordered:
a. To accept no new clients from the date of this Court's order and to cease representing any clients after thirty (30) days.
b. To immediately furnish a copy of respondent's suspension order to all clients or other individuals or entities on whose behalf respondent holds funds and to furnish Staff Counsel of The Florida Bar with the requisite affidavit listing all clients/persons/entities so informed within thirty (30) days after issuance of this Court's order.
c. To refrain from disbursing or withdrawing any monies held in any trust account, or any other accounts which contain funds belonging to third parties, whether inside or outside of Florida, without approval of a judicial referee appointed by this Court or by order of the circuit court in an inventory proceeding instituted under the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.
d. To deposit into a specified trust account all sums received from clients or third parties, whether as fees, costs, deposits, or trust funds, within thirty (30) days following the entry of the order of suspension in this case and thereafter, and to immediately advise Bar Counsel of the receipt and location of said funds.
e. To immediately notify in writing all financial institutions, whether inside or outside of Florida, in which respondent maintains trust accounts or other accounts containing monies belonging to third parties, of the provisions of respondent's suspension and to provide said financial institutions with a copy of this Court's order, and furthermore, to provide Bar Counsel with a copy of the notice sent to each financial institution.
f. To provide all documents requested by The Florida Bar's auditor relating to respondent's Alabama trust account, including respondent's trust account at the Farmers Exchange Bank in Clayton, Alabama, within thirty (30) days of this Court's order.
Not final until time expires to file motion for rehearing, and if filed, determined.
The filing of a motion for rehearing shall not alter the effective date of this suspension.
ANSTEAD, C.J., and WELLS, LEWIS, QUINCE, CANTERO and BELL, JJ., concur.