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Extended Consultation Description
Mediation Service What Mediation is Collaborative Practice
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Frequently
Asked Questions
Question: What is a Certified Family Law Specialist? Answer: Here is the answer provided by the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists: "Only attorneys certified by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California may represent themselves a Family Law Specialists certified by the State Bar of California. To be certified by the Board of Specialization of the State Bar of California, an attorney must: 1. Be an active member in good standing of the State Bar of California; 2. Pass a written examination covering California Family Law; 3. Have substantial experience in the field of Family Law; 4. Complete specified approved legal education requirements applicable to the Family Law field; and 5. Be favorably evaluated by judges and other attorneys concerning his or her knowledge, ability and experience in the practice of Family Law. Certification by the Board of Legal Specialization is for a five-year period. Re-certification for additional five-year periods does not require further examination but does require continuing compliance with the other listed standards. Certification gives lawyers the opportunity to make their experience and practice specialty known to the public and other attorneys. By continued compliance with the listed requirements, a Certified Family Law Specialist maintains and improves his or her knowledge and competence in the Family Law field. Names of all Board Certified Family Law Specialists may be obtained from the office of the Board of Legal Specialization, State Bar of California, 180 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 95105-1639, telephone: 415-438-2100. Question: Can a lawyer practicing Family Law who is not a Certified Specialist still provide excellent representation? Answer: Absolutely. Question: If a lawyer is a Board Certified Specialist does it mean he or she is 2"good." Answer: In my opinion, no. Question: Then why would a lawyer want to go to the trouble to get certified? Answer: I’ll speak for myself. I was first certified in 1981 when the legal specialization program was quite new. I made a decision to focus my practice on Family Law. By qualifying for the certification I was making an announcement to my colleagues and to the public, that this was the kind of law I was interested in practicing. Having done that, I was conscious that I was unlikely to get referrals of cases in other legal fields. So I was making a commitment. I didn’t like the idea of taking a day-long examination, but I appreciated the fact that I’d be required to set aside a considerable amount of time to study the law of the entire field and study it well enough to satisfy whoever it is that makes up the exam that I was competent. I also appreciate the fact that re-certification requires a significant amount of continuing education. At the time there always seems to be several things I’d rather do than be locked up in a lecture hall with hundreds of other family law lawyers for one or two days. The ongoing requirement provides the incentive to do the prescribed class work and by doing the work I feel reasonably assured that I’m spending the necessary time to keep up in the field. Question: What’s a Martindale -Hubble Rating? Martindale-Hubble is a company that attempts to keep track of the practicing attorneys in the United States. For many years their product was a set of enormous books that took up six feet of shelf space and was updated every year. These books have two major sections. The first is an alphabetical listing of lawyers according to their geographic locations. The lawyer’s name and address is shown. It is then followed with a series of code numbers that indicate where the lawyer went to college and law school. (The codes are used to keep the entries short. The key to the code is provided at the front of each volume.) About half of these entries also include a second code which will be CV, BV, or AV. I provide the Martindale-Hubble explanation for these codes below. The second part of the Martindale listings are, in effect, advertisements paid for by lawyers or law firms. These are not like the ads in the phone book. They are uniform in style and are designed to publish the firm’s capabilities, largely to other lawyers who need to refer a case. Here’s what Martindale says about its ratings: 3 "Ratings reflect the confidential opinions of bar members and the judiciary, and attest to the individual lawyer’s legal ability and adherence to professional standards of ethics. Exclusive to the Martindale -Hubble Law Directory, ratings are accepted as exceptionally valuable benchmarks by members of the legal community, and testify to the unique and respected position the Law Directory occupies in the legal profession. They are intended for the use of lawyers and law firms in the practice of their profession. The public at large is encouraged to consult http://www.lawyers.com, a site specially designed to meet the legal information of non-lawyers. "Martindale-Hubble solicits confidential opinions from members of the Bar, including those who have ratings and those who do not. In addition, members of the Judiciary are queried. Opinions are solicited via written questionnaires and by Martindale -Hubbell representatives who conduct interviews. "Ratings fall into two categories: Legal Ability and General-Ethical Standards. Unless a rating is established in both categories, no rating is published. "The Legal Ability Ratings (C,B,A) take into consideration the standard of ability for the area where the lawyer practices, the attorney’s expertise, nature of practice and qualifications relevant to the profession. Where a lawyer’s practice is limited or specialized, rating opinions are made on the basis of performance in those specific fields of law. "The General-Ethical Standards Rating (V) covers adherence to professional standards of conduct and ethics, reliability, diligence and other criteria relevant to the discharge of professional responsibilities. "In the United States, 43% of the active bar is rated. Omission of individual lawyers should not be construed as unfavorable since Martindale-Hubble does not undertake to develop ratings for every lawyer. In addition, certain lawyers have requested their ratings not be published. In other instances, definitive information required to establish a rating has yet to be developed. " Question: How do you find out if a lawyer is rated and what the rating is? Answer: The Martindale-Hubbell text quoted above provides a link for non- lawyers. Many libraries have the hard copies of the books and law libraries should have them. In preparing this material I checked out the Martindale site. I guess I got to the one for lawyers, but no user information is requested so anyone 4 can use it. The site is: martindale.com. Once there I entered my own name, state, city and law school. The search didn’t find me and told me to start over, so I did. The second time my name came up. Question: What did it say? Answer: Brian H. Burke Santa Barbara, California (Santa Barbara Co.) rating I left clicked on the word rating, the screen changed to say: "Lawyer’s Rating – AV Admitted: 1969 The Martindale-Hubbell AV rating indicates very high to preeminent legal ability and very high ethical standards as established by confidential opinions from members of the Bar." Question: What did you do next? Answer: Added this site to "favorites." Question: Can an excellent lawyer have a C or B rating or not be rated at all? Answer: Definitely and I have known it to happen many times. I’ve been interviewed by Martindale and have received their questionnaires every year since I came to Santa Barbara in 1975, but I don’t really understand how they do the ratings or whom they decide to rate at all. Question: Can a bad lawyer have a high Martindale-Hubbell rating? Answer: I’m sure it can happen. This is a good place to note that so far as I know, lawyers don’t check out other lawyer’s Martindale ratings for the hell of it. Furthermore, a lawyer’s Martindale rating isn’t really a part of his or her professional reputation. I don’t think I’ve ever heard one lawyer refer to another lawyer’s rating in casual conversation – even if the conversation is full of gossip. I don’t know the rating for any lawyer other than myself, and I wouldn’t have a reason to check unless I was referring a case to someone in another location. Question: Do you have professional liability insurance? Answer: That’s a good question and it’s appropriate to ask it of any professional you are thinking about employing. I maintain full errors and omissions coverage for my mediation work and for my law practice and the policy limits are high. Question: Are you the lawyer who advertises in the News-Press as a "Divorce Advisor" and doesn’t give a name? The ad your refer to is probably this one:
This is NOT my advertisement. I’ve been concerned that people might think that it is. Among other things I’m troubled by the absence of a name, the absence of an address and the self -description as a "former Family Law Judge pro-tem." "Pro-tem judges" are appointed on a case-by- case basis, only with the approval of the parties. It is not the same as being a real Superior Court judge and I doubt that the public realizes the difference. Any lawyer placing an ad like this definitely knows the difference.
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Copyright 2003 Brian H. Burke