PETITION OF CUBAN-AMERICAN LAWYERS PROGRAM
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The Florida Supreme Court denied a petition by the Cuban-American Lawyers Program seeking waivers of bar admission rules, including downward grade adjustment for Cuban-American bar exam candidates and additional examination opportunities. The Court concluded that while sympathetic to the applicants' circumstances, protecting public welfare through competency standards required denying the requested exceptions.
The Court denied all three forms of relief requested. The Court determined that the exceptions to the admissions process previously granted to CALI applicants represented the extent of measures it should invoke consistent with the public interest, and that further exceptions could not be granted while maintaining the required competence standards.
[1] A court may deny an application for waiver of the Rules of the Supreme Court Relating to Admission to the Bar.
[2] A court's paramount responsibility in the admissions process is to protect the public by ensuring admitted attorneys possess a required level of competence.
Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“we have nonetheless remained mindful of our paramount responsibility in the admissions process — to protect the public by ensuring that those who are admitted to practice law in this state have demonstrated a required level of competence”
Establishes the Court's fundamental duty in bar admissions, which required it to prioritize public protection over accommodating linguistic considerations
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe Cuban-American Lawyers Program, through Dr. Alberto Perez-Nodarse, sought relief for Cuban-American law graduates who participated in the Cuban-Am…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
PER CURIAM.
On July 12, 1978, Dr. Alberto Perez-No-darse, as Coordinator of the Cuban-American Lawyers General Assembly, presented to this Court a Memorandum in Support of the Cuban-American Lawyers Candidates to the Florida Bar Examination who were participants in the Cuban-American Law Institute (CALI). We treat the memorandum as an application for waiver of the Rules of the Supreme Court Relating to Admission to the Bar. By such memorandum three types of relief are requested: (i) that each Cuban-American lawyer who has taken at least one [Florida] bar examination be permitted to participate in the Law School Civil and Criminal Practice Program which exists by virtue of Florida Bar Integration Rule, article XVIII; (ii) that due to linguistic considerations the minimum passing score be adjusted downward for Cuban-American candidates for admission; and (iii) that, in the event the Court should rule favorably on proposition (ii), Cuban-American candidates who have exhausted the number of examination attempts permissible under the rules governing admissions be granted an additional opportunity to sit for the bar examination under the proposed relaxed grade requirements. The application has been supported by the state attorney and public defender for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Communications have been received also from several academicians specializing in linguistics explaining the significance of the language factor in the examination process. The Commission on Spanish Speaking Populace of Florida also has communicated its support of the application.
After a careful review of all the materials submitted it is the decision of this Court that each form of relief must be denied. Since approximately June of 1975, when applications for relief which transcended the provisions of the 1973 order authorizing the CALI Program began to be addressed to the Court, we have given thoughtful and sincere consideration to many alternatives which would accommodate the problems experienced by the CALI candidates. Among those alternatives were the very suggestions which are here advanced. As a result of our periodic reconsideration of the CALI Program, certain modes of relief were fashioned including the appointment of a special committee to review the grading practices of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, review of individual examination papers upon the request of an applicant by faculty of the University of Florida with provision for additional faculty assistance to remedy deficiencies, and the conditional admittance of successful CALI applicants pending completion of character and fitness investigations by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
While we have continued sympathetic to the condition of the CALI applicants, we have nonetheless remained mindful of our paramount responsibility in the admissions process — to protect the public by ensuring that those who are admitted to practice law in this state have demonstrated a required level of competence. In balancing these considerations, it is our judgment that the exceptions to the admissions process heretofore granted on behalf of the CALI applicants have exhausted the measures which this Court should invoke, consistent with the public interest.
Accordingly, the application of Dr. Alberto Perez-Nodarse is denied.
ENGLAND, C. J., and ADKINS, OVER-TON, SUNDBERG, HATCHETT and ALDERMAN, JJ., concur. BOYD, J., dissents.