§ STANDARD VI REFERRAL SERVICE PROCEDURES

STANDARD VI. REFERRAL SERVICE PROCEDURES

(a) Procedures shall be established which assure that each referral is made in a fair and impartial manner to a member of an appropriate panel. Such procedures should be designed so as to respond to all circumstances of the client, including the subject of the legal problem presented, geographical convenience of the client, language needs and ability to pay for desired services.

(b) No referral shall be made on the basis of race, sex, age, religion or national origin.

(d) If possible, each client-applicant should be interviewed by a lawyer or trained interviewer. The interview should be convenient to the client and may be conducted by telephone.

(e) The interviewer shall attempt to ascertain whether the client-applicant has a legal matter appropriate for referral. If so, the rules of the Service should assure that a referral is made. If the client-applicant does not have a legal matter appropriate for referral, the interviewer should be equipped to direct the client-applicant to a source which can provide help.

(f) The client-applicant will be informed, either orally or in writing, of the Service's applicable rules, including information about the first consultation fee, if any, to be paid by the client-applicant and the extent of legal services which will be rendered for such fee.

(g) If possible, the Service should arrange the time and place of the first consultation between the client-applicant and the lawyer. Such consultation should be made available as soon as possible after the initial interview.

For many reasons the referred client and attorney may not establish an attorney client relationship. If the panel lawyer decided that special or different services are required and does not feel qualified to render such services, the member shall send the clientapplicant back to the Service for another referral.

(i) The Service is encouraged to make regular and consistent attempts to follow up in a reasonable number of cases in order to obtain information which will enable the Service to find out whether appointments have been kept, whether the referred client was satisfied with the lawyer's handling of the case, whether the fee was within the client's means, and similar information. Information obtained by such follow-up procedures should be used to make such alterations in the operation of the Service as may appear desirable to the Committee from time to time.

(j) All Services shall comply with their application and rules and regulations as filed with The Florida Bar.