Parties Beware: Your Qualified Representative in an Administrative Proceeding Might Not Be Qualified to Represent You If You Decide to Pursue an Appeal

Florida’s law allows non-lawyers to represent parties in administrative proceedings, but they may not be allowed to continue representing them in appeals to a district court of appeal. This creates a divide between administrative and appellate law. Some people think this divide should change because of issues with people having access to justice in our state. The Administrative Procedure Act allows people to have qualified representatives help them in administrative proceedings. However, these representatives are basically practicing law without a license. The Florida Supreme Court decided that it is okay for them to do this in administrative proceedings, because the legislature wanted to make the process more flexible and informal. So, the Supreme Court can’t control these representatives in administrative proceedings. When an administrative issue is appealed to a higher court, a qualified representative may not be allowed to continue representing the party. This is because the higher court operates under its own rules, and only Florida-licensed attorneys, certain foreign attorneys, and eligible law students are allowed to represent parties in these cases. This means that the party may have to either represent themselves or hire a Florida-licensed attorney to continue with the case. Appellate courts have said that people who work for a company can’t represent the company in court, even if they were allowed to do so in a lower court. This also applies to other non-lawyers who represented someone in an administrative proceeding. Sometimes people have to represent themselves in court, and they might not do as well as people who have a qualified person representing them. But there aren’t any numbers to show how often they win. Qualified representatives can help people in administrative law, but they can’t represent them in appeals. This means that people who can’t afford a lawyer for their appeal may have to go to court by themselves. For now, this is how the system works, and there are no plans to change it.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/parties-beware-your-qualified-representative-in-an-administrative-proceeding-might-not-be-qualified-to-represent-you-if-you-decide-to-pursue-an-appeal/