Florida Rules

How Trial Commander helps you stay out of trouble

Generic legal tech treats a state as one of fifty equivalent jurisdictions. We treat statutory depth as the product: Florida first, and now Texas and the District of Columbia, each verified against official sources and signed off by an attorney licensed there.

Important disclaimer

This page describes product features designed to help with Florida Bar rule compliance. It is not a guarantee of compliance and is not legal advice. Every attorney remains responsible for their own compliance with the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar. Trial Commander is a software tool; you are the lawyer.

Rule 5-1.1

Trust Accounts (IOTA)

5-1.1(a)(1) Commingling prohibited

Per-client sub-ledgers enforce segregation. A withdrawal that would drive any client's sub-ledger negative is refused inside the recording transaction, before anything is written. The one exception is an attorney's signed override for a recording correction, which is kept in its own audit record.

5-1.1(e) Notice and delivery

Trust transactions are logged with reference numbers and purpose. Required notices can be generated from the audit trail.

5-1.2(b) Book entries and records

Every transaction creates an append-only audit event chained via SHA-256. Monthly reconciliation is tracked with alerts when overdue.

Rule 5-1.2

Trust Accounting Records

5-1.2(f) 6-year retention

While the firm's account is open, trust records are never deleted automatically, and closing or archiving a matter never deletes it. When a firm cancels, its administrators are told to download its records export — matters, clients, time, billing, trust and audit records, as one file — and the documents they need from each matter (after cancellation, from the Billing page, read-only), because uploaded documents are not in that file. All of the firm's data, trust records included, is deleted no sooner than 30 days after cancellation. Keep what you download: after the purge, Trial Commander no longer holds the records.

5-1.2(b)(6) Receipts and disbursements journal

Complete transaction journal with date, client, purpose, amount, direction, reference number. CSV and PDF export.

5-1.2(b)(7) Individual client ledgers

Automatic per-client sub-ledger maintenance. Shown alongside the firm-wide balance.

5-1.2(d)(1) Monthly reconciliations

Structured reconciliation workflow with statement balance, adjustments, variance calculation. Overdue reconciliation alerts via email to firm admin.

5-1.2(c) Signatories and responsibility

Rule 5-1.2(c)(1) requires a firm with more than one lawyer to keep a written trust-account plan that names each signatory, and Rule 5-1.2(c)(2) makes every lawyer responsible for that lawyer's own actions regarding trust funds. Chapter 5 does not say which staff may record a withdrawal; as a firm control of its own, Trial Commander lets only the ATTORNEY and FIRM_ADMIN roles record an earned-fee withdrawal or any other trust disbursement, enforced at the action level, not just in the UI. Paralegals and associates cannot.

Rule 4-1.5

Fees and Costs for Legal Services

4-1.5(a) Excessive or unreasonable fees

Fee petition AI applies all 8 factors of Rule 4-1.5(b) with structured prompts.

4-1.5(b) Factors

Fee petition workflow structures attorney analysis around each factor. AI drafts incorporate attorney-provided analysis.

4-1.5(e) Written agreement

Agreements are stored with encrypted body, version history (supersede-not-delete), SHA-256 integrity hash, and signature tracking.

4-1.5(f)(4)(B) Contingent fee schedules

Built-in calculator for all four schedules: PI pre-answer (33⅓% / 30% / 20%), PI post-answer (40% / 30% / 20%), liability admitted (33⅓% / 20% / 15%), medical malpractice (30% / 10%).

4-1.5(f)(4)(B) Appeal surcharge

Optional 5% appeal surcharge calculation for contingent fees.

Rule 4-1.6

Confidentiality of Information

4-1.6(e) Technological safeguards

Multi-tenant data isolation in the application: a read or write of a firm-owned table that names no firm is refused, and isolation is tested on every change (hand-written SQL and a set of system paths scope by firm themselves — see the Security page). AES-256-GCM field encryption. AI runs on the Anthropic API with no training on your data and strictly limited retention (zero under our Zero-Data-Retention configuration; see the AI disclosure for the active mode).

4-1.6(c)(3) Prevent inadvertent disclosure

Pattern-based masking of Social Security, card and account numbers on assistant and analysis AI inputs. A tamper-evident audit log of significant actions — trust, billing, documents, access changes and exports. Role-based access control with seven roles and per-matter access.

Rule 4-1.15

Safekeeping Property

4-1.15 Safekeeping

See Rule 5-1.1 and 5-1.2 implementation above. Trust funds are tracked separately from operating funds with strict role gating.

Rule 4-1.16(d)

Declining or Terminating Representation

Refund of unearned fees

Structured refund workflow for unearned portions of advance fees on termination. Audit-logged with reason.

Rule 4-5.3

Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistants

Nonlawyer AI framing

AI is framed as a nonlawyer assistant under Rule 4-5.3. Generated documents and fee petitions are headed 'DRAFT — ATTORNEY REVIEW REQUIRED'. Trial Commander does not e-file, so nothing it drafts reaches a court unless a person files it.

Controlling Case Law

Built-in case law references

Fla. Patient's Comp. Fund v. Rowe, 472 So. 2d 1145 (Fla. 1985)

Lodestar methodology applied in AI fee petition generator.

Standard Guar. Ins. Co. v. Quanstrom, 555 So. 2d 828 (Fla. 1990)

Category-based multiplier analysis for tort/contract cases.

Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley v. State

Referenced in fee petition templates for reasonableness analysis.

Keeping current as the rules change

The Rules Regulating The Florida Bar change. We monitor amendments through The Florida Bar's website and update the product when rules change. Current as of publication — see our changelog for specific updates.

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