CopyCited 3 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida
...tody of his lawyer. This is common police court procedure. Section 903.07, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., provides: "No attorney at law and no official authorized to admit to bail, nor any state, or county officer shall become surety on any undertaking." Section 454.20, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., is pertinent and is as follows: "No attorney shall become surety on the official bond of any state, county, or municipal officer of this state, nor surety on any bond of a client in judicial proceedings." Canon 10, Canons of Professional Ethics, 31 F.S.A., provides that "the lawyer should not purchase any interest in the subject matter of the litigation which he is conducting." Canon 10 is in effect much the same as § 454.20, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., both of which, as well as § 903.07, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., may be comprehended in Rule 30, governing the conduct of attorneys in Florida, 31 F.S.A., which provides that "No person licensed to practice law in t...
CopyPublished | District Court of Appeal of Florida | 1968 Fla. App. LEXIS 4988
...The appellants retained possession of the unit even after the appellees were required to pay a judgment against the appellants. It is clear that the appellants accepted the benefits of the instrument which the ap-pellees signed. This action was to recover the money paid. The appellants’ main contention is that § 454.20, Fla.Stat., F.S.A., which prohibits an attorney from becoming a surety *500 on a bond of his client, precludes the appellees from recovery....
CopyPublished | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 2013 WL 3239624, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 10263
...On April 24, 2012, the day the trial was scheduled to begin, Boyer filed a motion to *998 strike the cost bond and to dismiss the case with prejudice. Boyer argued that the nonresident cost bond was defective because it violated the rules against an attorney’s acting as a surety for his or her client. See § 454.20, Fla....
...Bank was posted because U.S. Bank did not sign it. Boyer asserted that U.S. Bank was required to obtain a bond from a surety insurer. In response, U.S. Bank argued that a nonresident cost bond is different from the type of official bond with surety contemplated in section 454.20....
...US Bank also pointed out that under section 57.011, its counsel could be liable for $100 of the defendants’ costs if U.S. Bank did not file a nonresident cost bond. After hearing argument from both parties, the circuit court granted the motion to dismiss with prejudice “on the basis of’ sections 57.011 and 454.20....
...508, 508 (1939) (holding that such a cost bond “may be filed by the plaintiff, his agent, or attorney” and that bond filed by “plaintiffs attorney” in that case was sufficient). Boyer convinced the circuit court that the attorney’s posting of the $100 bond violated the rule in section 454.20 that “[n]o attorney shall become surety on the official bond of any state, county, or munic *999 ipal officer of this state, nor surety on any bond of a client in judicial proceedings.” See also Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.505(c) (“No attorneys or other officers of court shall enter themselves or be taken as bail or surety in any proceeding in court.”). We disagree and hold that section 454.20 was not violated in this case....
...ny bond or any undertaking”). US Bank’s attorney simply advanced the nonresident $100 cost deposit required by section 57.011, along with the $8.50 processing fee. Attorneys routinely advance their client’s costs and in doing so do not violate section 454.20....
