Clerks or Gatekeepers?

by Anonymous

It is fair enough that the clerks of court refuse to offer legal advice. Apparently, they have been told repeatedly that any answer to any consumer question asked of them might be legal advice. In my opinion, this practice is pushed way beyond the necessary and into the absurd.

However, that is not what took place here:

The following scenario took place at the family law clerk of court's office in Miami-Dade. A consumer wanted to enforce a Parenting Plan that was ordered years before in that circuit. Nothing extraordinary, the father was prevented by his ex-wife from having regular visitations with his children.

I prepared a Motion for Civil Contempt/Enforcement, Florida Supreme Court approved form 12.960, which was posted as an updated form on the Supreme Court's website in December 2010. Along with this I prepared a Summons for Personal Service on an Individual; Process Server Memorandum; and a Civil Cover Sheet.

This morning I received this email:


"just have to let you know that i am dissapointed because the reason i had you do the legal documents is because i assumed that they would be correct unfortunately they were not you need to get updated with the forms because the ones u did were incorrect its upsetting because i paid you ... and i had to pay again for the correct forms u provided me with yr 2000 documents they asked me why didn't i go through them i answered because i assumed paying more will have the documents done correctly but i guess not just wanted to inform you that the ... dollars i paid you were for nothing because they are incorrect documents you may call and find out that way u can give out the correct documents."

I first responded via email to the consumer, stating that the clerk was mistaken or misinformed. Then I picked up the phone and called.

The consumer told me that the clerk had told her that the forms submitted were out of date, and apparently unacceptable. The consumer purchased a new form packet from the clerk of court, and filled them out again at the clerk's office. The consumer was at the clerk's office from 12:45 until 4:00 p.m.

Technically speaking, what the clerk did used to be considered a form of legal advice and therefore, UPL. Is this kind of gate-keeping now not considered UPL?