The Supreme Court of South Carolina

RE: Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection

Appellate Case No. 2014-000421

ORDER

The South Carolina Bar has filed a petition to amend Rule 411, SCACR, to increase the annual assessment for the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection from $20 to $50, and to add two lawyer members to the Fund's Committee.  The Bar states increasing the assessment and adding two new Committee members is necessary based on an increase in the volume of claims and the amount of losses incurred by clients.

Pursuant to Article V, § 4 of the South Carolina Constitution, we grant the Bar's request to amend Rule 411, SCACR, to provide as follows:

(1) Rule 411(b), SCACR, is amended to read:

(b) Membership and Terms of Office of Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection Committee.  The Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection Committee shall consist of twelve (12) members of the South Carolina Bar and one (1) member selected from the general public appointed by the President and approved by the Supreme Court.  The appointments shall be for a term of five (5) years, and no member who has served a full term shall be eligible for reappointment to the Committee until one (1) year after the termination of the member's last term.  Vacancies shall be filled for the unexpired term in the same manner as the original appointments to the Committee.

(2) Rule 411(d)(1), SCACR, is amended to read:

(1) The South Carolina Bar shall assess each regular member of the South Carolina Bar the sum of fifty ($50.00) dollars in each calendar year and shall make an appropriation to the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection in that amount for each year of its operation; provided, however, that no assessment or appropriation may be made which will increase the assets of the fund to an amount in excess of $3,000,000. Payment and enforcement of collection shall be in the same manner and at the same time and with the same penalties for non-payment as provided for payment and collection of license fees under Rule 410, SCACR, but otherwise shall be treated as a separate assessment of regular members.

Additionally, the Court requests that the Bar amend the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection of the South Carolina Bar Rules of Procedure to provide that a quorum at any meeting of the Committee be increased from six members to seven members. 

Columbia, South Carolina
May 28, 2014