2022-2023 ANNUAL REPORTS of Committees of The Florida Bar.

Admiralty Law

The Admiralty Law Committee continued to advance its core functions in the fiscal year 2022-2023 by: 1) fostering the practice of maritime law and continued learning, offering complimentary and well-attended seminars about recent developments and trends in this practice area; 2) outreach to the Florida legal profession and the public, through close interaction and cooperation with "sister" committees, having goals germane to ours; 3) close networking among our admiralty colleagues by making fora and participation to monthly zooms and coffee breaks became our habit; and 4) cross-exchanging information and notions complementary to the members of our respective groups.

Principally the exchange went on with the ABA TIPS International Transportation Committee, but also with the ABA Section of International Law. With the latter, we participated to works of their Liaison Committee for making bonds with bar associations of other nations, creating groups for ongoing living contacts with European bars (Italy, France, Germany, and others) and working for bars of South America and the Far East. Within the same scope, we participated to an encounter with members of the board of the Bar of Paris, France, visiting Miami in occasion of the world meeting of the International Bar Association, in November 2022.

We participated on regular monthly calls of the ABA TIPS International Transportation Committee, and some webinars. We had the same participation on coffee breaks held by committees of the Maritime Law Association of the United States in New York. With all we discussed hot topics.

On January 19, 2023, our committee convened at Orlando for The Florida Bar Winter Meeting, and we offered a whole day CLE, that addressed maritime law issues recently developed. The CLE got accreditation, covering recent developments in sensitive areas of maritime law. Alan Richard, chair of our Legislative Subcommittee, supplied abroad coverage of the major legislative updates. He was followed by a presentation about the present status of seamen under maritime law, by Kassandra Taylor, special counsel to Jones Walker, LLP, who delivered a PowerPoint presentation (PPT), "Are Seafarers Still Wards of Admiralty?" The answer of the speaker was "yes" upon review of a long line of precedents, although a 2021 precedent of the 11th Circuit may part away from the adage that contract ambiguities must be always resolved in seaman's favor.

Laura Beck Knoll of Alley, Maass, Rogers & Lindsay talked on regulatory updates in yachting with an excellent PPT, "Marine Diesel Emissions Regulatory Updates." This was again a topic of actuality, given the significant updates of regulations touching applicability, standards, compliance, penalties, certification, and most of all connection with the EPA Clean Air Act.

We then had a deep review of the updated status of the law for recreational boats, the Florida Boating Safety Act 2022 and the Federal Small Passenger Vessel Liability Fairness Act 2022. Samuel Higginbottom's delivered a PPT on the "Florida's Boating Safety Act of 2022," opening a statute overview on collisions, accidents, and casualties and an overview of the amendment, followed boating safety education, vessel safety regulations for equipment and lighting, noncriminal infractions, mandatory education for violators, vessel registration, application, certificate, number, decal, duplicate certificate, liveries; safety regulations; penalty, impact on case law, potential expansion of tort liability, recent precedents and industry's response.

Rod Sullivan followed with a PPT, "The Small Passenger Vessel Liability Fairness Act," the widely debated statute that changed the rules of limitation of liability for small vessels. The Fairness Act had been signed into law by President Biden barely a month before the Orlando meeting, on Christmas Eve 2022, thus, raising great interest and attention with the attendants, being of intense actuality.

Rod's coverage raised many proper uncertainties from the text of the law, buried inside the huge statute H.R. 7776 (117): James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, almost 1,800 pages long (the Liability Act being less than five pages). Among other things, Rod remarked that the removal of limitation does not mean unlimited liability, but instead a new regime of compensation that the Coast Guard is supposed to enact by rulemaking within 180 days from the act entering in force, thus, raising questions of the constitutionality of the rulemaking.

Following up on the leading remarks of Rod, we are now closely discussing with the Admiralty Committee of the Federal Bar Association to offer a joint whole day CLE at The Florida Bar Annual Convention on June 22, possibly joined by the ABA TIPS International Transportation Committee.

We are also studying the possible attendance by our members and board to the yearly meeting of the Maritime Law Association of the United States in New York, May 3-5.

During the term, our committee members attended in-person networking events (called "lunch and learn") with students from the St. Thomas University School of Law on various occasions. In conclusion, we would like to repeat last year's praise of Joanne "Jody" Foster and Adria Notari, and I add for this year, Gino Butto, for precious help to our committee, but sadly we had to say goodbye to our Bar staff liaison, Stefanie Svisco, who left her position beginning of January 2023, not before supplying our committee with the program for the Winter Meeting.

In closing, I repeat last year's invitation by Chair Ryon I. Little to all eligible admiralty and maritime law attorneys to attend the committee's meetings, by using the committee preference forms that are posted online by The Florida Bar from December 1 to mid-January to begin work on the committee the following July 1 of each year. Many thanks go to Emily Young who is now giving our committee the most careful and valuable attention.

ATTILIO COSTABEL, Chair

Admiralty & Maritime Law Certification

This year, the Admiralty & Maritime Law Certification Committee continued its work of preparing, updating, and revising its comprehensive exam to test the knowledge, experience, and abilities of Florida lawyers for certification in the area of admiralty and maritime law. This unique area of the law provides a challenge to test preparers and test takers.

The certification exam covers 15 distinct areas of admiralty and maritime law, including admiralty jurisdiction, marine insurance, limitation of liability, maritime liens, and maritime personal injuries. Each area may contain as many as five or six subtopics, all of which are important areas of inquiry for the exam. The exam includes 100 mandatory multiple-choice questions, and a variety of fact patterns touching the primary substantive subjects in the discipline. The questions reflect the various specialties and test the applicant's broad knowledge of admiralty procedure and maritime law.

During 2022-2023 year, the committee met numerous times virtually to prepare and finalize the test; to continue its review relative the application that was recommended for denial during the 2021-2022 year; continued its review of the applicable rules; and discussed changes to the exam questions by reducing the length of the factual patterns; by changing the fact pattern and questions regarding the marine insurance questions; and had its representative, Carlos Llinas Negret, attend the BLSE meeting held on January 20, 2023 regarding the committees' recommendation to deny recertification of a member.

The committee also reviewed the applications submitted by potential test-takers to ensure applications met the minimum qualifications for certification. In addition, the committee reviewed applications for recertification and assisted the aviation section in reviewing some of their re-certification applications. Admiralty and maritime lawyers who were certified in 2001, 2006, 2011, or 2016, will be due to file a recertification application by May 31. The filing period for initial applications is July 1-August 31, 2023.

An important goal of the committee and the Bar is to increase the number of certified lawyers in the admiralty and maritime specialty. This helps to strengthen the field and to meet and overcome the effects of generational turnover. To this end, committee members advocate for admiralty board certification with their colleagues and at seminars/conferences/professional gatherings. Some other ideas are to track attendees of the Florida Admiralty and Maritime Law Committee seminars for possible attorneys that may be good candidates to apply for board certification. The committee would like to explore the possibility of promotional videos to advocate for board certification. The committee always encourages certified attorneys and law firms to mentor younger lawyers who are practicing admiralty and maritime law and will soon be meeting the five-year minimum experience requirement for taking the exam.

Thank you to the members of the 2022-2023 committee for their hard work and commitment to ensuring the highest standards for certification are maintained. Committee members for 2022-2023 are Vice Chair Howard T. Sutter, Tonya J. Meister, Barbara A. Kreitz Cook, Carlos Llinas Negret, Michael W. McLeod, Mark J. Buhler, Joanne M. Foster, and Anthony Cuva. A special thank you to our Bar staff liaison, Chyra Reynolds, whose hard work and support was indispensable to our work throughout this past year.

We invite all eligible admiralty and maritime law attorneys to apply for certification. There is no better way for a maritime attorney to advance his or her skills, professionalism, and ability to network in this exciting and expanding area of the law.

ROBERT L. GARDANA, Chair

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