Marital and family law.

• Author: Manz, David
• Position: Board certification

Recognized as a certification specialty shortly after the inception of Florida's certification plan, the marital and family law certification program has a long and successful history. Boasting 237 certified members through 2002, marital and family law specialization is one of the larger certification areas and is a testament to the importance of specialization in this highly complex and highly emotional arena.

As defined in Rule 6-6.2 of the Standards for Certification, marital and family law includes "the practice of law dealing with legal problems arising from the family relationship of husband and wife and parent and child, including civil controversies arising from those relationships. In addition to the actual pretrial and trial process, marital and family law also includes evaluation, handling, and resolving such controversies prior to and during the institution of suit and post-judgment proceedings."

The concept of board certification in marital and family law dates at least to the early 1980s, and arguably as far back as the 1970s. Burton Young, chair of the first Marital and Family Law Certification Committee in 1985, was president of The Florida Bar in 1970 and in that position was a visionary in advocating formalized legal specialization in Florida at a time when the concept of recognizing specialization was heavily criticized and was met with significant resistence. As Mr. Young recalled, the concerted efforts against certification were in large measure the result of a belief that only lawyers in the largest firms would obtain certification, thereby causing significant economic jeopardy to lawyers in small firms. In retrospect, that criticism certainly could not be further from the case in marital and family law, a specialty where many board certified lawyers practice in small firms or as solo practitioners.

In no small part as a result of Burton Young's seminal efforts, the Florida Certification Plan was eventually institutionalized, and marital and family law specialization came to fruition in 1985. Fifty-seven lawyers sat for the 1985 marital and family law examination and 51 passed, achieving an 89 percent pass rate. In 1986, 17 attorneys sat for the exam, and all passed. While the pass rate for the marital and family law certification exam has varied substantially through the years, the average pass rate for 1985-2002, the entire time period that the marital and family law certification test has been offered, is 59...