Wills, trusts and estates: past to present.

• Author: Kelley, Rohan
• Position: Board certification

Public confidence in board certification is the ultimate measure and determiner of success. This outstanding program functions because of the efforts of many dedicated individuals who worked to create it and who now work to maintain and improve it. In any specialty area, certification is difficult to create and administer, particularly when the essential goal is to offer assurance to the public and profession as to the qualifications of those certified. Qualified lawyers enhance and secure the program's stature; and all Bar members, whether board certified or not, can rely upon board certification as a resource when a specialist is needed.

There are always competing considerations in ensuring the viability of any certification program, particularly through the examination process. If unqualified applicants are passed, it will eventually cause the public to lose faith in the program; however, if the "bar were raised" too high and too many failed, many qualified applicants will be discouraged, thereby causing the public to lose faith in the program.

Even though the initial certification exam was reported by some to be "impossibly difficult" the pass rate was 85 percent (a high bar). During the first eight years of the program, the passing rate averaged 81 percent. For the next eight years, that rate was 40 percent. This is in substantial contrast to the latest exam administered where the passing rate was 11 percent (two of 18 applicants). The next lowest historical passing rate was 32 percent. Has Florida run out of qualified estates lawyers after 330? If not, the committee should consider the extent to which qualified applicants are discouraged from participating under such circumstances, thereby threatening the viability of the program.

The scope of the application discourages some applicants. The attitude of some is "I could spend many hours completing the application, and I might be turned down at the peer review stage, or I might not pass the exam, and all that time would...