Professional Licensing and Career
Licensed and Candidate Attorneys
Mr. Griscti has experience assisting lawyers in disciplinary proceedings under the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar. He has worked with respondent lawyers in jurisdictions statewide at the investigative, grievance committee and referee stages of disciplinary proceedings, as well as in the Supreme Court of Florida. He also has represented candidates for admission to the Bar before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners.
Mr. Griscti is a former chair of the Eighth Circuit Grievance Committee. He has published and lectured on lawyer discipline, ethics and professionalism. He sits on the Eighth Judicial Circuit’s Professionalism Committee and was appointed by the Chief Judge of the Eighth Circuit in 2019 to the Local Professionalism Panel.
The Florida Supreme Court’s rules regulating lawyer conduct and discipline are extensive. Understanding a lawyer’s professional responsibilities requires careful analysis and understanding of those rules and the procedures used at each stage of disciplinary proceedings.
Because disciplinary investigations usually begin with a complaint filed with The Florida Bar, it is important for the respondent lawyer to promptly and comprehensively investigate the facts alleged and then respond fully, accurately and timely.
Mr. Griscti also consults with lawyers regarding their professional responsibilities in matters that involve the application of the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct and related obligations of the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar, as well as with professionalism, civility and rules of decorum before federal and local courts.
Healthcare Professionals
Mr. Griscti consults with and represents healthcare professionals in licensing, disciplinary and related administrative proceedings before the Boards of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and in other healthcare professions regulated by the Florida Department of Health.
The healthcare industry is one of the most highly regulated by state and federal agencies. That regulatory oversight often initiates licensing, disciplinary, certification, hospital privileges or other proceedings for public and private healthcare professionals. These proceedings are determined by statutory, administrative and institutional laws, rules and policies.
Gainesville and north Florida have substantial medical communities. Mr. Griscti has worked with physicians, nurses, administrators, staff, and other healthcare professionals at the University of Florida Health (UF Health) medical network associated with the University of Florida, including Shands Hospital in Gainesville and UF Health Jacksonville; North Florida Regional Hospital in Gainesville; the Veterans Administration hospitals in Gainesville, Lake City and Tampa; and in other public and private hospitals, clinics, medical practices, clinics, and with healthcare affiliates in Florida.
*Healthcare representation illustrates an important "collateral consequence": Medicare/Medicaid "debarment." Increasingly, healthcare professionals and entities encounter adverse consequences with federal and state healthcare funding that arise from legal proceedings. Counsel and clients must develop case strategies and resolutions that do not trigger these regulatory penalties.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has the authority to exclude individuals and entities from being able to benefit from federally funded health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and prohibit their employers from profiting from their labor. Exclusions Program, HHS Office of Inspector General, https://oig.hhs.gov/exclusions/. Individuals and entities who are included on the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE), provided by the OIG, are not able to receive payment from federal healthcare programs for any items that they furnish, order, or prescribe. Employers can also be subject to civil monetary penalties if they hire entities or individuals that are on this list. Florida’s exclusion database is located at the following link: http://apps.ahca.myflorida.com/dm_web/(S(ipizfpejvmafkiemeccdpafr))/default.aspx. Such federal and state regulatory enforcement penalties must be considered by Florida healthcare entities and individual clients and by counsel who represent them.
Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
Licensed professionals, public and private, are subject to regulation and review by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) in licensing and other administrative matters. See http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/services.html for the many professions regulated by the DBPR.
Mr. Griscti has assisted certified public accountants, veterinarians, contractors, and other professionals and businesses in a variety of matters regulated by Florida’s DBPR. Licensed Florida professionals and businesses who have received formal or informal state administrative inquiries or concerns, or seek to legal advice in exercising due diligence, should confer with legal counsel experienced in their specific disciplines of practice in Florida, each of which is unique.