Alves Serves on the Committee as Part of his Ongoing Commitment to Give Back to the Community
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2017 / Marcelo Castro Alves, founder of Focus Investment Advisor, is pleased to announce that he is celebrating his one-year anniversary serving on a Florida Bar grievance committee. As Alves noted, during the last year he has definitely learned a lot about legal ethics and the rules that apply to lawyers.
As he explained, the Florida Bar relies on grievance committees to determine whether there's reason to think a lawyer violated state rules of professional conduct.
"I'm interested in helping the community," Alves said, adding that he wants to help with these kinds of cases because he feels there are maybe a few lawyers in Miami who could be more interested in making money than acting ethically - something he has experience with.
"I believe, in the past, I was the victim of an unethical lawyer practice, and malicious prosecution, but I did not file yet any Florida Bar complaint."
Lawyers in the U.S. may sometimes try to manipulate the law to their advantage, Alves said, and once precedence is built, they could create avenues to continue doing the same thing.
"In the U.S., there is the mentality that suing someone with no merit is acceptable and okay to do," Alves noted.
The "American rule" states that each party is responsible for paying their own legal fees regardless of the outcome, Alves said. This is unique among English common-law systems. In most legal systems, the loser of the case pays the fees, which makes people much more circumspect about bringing a case.
"But in the U.S., a defendant is responsible for their own legal fees even if their defense is successful, so it's often cheaper to pay someone to go away than to litigate, even if you have a solid defense," Alves said.
Alves said his main goal in serving on the grievance committee is to glean as much as he can and to ensure attorneys aren't abusing their position and taking advantage of clients. It's an unpaid position, but the reward is seeing the high standards set by the Florida Bar enforced.
"I don't give a point of view as a lawyer, but I try to question the ethical rules and practices to give my opinion," Alves said.
About Marcelo Castro Alves:
Marcelo Castro Alves founded Focus Investment Advisor in 2011. Prior to that, Marcelo was an independent advisor for three years with another group in Miami. Before that Marcelo Castro Alves was at a Private Bank sector of major banks in Miami and in Europe in the Global Private Client Division, primarily managing investment portfolios for high net worth individuals. For more information, please visit http://www.focusinvest.net/.
Focus Investment Advisor
40 SW 13th St., Suite 201
Miami, FL 33130
Contact:
Marcelo Castro Alves
mcastro@focusinvest.net
305-961-1108
SOURCE: Marcelo Castro Alves
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