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Hawaii Supreme Court Hears from REALTORS®; HAR Calls an End to Letter Writing Campaign
March 21, 2008
REALTORS® clearly made an impact upon the Hawaii Supreme Court.
Since HAR’s launch of the call-to-action on March 6 opposing the proposed Hawaii Supreme Court rule on the unauthorized practice of law, the Judiciary office received over 1,035 letters prompting the Court to halt the receipt of any additional letters as of March 20.
The success of this grassroots campaign can be attributed to those of you who wrote to the Supreme Court expressing your concerns over the proposed rules. Mahalo!
*** Effective immediately, please HOLD OFF on submitting any more letters. Our goal was to catch the attention of the Supreme Court and we have! ****
Current Status
The Court will not make a decision on the UPL rule until such time an acceptable rule is submitted by the Hawaii State Bar Association (HSBA).
Current Activity
HAR has had direct communication with the HSBA and both sides are willing to work together. Robert Klein, HAR’s advisor on this issue, will continue to act on our behalf.
REALTOR® Action Alert
March 6, 2008
REALTORS® are being asked by HAR to take immediate action to oppose the unauthorized practice of law rule being considered by the Hawaii Supreme Court. If the proposed rules are adopted in its present state, it would effectively prevent real estate licensees from serving their clients.
Examples:
Not only would this cripple the entire real estate industry, it would hurt consumers by restraining competition between non-lawyers and lawyers resulting in a higher level of cost for services traditionally performed by licensees.
This is your livelihood at stake! HAR strongly recommends that you write to the Hawaii Supreme Court today.
COMMENT DEADLINE: MARCH 28, 2008
See "Take Action" to your right for information on how to respond.
Update on HAR activities since March 6
March 14, 2008
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Letter sent on March 11 to Attorney General Mark Bennett requesting assistance to get interested parties together to craft amendments to the Rule that would exclude the practice of real estate and other licensed professionals from the ambit of the Rule.
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Letter sent on March 11 to Hawaii State Bar Association President Jeffrey Sia asking if HSBA would be willing to discuss compromise language that could be jointly submitted to the Hawaii Supreme Court.
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HAR to submit updated testimony to the Hawaii Supreme Court with new information and arguments.
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HAR’s Issues Mobilization Committee to organize an effort to reach out to brokers in an effort to increase agent responses to the call-to-action. Also, the committee will try to connect with other groups within and outside our industry to build a coalition.
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