On Friday, September 6, 2024, The Florida Bar filed a complaint against attorney John J. Vasti with the Supreme Court of Florida. The complaint stems from Vasti’s representation of a client, referred to as J.B., in a family law case involving custody matters.
The case is entitled “The Florida Bar v. John J. Vasti,” with case no. 2022-30,568(5B).
The charges cited Rules Regulating the Florida Bar 3-4.3, 4-3.4(a), 4-8.4(d).
According to the complaint, Vasti failed to timely provide court-ordered drug test results for his client to the mother of J.B.’s child, identified as Ms. Farling.
In July 2021 Ms. Farling and J.B. agreed to a timesharing arrangement regarding their child. As part of this agreement, J.B. was required to provide Ms. Farling with negative results from a 9-panel hair drug test. When Farling requested another drug test in September 2021 before the next phase of the custody plan, J.B. took the test but the results were never produced by Vasti.
The complaint states that over the following months, Vasti did not directly provide the results and objected to questions about the test, even instructing his client not to answer. Vasti cited Health privacy laws but could not specify which ones applied.
According to the complaint, Vasti did not turn over the final test results until January 2022, months after they were first requested under the court order. A subsequent February 2022 court clarified the timesharing agreement referred to results showing J.B. had tested positive for drugs in October 2021.
The Florida Bar is seeking discipline of Vasti, claiming his conduct violated bar rules regarding obstruction of evidence, fairness to opposing parties, and conduct prejudicial to the justice system.
The complaint states:
“The Florida Bar respectfully requests that this Court appropriately discipline respondent under the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.”
According to avvo.com, Mr. Vasti is a divorce & separation attorney in Leesburg, Florida. He attended the Fordham University School of Law, graduating in 2010. He acquired his law license in Florida in the same year.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
