THE HISTORY OF RUMPOLE OF MIAMI

Candidate Parks sent us a post in which she mentioned she had not really seen the blog before:

I confess that I do not have a lot of time to look at the Blog, as I am busy campaigning, and I suspect that the other candidates are busy as well. I did take the opportunity to review it this Sunday afternoon, and frankly Rump, I found it quite fascinating. Everyone can learn a lot by reading it, and I will recommend it.


We appreciate the recommendation but how can it be that this is the first time you have perused the pages of our humble blog?

Didn’t you see the blockbuster Daily Business Review interview with us?
How about the earth shaking New Times Interview with Rumpole?
Even the Herald mentions our blog now and then.

Anyway, we thought for all you new readers like Ms. Parks, we should catch you up in the history of the REGJB Blog.

Assuming you are familiar with the big bang, the parting of the red sea, the reformation, the Pilgrims, the war of 1812, Japan Surrenders on VJ day, “Dewey beats Truman”,
Armstrong walks on the Moon, the Miracle Mets of 1969, “Nixon Resigns”, Carter, Regan, the Berlin Wall falls, Monica and Bill, and Bush steals a second election,
then you should know that sometime after the election of Ronald Wilson Reagan, we arrived in Miami, much like Paddington the Bear, with a suit case in our hand, and a law degree tucked firmly and safely inside.

20 plus years of witnessing some of the most ridiculous spectacles known to man has an effect on any attorney: (true story- we once watched the late Judge Winton tell a prosecutor that he could not introduce a picture of the stolen item in a petty theft case, and that he needed to bring the item into court. When the quick thinking prosecutor asked if the State had to bring a car into court in every grand theft auto case, Winton said “of course! Now you’ve got it.”)

We were sitting in our office one blustery November day directing a steady stream of divorce clients to the attorney down the hall, and the bankruptcy clients to the attorney upstairs, with, as usual, not nary a soul knocking on our door seeking our services. Our secretary was busy refinancing her house that had increased a few million dollars in value, while we were trying to find some use for our Enron and Global Crossing stock certificates.

Turning on the radio, we heard an NPR report on a mysterious blogger of the federal courts that had been unmasked as a young prosecutor in New Jersey. We jumped on the web and quickly came across our favorite federal blogger’s web site and realized that there was no state court blog.

Now is an appropriate time to note that the one time in our life that we actually had an idea before anyone else that became popular, turned out to be an idea that produces absolutely no revenue.

Anyway, we proceeded to turn off our phones to avoid the bill collectors, and actually created a blog.

We made a few posts, and then one day we were at a local watering hole drinking some Chateau Miami River when he happened to "overhear" that the Law Offices Of Bennett Brummer was settling the lawsuit brought by a former employee.

Here is part of what we wrote:

BRUMMER BUMMER
A JBB Exclusive: Dade Public Defender Settles Lawsuit for $200,000.00 + Attorneys Fees.!!We scooped the Herald on this one: The JBB has learned that long time Dade County Public Defender Bennett Brummer has caved in and settled a federal wrongful termination lawsuit that arose out of his contentious re-election campaign.
The Scene: The annual Martin Luther King Day Parade cira 2003.
Dramatis Personae :Assistant Dade County Public Defender Gabe Martin, who has announced his intention to oust his boss.
Another young assistant Public Defender supporting Gabe Martin.Bennett Brummer.
At the parade the Assistant Public Defender ( and soon to be Plaintiff) marching in support of Gabe Martin has a mega-phone, and is yelling anti- Bennett Brummer slogans, like "We Need A Public Defender, Not a Public Pretender. "…

Sometime thereafter, an enraged Brummer shows his dark side and orders his henchmen (in this case- we believe it was a hench woman) to fire the young PD.

A Federal lawsuit alleging wrongful termination was filed, and as it proceeded towards trial Brummer and his legal team filed a motion for summary judgment before new Federal Judge Marsha Cooke. We haven't seen the ruling the denying the motion, but we hear it was a real barn burner, with some very critical language of Brummer and his legal team.

Meanwhile, to ratchet up the pressure, in conjunction with filing the motion for summary judgment, but before Judge Cooke's ruling, Brummer and his team of legal eagles makes an offer of settlement: that the Plaintiff pay $1,000.00 and write an apology.

The Greeks have a word for this: Hubris. And if you have read any Greek tragedies, you know what follows: disaster.

Well, after they got up off the floor, the Plaintiff and his lawyer formally rejected the offer. Judge Cooke's blistering ruling followed sometime thereafter. We don't know the rest of the specifics but we feel we are on pretty firm ground reporting the following:Brummer has parted with $200,000.00 PLUS legal fees, and didn't even get the gag order he wanted. The Plaintiff is free to talk and gloat about his victory whenever he wishes.


Well wouldn’t you know that a few days after we posted our blog story, the Herald ran a big story on the Brummer lawsuit with nary a credit to poor Rumpole who continued to labor in relative obscurity.

Sometime the next month an enterprising PD stumbled across the blog and sent out an email to colleagues. A few prosecutors found the blog and so did a few Judges, and the next thing you know we are getting a few hundred readers a day.

Now Judges use the blog to explain unusual occurrences in their courtroom, or attorneys log on to mourn the passing of a judge or colleague, or attorneys post comments on the actions of some of our more entertaining robed readers.

Along the way we have introduced such terms into the lexicon as “north of the border” for Broward, "Lord Of the Traffic Magistrates" for Judge Leifman, and “robed readers” for the dear members of our legal community suffering from diminished capacity.

We have covered (or more accurately- created) the JA Perfume Scandal (JAPS), the the Swartz maneuver, and Interpreter Interruptus, to name a few recent REGJB events.

Trying to be serious, we have posted several posts on the death penalty, the innocence project, the problems with eyewitness identifications, and the fact that only the US, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria execute juveniles. In response, we had loyal readers react to those posts with the famous “zzzzzzzz”.

Currently the issue raging across the blog is whether we should allow unrestricted access to people who want to post “ [ judge] regularly has oral sex with [ ] in chambers” or other prurient nonsense. We don’t like the fact that people cannot engage in a spontaneous conversation across the comments section of the posts, but we are not in our office enough to monitor the posts full time.

We are working on a solution, but until then, we have a new poll on what the blog should be.

In the meantime, we invite our new readers to check in often and as always, we end with this warning:

See You In Court.