Today at the REGJB the traffic lawyers have a BLITZ.!!!
Yes, those nameless lawyers that scurry to and fro from courtrooms with unusual numbers like "1-3" and "5-4" and are constantly consulting "Sy Gaer" like lists of 70 cases scribbled on tiny scraps of paper are involved in a week long "Blitz"
But as longtime and careful readers will remember, we were reminded if not chastised some many months ago by an angry representative of these traffic laywers. Because indeed, while we may scoff at these titans of traffic, they are the ones we ask to look at Aunt Gertie's careless parking ticket to see if subsection "L" needs to be capitalized on the ticket for the prosecution to insist that she attend the 3 hour traffic school.
Anyway, much of what goes on in those courtrooms is as understandable to us as Civil Lawyers fighting over subrogated insurance policies. But as this is a REGJB event, we shall endeavor to cover it.
WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER
Fake modesty does not prevent us from announcing that after nine football weeks, your favourite Blogger has won the Justice Building Suicide Pool. From an initial pool that included Rick Freedman (out on week one with a misguided guess on the Jaguars) to David Markus (who lost on the Chargers) to Dan Lurvey, Miguel De La "O"ver, and finally CK Clay Kaiser, Rumpole prevailed this week as CK's emotions got the best of him and he risked it all on KC over the Packers, which as a Bears fan, CK likes as much as Judge Huck likes continuing a case. Brett Favre bailed Rumpole out with some 4th Quarter heroics, while Rumpole's Tampa Bay Bucs rolled over the Cardinals.
CK will not get the Jet Ski, two week vacation in Acapulco, and Sony Bravia 60 inch LCD TV.
Neither will Rumpole. But a nice framed certificate announcing us as this year's winner will remain in the closet, as we can't go hanging it in our office's waiting room now, can we?
Thanks for playing and see you next year.
Some alert readers have noticed that this was quite a weekend for us, football wise.
We went 5-0 in our picks, including telling you to take both the Colts +5.5 and (gasp!) the Under 56 in the game of the Century. We were right on both counts.
As we wrote in the comments section last night while tooting our horn- this business of picking games should be left to the professionals like us. While Mr. Markus fritters his time away reading the new opinions from the 11th Circuit, we are diligently hard at work at our craft by leaving the office early, going to the bar, and carefully reviewing the sports pages from various newspapers around the country. If you want to be a football tout, you have to have the dedication to pass up the pleasurable experiences in life and put your nose to the grindstone while endlessly watching Sports Center on ESPN and the Football Channel.
See You In Court, where calling the "hot read" audibles off the blitz is something we believe is best left for Sunday afternoons and not Monday mornings.
26 comments:
Rumpole:
First of all, congratulations on your remarkable record in picking football winners, but, turning to something a little more serious, wouldn't it be nice if General Musharaff was as proficient in hunting down Bin Laden as he is in eliminating democracy in his own political system? Happy Guy Fawkes Day--be careful with your bonfire tonight.
Hey Dude, where is everybody??
Doesn't court start at nine???
Dudes!!! You are all soooo late!!! And on a Monday yet.
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
Our sports prognostigator is kicking some butt. After nine weeks, Rumpole is 32-19-2 against the spread and $100 bets (and the money line on one game) gets you a cool $1,225.
Cap out ...
Is this now the Football blog?
NO. This the REGJB. Longtime and careful readers of the blog know that since our inception, we have picked football games on Sundays . There's not much legal stuff goin on Sundays, but you are welcome to submit learned posts on areas of the law for Sundays that you think we have neglected.
The person who commented that Judge Terri Ann Miller was also a Judge in Naples is incorrect. You are confusing her with Lauren Levy Miller who resigned the bench for love and marriage- and moved to Naples, and got herself re-appointed.
"Longtime and careful readers of the blog ..."
Do I get a prize I have been here since day one?
Divine Right of Cowboys
Former Dallas Cowboy Deion Sanders has been vindicated of accusations that he did not pay a car repair bill in full. In 1991, Sanders’ 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible was towed to Phil Compton’s repair shop, Magrathea, Inc. Compton alleged that when he returned the car, Sanders’ wife “answered the door, took the keys and invoices, started the car to make sure it was working and went back into the locked house, refusing to return keys or invoices.” When Sanders went to pay the $4,265.57 bill, he handed Compton a check for $1,500.00 and reportedly told him, “Praise Jesus. I follow what in my heart I am told to pay.” Last Monday, a Dallas judge, after hearing Sanders’ representative testify that a $1,500 price ceiling had been agreed before the repairs began, exonerated the former Cowboy. “Let’s be honest. A $4,000 bill, I could have written a check a long time ago,” Sanders remarked. “But it’s the principle. I’m tired of getting ripped off.”
—Source: USA Today
[Posted July 18, 2003]
“Not Just a Bimbo”
Former stripper Janet Clover of Palm Coast, Florida, is suing Viacom, Pamela Anderson and Stan Lee over TNN’s new cartoon series, “Stripperella.” Clover, who is acting without any legal counsel, claims that she, not Lee, is the concept’s “true creator.” Clover, currently unemployed but training to be a nurse, claims she approached Lee with the idea during a private dance session at a Tampa strip club last year. When asked for further details, Clover told the Daytona-Beach News-Journal, “I can’t remember much about Mr. Lee, little bits and pieces come back. You know, I meet a lot of men.” The title character of “Stripperella” (a.k.a. Erotica Jones), whose voice is performed by Pamela Anderson, is, as TNN advertises, an “exotic dancer by night, and a sexy superhero by … later night.”
Clover claims she is “trying to get this off TV because it’s not [Lee’s] idea … He’s going to know I’m not just a bimbo.” Viacom, Anderson and Lee have thus far given no public responses to the suit.
—Sources: Associated Press, Orlando Sentinel
[Posted July 18, 2003]
RUMP I'M PISSED.
You may not be a traffic lawyer or a ticket lawyer, but I am and here is what sucked about this blitz.
There are a number of stupid stupid acts that are crimes. Driving without glasses. Driving with an expired (not suspended) license. Etc. This was the type of crap on today. No DUI's. No serious traffic cases with accidents.
Judges Bloom and Newman would not accept waiver's allowing representation in absentia. Technically, they require court approval. So when the State was not ready, and you had a waiver, they either issued a BW or let you plea. The whole point of this Blitz is to clear out junk cases that are in the system and cops aren't showing up on.
Furthermore, normal Monday trials have prior Wednesday soundings. Not these Blitz cases. So according to Newman and Bloom, they wanted me to take my 125 cases this week where I have authority to proceed in absentia and place them on their busy calendars last week, and because I didn't do that, I was put in the position of pleding a case where the state was not ready, or getting a bench warrant.
Now bless her soul, Judge Ortiz gets it. She lambasted the State for that type of behavior and made them NP all cases they were not ready on. Oritz gets the idea behind the Blitz.
Wait- it gets worse. Apparently MDPD changed the way they notify officers this week and the State's hundreds of subpoenas for them did not reach them. I don't know about the other Courtrooms, But Judge Newman gave them a continuance in every case they asked for.
Some Blitz- if the state is ready you plead- if their not ready they get a continuance, unless you have an authority to plea in absentia, in which case you get a bench warrant.
Sounds like a no-win situation for the Defendant.
Rumpole, you and only you can publicize this outrage. Please help.
Can some other traffic lawyer please let me know what is happening in this situation and help me write a post on this if necessary.
4:56, while I agree with you that the judges you mention should have been a bit more leinient due to the blitz, a waiver is only for a pre-trial conference. To proceed in absentia at trial, you need to file a motion.
I just don't understand, other than the rush of issuing a bench warrant that some of these judges get, why they wouldn't just let you proceed in absentia for both trial and plea.
Kinda silly, but then again.....
The 4th DCA correctly declared Ralph Arza's drag racing statute unconstitutional but the state, during the blitz, is trying to amend those drag racing tickets still in the system to reckless driving. Some judges are incorrectly allowing it and giving a state continuance, while other judges, like Karen Mills-Francis, are correctly dismissing those tickets because the state had plenty of time since the statute was found unconstitutional to file a reckless driving informations and serve the defendants with them, yet they didn't do it. If the state tries to do that on your cases, check the speedies and statute of limitations dates because reckless driving is a totally new charge with different elements from reckless driving and should be filed by information with personal service to the defendant, but if a judge were to allow the amendment to reckless driving, such an amendment would operate as a nolle prosse of the drag racing charge and a filing of a new charge, with all the legal consequences of such sequence of events.
4:56.........you want to know why so many don't respect you? It's the kind of gamesmanship you're talking about. You want a dismissal if the state's not ready and a continuance if they are. Try a few cases instead of screwing around and people will stop making fun of you.
On a strictly legal basis, the judges issuing the bench warrants or forcing a pleas are correct. In criminal cases, the authority to represent in abstentia is solely to enter a plea.
The truth is, if the clients had been there, all of their cases would have been Nolle Prossed. The "pissed off" lawyer wanted it both ways. If the State was not ready he wanted an NP, but if they were he wanted the right to enter a plea in abstentia even though the court had not entered an order permitting the Defendant to be absent.
The question is what would the attorney really do if the State was ready? I expect the attorney would have asked for a continuance because he had no authority to enter a plea or for time to get his client there.
If you come with authority in abstentia you take the gamble that the judge understands the true import of what you are doing. If they do, you lose, you plead. It is not subject to the State being ready.
Ortiz may have understood the purpose of the blitz but was legally wrong. Newman does get much of anything, but he and Bloom got this one right. Either way they both got rid of a lot of cases. End of story.
Its raining in Pittsburgh. I like the under 36, but only a bit.
Steelers -7 is fine, don't give up more. The Steelers either blow people out or lose close games. The problem is this can be a 16-10 game and the Steelers don't cover. The play is under, but light.
The problem, Rumpole, is that you monkey with the spreads. Anyone can have a great record if they give themselves a couple points here and there. For example, the line on tonight's game is anywhere from 8 to 9.5, so saying you like pitt -7 is interesting, but irrelevant because you can't give only seven anywhere. so too with the colts this weekend. they were only +3.5, not the 5.5 or 6 you said, and that difference made the difference. How about using some real numbers with your picks to see if you are really good.
Judicial Candidate Lisa Lesperance and her lawyer family members have a combined total of 6 Florida Bar Disciplinary actions taken againt them within the last 10 years.
The fact that people with public disciplinary records are now aspiring to be judges means that our election system has reached a new low!
How dare you!
Go to
http://covers.usatoday.com/data/odds.aspx
I said in the begining of the year I got all lines from USA Today, which by the way, posts lines from several sources. Usually I use the average. Check out the Colts Line. They OPENED at 3 and the 5 lines were 6, 5, 6.5, 5, and 6.5.
Furthermore, books adjust their lines based on which team gets more money. My wins and losses are based on the announced spreads that I post. If there is a big difference in the lines, I mention it.
You think you're so good, pick a name, and email me your picks on sunday and we shall see.
I should note that RE: Judicial Canidate Lesperance, the only issue is her bar disciplinary proceedings or lack thereof. I am not a believer in being our brother's keeper or that the sins of the father are visited on the son. Everyone is an individual. If Roy Black had a brother and he was disbarred, would that make him a worse lawyer?
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
Lisa Lesperance receievd a Public Reprimand on April 22, 2004. That is the extent of disciplinary action taken against her in the past 10 years.
In Case SC04-641, Ms. Lesperance entered a Conditional Guilty Plea, receievd a Public Reprimand and paid costs in the amount of $750.00.
CAPTAIN OUT ......
Hey Captain can you find out why "He Who Shall Not Be Named" recently filed motions that the Court's granted sealing two cases:
(1.) A Federal Civil Case listed on Pacer with the Exhibits sealed and returned to him, and (2.) A State Case 2000-504-CA-01 a partial sealing of that case.
Now why would he want two cases sealed or exhibits returned? The request made immediately before he filed to run for Clerk of Court.
Captain do you have any details?
It is true that family members bar discplinary records should be irrelevant if the candidate's record is clean.
However when ALL lawyer members of a family have Florida Bar disciplinary actions taken against them within the last 10 years I think most informed people would say that this is a remarkable (if not astonishing)fact and something that most people would want to know before making an informed decision about a potential judge.
Re: Sins of the Family:
Well, what if the son was vice president and director of the bank that the feds came down on but other family members --- dad and big bro --- took the fall? Della
Simple truth. Lisa Lesperance is not qualified to be a judge.
Simple Truth. Judge Lindsey did not have the background to be appointed a Judge. She had little or no background in criminal law and was given a criminal court seat. Her incompetence in criminal court is WHY she got an opponent.
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