A VERY DIVERSE BENCH IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY .......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

DIVERSITY ON THE BENCH .......

Congratulations to our seven newest judges in Miami-Dade County; three to the Circuit Court and four to the County Court. And more importantly, congratulations to the one and only lawyer appointed to the bench by Governor DeSantis that comes directly out of the P.D.’s or F.P.D.’s office - AYANA HARRIS.

On another local note, the bench is a changing. For you old-timers,  you will recall a day when, in your law school class, there might have been one or two female students in your class. The same was true of the bench as it was tough to find a female judge in Miami-Dade County "back in the day". To the credit of our last several Governors and to the voters of Miami-Dade County, that has dramatically changed.

Today, there are a total of 123 judges in Miami-Dade County - 80 Circuit and 43 County. Of the 80 Circuit Court Judges, 44 are female and 36 are male. In the County Court the numbers are even more dramatic with 26 female judges and only 14 male judges with three open seats to be appointed by our Governor. Who could have predicted in 1989 that thirty years later 57% of the judges in our County would be female.

It was also nice to see Governor DeSantis choosing three attorneys of color of the four County Court appointments.

One final note: some will recall the brouhaha in 2018 when Judge David Miller was up for re-election. Seemingly out of nowhere an attorney with 11 years of experience from Cole, Scott, Kissane filed to run against Miller. Her name, Elisabeth Espinosa. After she filed, her law firm filed two dozen Motions To Recuse Miller from cases before him where the defense law firm was CSK. Miller denied all of the Motions and the 3^rd DCA upheld his decision in each and every case. Well Judge Miller, you can now welcome your new judicial colleague to the bench: The Honorable County Court Judge Elisabeth Espinosa.

One more final note. On Friday, Gov DeSantis appointed another five judges to open seats, four to the County Court and one to the Circuit Court bench. Of course, it almost goes without saying that all five are current or former government attorneys. Shannon McFee to the 20th Circuit is a former ASA; Sara Shullman and Melanie Surber were both appointed to the Palm Beach County Court directly out of the AG’s office; current AUSA Michael Bagge-Hernandez was appointed to the Hillsborough County Court; and finally, James Moody III received an appointment to the bench in Hillsborough County Court. He is a former ASA. You might recognize the name "Moody" as in our current AG Ashley Moody. James is her brother.

With 51 appointments to the bench in Governor DeSantis’ first year in office, AFPD Ayana Harris stands as the lone appointment coming directly from either the PD’s or FPD’s office. In contrast, according to a piece in the Florida Bar News, 44 of the appointees had ASA, AUSA, AAG, and/or Judge in their resume.

Happy Holidays to all of our readers. Make it a safe New Year. See you in 2020.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com