BELIEVE IT OR NOT

WELCOME CAPTAIN. HE IS OFFICIALLY A GUEST BLOGGER AND CAN NOW POST ON THE FRONT PAGE.

Three comments from yesterday's vigorous (and mostly funny) posts merit attention:


A Public Defender writes in to praise the work in Judge Tunis's division.

Let us first say that in reviewing our comments we have never bashed the PDs on their work before Judge Tunis. Nor are we surprised to hear both how well things are going and that Judge Tunis is following the law regardless of the consequences.
If nothing else, Judge Tunis has had her fifteen minutes of fame, and comes out of it looking pretty darn good. (But we still "object for the record" about filing written motions for continuances.)



Anonymous said...
To 8:26am: Rump I can't hold back on this one.
I usually just read you and don't write.

Stepping up to defend the various PDs that go in and out of Judge Tunis' Division as well as other divisions, let's see: we take depos, prepare cases, file rules to show cause (which she grants and excludes witnesses per the rules IF you bother to do the right work), file Demands, get Nolle Prosses, try cases, and oh yeah, actually litigate motions to suppress like the one that involved some defendant looking at a minimum mandatory on a firearm. Which was granted by the judge. That took guts for her, but she followed the law we argued NEVER heard about it because it wasn't a media case, it wasn't on this blog, it was just some normal motion from a couple months ago by someone from our office, just some kid looking at 30 years that walked out because of her legal ruling on the law.

So before you start a pd bashing, hang out in the court and see how hard we work.
Do you know how many times a private attorney files a Demand...uh, like never. We've actually stopped filing them in Tunis' division, because she'll actually try the case within a few weeks.

Quit bashing us because we work harder than you for way less money and quit talking about what you do not know about.

Rumpole states: Just in case anyone thinks otherwise, our feelings are (and you can quote us) Thank goodness for the work the PDs do. We judge lawyers and their skill very critically. Any defendant assigned a Dade County PD has an excellent chance to be represented by a very fine, highly skilled attorney. In our opinion many many defendants do themselves a disservice by hiring just any private attorney. So many of them have no training and are not worth a wooden nickel. Before we are hung in effigy by our brethren, our point is that some of our PDs are the best defense lawyers around.


THIS IS JUST DOWN RIGHT SHOCKING.
THIS MERITS A RESPONSE IN OUR HUMBLE OPINION:

NO TICKET, NO PROBLEM.

Anonymous said...
Believe it or NOT...
I am a bystander in Court today before Judge Lawrence King and the attorney representing the defendant in a commercial landlord tenant dispute tells Judge King that the Attorney for the Corporate plaintiff has been suspended from practicing law since August 31, 2006 and presents the Judge documents email from the Fla Bar showing this.

Judge Lawrence King response :"oh I am sure he will work that out..."

Well all you lawyers suspended from law Judge Lawrence King welcomes you with open arms. He will let you get writs, issue subpoenas, get final judgments and if you do not complete that pesky CLE course, oh who cares- its Judge "KING" court room no law license required.

As good Rumpole says see ya in Court where license to practice law is almost always required (exceptions do apply see Judge King's court for details)

Ps. In case you want to know the name of the idiot lawyer who got his bar license suspended "Ian Martinez" Bar #596671

Wow!!! What do you think about that?
If Judges do not uphold the edicts of the Bar, who will?

THE WELL IS RUNNING DRY

Ace FACDL bigwig Rick Freedman posted some disturbing news:

Rick Freedman said...
TO ABE LAESER & OTHERS:

As some of you may have heard, the Court Appointed Counsel program is over budget.

The fiscal year began on July 1, 2006 and runs until June 30, 2007. According to the JAC, the fiscal annual budget for conflict cases is $37,436,067. One-half of the annual budget has already been disbursed. This money was budgeted to last until December 31, 2006, however, due to expenditures these monies were depleted by November 9, 2006.

The JAC is working with the Governor's Office on Planning and Budget and the legislative staff seeking early release of the third quarter monies. Those monies are due to be released on December 19, 2006, or before if the executive and legislative branches authorize early release. The Governor's Office on Planning and Budget has requested additional information from the JAC before they authorize early release of funds.

The JAC has asked us to inform all CAC attorneys to continue forwarding their invoices to them for processing so there will not be an extended gap of payment when monies are released. I will continue to keep you informed as I become aware of new information.

Rick FreedmanFACDL-MiamiChair, Subcommittee on CAC

Rumpole notes: Oh good, the Governor is on the case. Now we have no worries. Here's a thought: Calculate the cost of wasting all the time, energy and paper on following JAC'S arcane rules. Convert that into money, and allocate 10% of that for indigent defense. There will be a surplus.

See you in court.

PS. Our PD commentator wrote a response to our criticism. Explanation accepted.
All is well. Go getem.