3rd DCA ROUNDUP-KEEPING COOL EDITION

UPDATE: SOBERING UP. Word reaches us that apparently our favourite federal blogger went on a bit of a bender over the 4th of July long weekend. Too many Tequilla shots over too short a time span and the next thing you know he's wrecked his blog with nauseous blue wallpaper and hidden naked nymphs frolicking about. Well he's apparently sobered up because the blog has been changed back to a semi-normal look befitting the respectable trial lawyer that he is. So we encourage all of our readers to click the link on the left and visit the Federal Blog and enjoy its new look.

<----VOTE IN OUR NEW POLL ON THE NEW LOOK OF THE FEDERAL BLOG.

It's hot. You're tired. Your client is cranky. The AC isn't keeping up with the heat and the pool feels like a warm bath. Welcome to Miami in July.

However, at the bunker they called The Third things are humming along.

Before we begin, some guy with a blog really doesn't like the ASA we call "Special K."

Apparently earlier this week some case got nolle prossed and everyone is up in arms over it, even here at the civil blog. You figure it out. We have better things to do.

WHO'S THE HARDEST WORKING PD?

WHICH JUDGE JUST GOT SPANKED FOR COPYING FROM THE STATE AND GET'S HIS OWN WING IN THE RUMPOLE HALL OF SHAME?

WHAT'S RUMPOLE'S FOURTH RULE OF LAW?

Read below, and find out.

The hardest workin PD in Miami is at it again! Yup, you know him, you love him, you can't enter Judge Thorton's courtroom without seeing him in action. We speak of none other than JAY KOLSKY, Esq, SUPER PD !!!!!

Unfortunately for Jay, he's just going to have to keep working harder than the rest, because in State v. Bowens, the court reversed Judge Thornton's order allowing Jay to withdraw from cases because of his burdensome case load.

Here's the deal- Silent Charlie and his crew are trying to get the 3rd and the Supremes to say that an excessive caseload in and of itself is sufficient for the PDs to decline representation and if already appointed, to withdraw.

In the legendary words of Oliver Wendell Holmes: Ain't gonna happen. No appellate court is going to draw a line in the sand and say any amount of cases over that number equals a conflict. What the 3rd required in the previous case (now on cert before the Florida Supreme Court) and in this case is an individualized showing on a case by case basis:

On May 13, 2009, before the present case was filed, this Court reversed a trial court order permitting PD11 to decline representation in all future third-degree felony cases by reason of PD11’s excessive caseload. See State v. Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, 12 So. 3d 798 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009), review granted, No. SC09-1181 (Fla. May 19, 2010). We held then, and continue to hold, that while a trial court must determine whether counsel is sufficiently competent, this determination must occur on a case-by-case basis. Id. at 802.

COME ON JUDGE MILLER- BE A JUDGE.

Here's the thing about Judges we don't understand. They spend all this time trying to get elected or appointed, and then when they get on the bench they don't want to do the scut work. It's "Tee-times" "and who's getting the check at Joes?" that they all worry about.

Rumpole's Fourth Rule of Law: When you rely on someone else to do the dirty work, it only makes matters worse.

The appellant appeals from the trial court’s order striking his motion for post-conviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 as facially insufficient. The order, taken verbatim from the State’s response, strikes the appellant’s motion without prejudice for failure to meet the requirements of Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851(e)(2)(C).

Here's a judicial practice tip: when you deny someone's motion, you need to cite THE CORRECT STATUTE!

Miller gets himself reversed, and we think publicly humiliated by cutting and pasting (or just old fashioned copying off of someone else's paper) from the State's response. No one bothered to read the statute. It's called fact checking. After he typed his order, did he bother to review it and double check the statute before signing it? NOPE.

And for that Judge David Miller, you get your own wing in RUMPOLE'S HALL OF SHAME. It's the "not checking your work and copying from the State" wing, and hopefully it will not get over crowded.

See you in court, where because of our lovely robed readers, there's never a dearth of things to chuckle about.