UODATE The calumnious attacks on the Blog and us on the FACDL listserv continue unabated. Will no one stand up for us? We have not for years posted emails from the listserv unless, like yesterday, the writer gives us permission. We will not take these untrue assaults on our character and integrity quietly much longer.
UPDATE- 3:46 PM We are live tweeting the Mars landing of Perseverance. @Justicebuilding. Stop trashing each other on the Listserv and watch the landing and follow our tweets.
UPDATE: If you are a member of the FACDL, and have a few minutes and need a laugh, read your emails about our last post. They are too funny- except for the baseless attacks on us and El Capitan. That is the point they have stepped over the line. Those attacks should stop lest we seek legal counsel. You know who you are. Kindly act accordingly.
The CJ of the Florida Supreme Court issued an administrative order and then a memorandum on how judges should institute remote jury trials. We suggest skipping the 27 page order and reading the 2 page memo. The variant has thrown the judiciary a curve ball. In December and January we all had visions of being inoculated in February and picking juries in March. We are close, but we are not there yet. Most Americans may not be jabbed with a vaccine until August and that is a bridge too far.
So we give credit to CJ Canady for adapting to the shifting landscape. And, surprisingly, we support the move.
Now before you get on your soap box and start pontificating about the small micro-gestures you expertly pick up on in trial which allows to you pick the best jurors and break the unbreakable witness with a withering cross all fueled by that slight tick you picked up on, let us say ...balderdash! You didn't win that case you're always bragging about because the eyewitness blinked at the right moment. And more importantly, a good trial lawyer adapts. Good trial lawyers try cases under all sorts of difficult situations. They go to foreign jurisdictions where cross examination is conducted while seated. Or where they are not permitted to move from behind a podium. Or- like most of the country and all of federal court- where depositions are not allowed. And yet, they prevail. Like the US Marines, they Improvise, Adapt and Overcome.
Both sides have the same limitations in remote jury trials. When a judge hands you a lemon, make lemonade. What you may lose from not being in the same room with jurors and witnesses, you may gain in other ways. It is up to you as a good lawyer to find those ways to make the disadvantages into advantages. Appellate oral arguments are conducted viz zoom, and things are different. There are less questions. Panels let lawyers talk longer before interrupting. Good appellate lawyers are still winning cases. They find a way.
Change is the price of survival. The world has changed. Courts have changed. The Law has changed. And now the way we try cases has changed. Deal with it. Go to trial and get those not guilty verdicts that are just waiting there for you to take off the table and hang on your wall.
Improvise.
Adapt.
Overcome.
Win.
2021-02-17 Memo Re Requirements for Remote Criminal Jury Trials by HR on Scribd
AOSC20 23 Amendment 9 by HR on Scribd
It's kinda funny watching these judges think they are smarter than COVID by requiring in person appearances by attorneys, defendants, and potentially jurors. And COVID keeps winning every time.
ReplyDeleteDear judges, the SCIENTISTS (who are much brighter than you even though no one stands when they enter the room), say that you are not going to be having in person appearances until it is safe. You can deny it all you want, but that is life. So get over it. Your audits are going to be the highest ever. So be it. Trying to contort science, logic and general common sense so that you can knock out one more PVH is just spitting in the wind.
Wanna trim that audit? Work past 2:00 p.m. when the pandemic is done.
@9:50
ReplyDeleteYou can both listen to and take the advice of scientists seriously, and come to different reasonable conclusions about how we should move forward as a society re COVID. The advice of scientists is just one part of the greater picture. Scientific advice on COVID does not take into account impacts on the economy, social structure and relationships, due process considerations, personal choice, or anything else other than the cold science of infection rates and related metrics. For sure, adding these other non-science elements into the mix for making decisions is messy and imprecise, but it is not unreasonable. In fact, it is probably unreasonable NOT to consider these other factors. Maybe after considering these other factors we as a society decide to take a very hard-line COVID containment approach, or maybe a liberal acceptance of risk approach, or as, seems to be the case, we struggle clumsily with ever-adapting efforts at finding the Goldilocks in-between point. None of these is absolutely right or wrong. Your smugness suggests that you have a very narrow and unfortunate view of the world.
Captain Renault reports that Attorneys on list serve are ' Shocked ' that their mass emails to a group over a hundred are not kept secret.Why would anyone , especially a lawyer, think they have a reasonable presumption of privacy in a mass email ?
ReplyDeleteYet Rumpole allows anonymous posts by judges.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? They are the biggest yentas of all. Total gossips. And the worst part? They email me at my email address to discuss their anonymous comments. Then in public- when there was a public- they will make comments like "oh the blog, yeah I don't read it. Too many nasty comments and its just stupid" and meanwhile I am standing there as a lawyer not Rumpole having to keep a straight face about the boldface lie. This has happened over the years about a dozen times. Of course your comment Mr. Petruzzi shows a shocking ignorance about the comments section. I have NO ability to know who leaves an anonymous comment. My superior intelligence allows me to discern certain writing patterns where I can recognize the same writing style, but I have no idea who leaves anonymous comments. Ever. Be advised.
ReplyDeleteBTW we are closely monitoring the landing of Perseverance on Mars around 4pm EST.
ReplyDeleteLanding on Mars has been confirmed. First photos have already been received from Perseverance
ReplyDeleteHe’s an angry elf!
ReplyDeleteDear Rumpy and Captain,
ReplyDeleteDo tell me that you have NEVER posted an email from the FACDL list without written permission from the person who wrote it. Really!
You have blabbed over and over so, you would think everyone on the list would know that saying it on the list is saying it on this blog.
So, why do you need people to "stick up" for you?
Rumpole, I am totally on your side. By this time, lawyers (who download twitter feeds, text messages, etc., as evidence) surely should know that writing on the listserv is not "confidential" in any reliable sense,
ReplyDeleteThe listserv's hysterical comments about Mr. Cariglio's pvh hearing being mentioned in the Herald sounded like screams from a bunch of Victorian old maids. In truth, it is the failure of the defense bar to show personal courage or careful thought for their clients' welfare which is the chief result emerging from the issue of "zoom PVH hearings" and plans to re-start jury trials.
The net result, you can bet, is that any local defense lawyer who dared to suggest that, in his/her client's specific case, moving forward with a zoom hearing was in the client's interest, would be damned and condemned by supposed colleagues.
In fact, there can be little doubt that at least some defendants would not object to a zoom hearing, if only to get it over with, so as to either get vindicated, obtain an extension, or get transported to a prison from the crowded jails. What happens to them, if their lawyers aren't adaptable, courageous, etc.? We are LAWYERS: we are supposed to think inside/outside/under/over the box, not hide out, waiting for "the listserv" to give us permission.