YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WIORK

THIS IS BIG NEWS.

So big, that we're just soooo excited. Or....hmmm...how can we put this?

We're all atwitter at this exciting news. ( Steady now)

The 11th Judicial Circuit....our lovable Judiciary.... IS ON TWITTER!!!!!

Yes, if you just can't get enough of your favourite robed reader in court, now you can follow their musings on Twitter.

We know you can't wait, so click here, and sign up for the 11th Judicial Circuit Twitters!!!

AND EVEN MORE GREAT NEWS.....

We we're just overjoyed to learn that the Clerk's Office has a new and improved website.

Check it out here.

We have just a couple of small problems:

Under "Top Searches" is listed "Criminal and Civil Infractions".

The plain english of the website (top searches) and the link (criminal and civil infractions) is such that an unsophisticated user would be led to believe that looking for criminal infractions or civil infractions was a top search on the site.

Instead, the link actually takes you to the part that criminal practitioners use most- search for FELONY cases (not infractions).

This needs to be cleaned up. A simpler interface might say "Search Criminal Felony Cases" for example.

In fact, when you click on the link that says "Criminal" under "Courts and Records" there is no interface to run a case number. Most family members of clients will probably be diverted away from where they want to go (running a case number to see the next date) and directed to the "Criminal" link which gives some basic information like how to get your case expunged and your bond back. And that's putting the cart before the horse if you ask us.

All in all, we give Clerk Harvey Ruvin and his merry band of bureaucrats a strong "gentleman's C" for his new and improved website. Better....but still a long way to go.

ELECTION PUN:

If current trends hold and Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas wins the Democratic Primary and upsets the challenger everyone was predicting would win- Lt. Governor Bill Halter, will the headlines read "Lincoln removes Halter" ???

See You In Court, all Atwitter over the exciting news.

SOUTHERN JUSTICE AND THE TOOTH FAIRY

ONE NIGHT ONLY. Tonight. At the Miami Historical Museum at 101 West Flagler Street.

A New President parades down Biscayne Boulevard, while nearby an assassin squints and aims his gun. A shot rings out. A man crumples to the ground fatally wounded.

The 11th Circuit Historical Society presents The Five Weeks Of Giuseppe Zangara.

The five weeks refers to the time between the attempted assassination of President Roosevelt, and Zangara’s execution. Author Blaise Pichi will be present for a book signing as the 11th Circuit Historical Society kicks off an exciting season of events.


Rick Freedman, ever the eternal optimist, writes in defense of the clerk’s office:


rick freedman said...
Rumpole:
This is not the first time I have had to provide you with accurate information; (ie the interpreter column).
According to the Clerk's office, (I spoke with them today), Director of the Division in charge of those that work the windows on the 9th floor, both for the public as well as for the attorneys, probation officers, etc., the procedures for obtaining a file and viewing the file WILL return to normal on either Friday or Monday. It is true that the office was undergoing a makeover and that this makeover did cause an inconvenience for the attorneys, but it is NOT a permanent fixture.
Also, I spoke with the Clerk about their policies reference waiting times. I received a commitment from this person that, once the regular system is back in place, that if there are more than three people waiting for assistance in the attorney's window line, that a second clerk should come over and assist the other clerk at the window. If you continue to encounter this problem, and do not see a change in the speed and efficiency of the clerks, please let me know and I will talk to them again.



Rumpole replies: My dear Mr. Freedman, your misplaced faith in the clerk’s office mirrors your faith in the Jaguars (now we’re even for that shot you took about this not being the first time you have to set us straight.)

Rumpole is sorry to inform you that there is no Santa Claus. There is no Easter Bunny. And there is a snowball’s chance in hell of the Clerk’s office efficiently and promptly assisting attorneys in obtaining files to review. I assure you that I did indeed inquire as to why, having trekked down the hallway, I was given a form to request a file and told I had to walk back down the hallway to turn it in, and then walk back down the hallway to see if I won the lottery and my file was available. And I swear it is true that when I asked the clerk in the attorneys room why he could no longer go get files, I was met by a blank stare and then the comment : “We just painted this room” as if that clerkian logic explained why it was necessary to race up and down the hallways like a rat in a maze (no smart comments please) only to be told there was no cheese.

You want to believe their bureaucratic propaganda? Go right ahead. From someone who on a weekly basis waits in that interminable line while the clerk’s disappear for ten and twenty minutes at a time only to return with a smirk to say “the file is out”, we are just a bit less optimistic than you are.


SOUTHERN JUSTICE 2007

You have heard the STORY
by now. Some African American students at a Louisiana high school decide to “sit on the white side” of a meeting area at the school. White students responded by putting nooses in the trees. The African American students got upset, a fight broke out, and six young black men sit accused of attempted murder and face decades in prison, while the noose builders go on with their studies.

Today in Jena, Louisiana, hundreds if not thousands will descend on this small backward town to protest the treatment of these young men.

Violence begets violence. Does Rumpole support these young men’s actions in initiating physical violence ( if that is what they did)? The answer is no. Nor does Rumpole support hanging nooses in trees.

The answer is so simple it is right in front of their racists noses.

This happened at a school. These are kids. And they need to be taught. The white students and black students need to be brought together in a class. The white students need to write essays on southern lynchings. The black students need to write essays on Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violence. Instead of throwing the book at these kids, some enlightened educators need to see this as a chance to plant ideas that can turn these kids into productive citizens.


See You In Court, helping to explain to Mr. Freedman why there is no tooth fairy.

TAKE A NUMBER

Longtime and careful readers of the blog may remember when we commented on the efficient system the clerk's office has for retrieving files so that attorneys may review them. Who among us has not been in court and received a lecture from a Judge about how when s/he was a lawyer they always pulled every file they were handling from the clerk's office once a week?

At the time we reminded everyone of the procedure as it then existed:

1)Go to your local library and obtain a copy of War and Peace and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
2) Go to the REGJB and proceed to the 9th floor and head to the attorneys room. If you're in luck, there are only two people ahead of you.
3) Open War and Peace.
4) By the time you are half way done, the clerk will have efficiently handled the two people ahead of you and pleasantly inquire how they can help you.
5) Give the clerk the case number of the file you wish to review. The clerk will type something into a computer, squint as if the reply is in ancient Korean, and leave.
6) Finish War and Peace and begin Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
7) The Clerk will return to inform you that the file is "out". Who knew that files had a better social life than most lawyers in the REGJB? These files get around, and probably the one place on earth they will not be is on the shelf in the clerk's office.

From a recent NY Times article: "Nato Forces stopped a Taliban convoy on the Kabul-Jalabadad Road today and found a cache of weapons and several felony files belonging to a division of criminal court in Miami presided over by a 'Judge Firtel'. Authorities were investigating how the Taliban obtained the weapons."

8) Rinse and repeat.

Now however, things have gotten weirder.

After several emails and complaints from alert readers, we have pieced together this information:

The powers that be have decided to put up a fresh coat of paint and some new furniture in the attorneys room of the REGJB. However, this has created some unknown force field which now prevents clerks who are assigned to that room from leaving to get files. Clerks not currently entrapped in the force field can enter and leave at will. But clerks in the attorney room cannot currently leave the room, necessitating aid in the form of supply drops by air from the aforementioned NATO troops who keep finding our files in Afghanistan.

This is 100% true: If you now go to the attorneys' room on the 9th floor you will be greeted by fresh paint and a helpful clerk, who will inform you that you can look at the files in the room, but you cannot request the files from the room. This is because of the aforementioned force field.

Here is how it goes:

Rumpole: I'd like to see a file please.

Clerk: Great. Just fill out this form, walk back down the hall to room 9000, wait in that long line with the rest of the sweating and lost masses, and hand in your file request form. Then the clerk will go get the file and you need to come back here to review it.

Rumpole: Huh?

Clerk: Great. Just fill out this form...

Rumpole: I heard you. I just don't understand. Why can't you go get the files? I can see some right over your shoulder, right there, about twenty feet away?

Clerk: Sir! We have remodeled this room!

Rumpole: Yesssss......I can see that. But why can't you just go get the file like you used to do all these years? I have my books with me right here.

Clerk: We can't leave here to get the file. You have to go to room 9000 and the clerk there will get the file and bring it here.

Rumpole: So they can enter and leave the force field area, but you are stuck?

Clerk: By jove I think you've got it!


So there you have it folks. The new and improved system for reviewing felony files.

See You In Court, and on some long hopeless line on the 9th floor. I'm the guy reading War and Peace. Again.