EIGHT NEW JUDGES COMING TO A COURTROOM NEAR YOU .....

BREAKING SATURDAY AFTERNOON: JUDGE KAVANAUGH CONFIRMED TO US SUPREME COURT IN 5-48 VOTE. Rumpole not to be nominated to fill Kavanaugh's seat on DC Court of Appeals. 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS:

AND YOUR THREE NEWEST COUNTY COURT JUDGES ARE ......

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced the appointment of three new County Court judges to replace Judges Dawn V. Denaro, Andrea Ricker Wolfson, and Renatha S. Francis; all three were previously promoted to the Circuit Court.

JUDGE CHRISTINE BANDIN, age 39, currently a partner with Shutts and Bowen. She has been a member of The Florida Bar for 11 years. She currently handles the defense of class action and mass litigation cases for them. She replaces Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson

JUDGE RAUL CUERVO, age 63, currently a shareholder at Carlton, Fields, Jorden, Burt. He has been a member of The Florida Bar for 33 years. He currently handled the defense of insurance claims, class action suits, and commercial litigation cases. He replaces Judge Renatha Francis.

JUDGE LUIS PEREZ-MEDINA, age 58, currently an ASA at Miami-Dade’s State Attorney’s Office. He has been a member of The Florida Bar for 12 years and has worked at the SAO for his entire career. He ran for an open Circuit Court seat in 2016 in a four way race coming in second place in the primary. In the general election run-off he lost a close contest to Judge Mark Blumstein, 51%-49%. He fills the vacancy created by Judge Dawn Denaro.


SO, YOU WANT TO BE A JUDGE .....

3^RD DCA & CIRCUIT COURT & COUNTY COURT .....

THIRD DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL:

Chief Judge Leslie Rothenberg and Judge Richard Suarez are resigning from the 3^rd DCA. As a result, the 3^rd DCA JNC is accepting applications for their replacements.

If you carefully watched the shenanigans that took place in 2016 with President Obama’s nomination of Merritt Garland to the then open Scalia seat, a nomination that was never even considered by the Senate’s Judiciary Committee for nearly a year, then you need to also think about these two open seats on the 3^rd DCA.

Over the next three months, despite the fact that Rick Scott is a lame duck Governor, he will likely appoint, or attempt to appoint a number of judges on the County Court, Circuit Court, DCAs, and yes, three open seats that will be on the Florida Supreme Court.

The 3^rd DCA JNC has provided only 19 days for applications to be submitted for the two open seats. The deadline is October 15^th. The Interviews are scheduled to take place the following week, on October 22-23. That means that Governor Scott should be receiving the finalists names on his desk on the evening of October 23, 2018. The Governor then has 60 days to choose the two replacements, with a deadline of December 22^nd.  Compare this to past history of DCA appointments by Scott and you notice that this particular appointment process has been expedited by approximately fourteen days; exactly the amount of days Scott will have remaining as Governor.   

So, in his final two weeks in office, Scott would likely be choosing the two new 3^rd DCA judges, despite the fact that, by then the Governor-Elect will have been known for a full 46 days.

CIRCUIT COURT:

With the resignation of Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, (she is now the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida), Governor Scott also gets to name her replacement. Surprisingly, only ten applied for her seat. Those ten names were considered by the JNC and they have elected to interview two, consider four others who have already been recently interviewed, and not consider four others.

WILL BE INTERVIEWED ON 10/9/18:

DiRaimondo, Christina Marie
Guzman, Carlos

WILL BE CONSIDERED WITHOUT THE NEED FOR AN INTERVIEW:

Altfield, William I.
Bokor, Alexander S.
Brinkley, Tanya J.
Perez-Medina, Luis

WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED:

Barton King, Michelle
Guitian Barker, Maria A.
Cabarga, Carmen R.
Perkins, Joseph

The finalists’ names will likely reach Governor Scott’s desk on the evening of October 9, 2018 with a deadline to name Judge Fajardo Orshan’s replacement of December 8, 2018; again, a full month after the Gubernatorial Election of 2018.

With the resignation of Judge Stephen Millan, the JNC interviewed seven applicants for the open Circuit Court seat including: William Altfield, Alexander Bokor, Tanya Brinkley, Ayana Harris, Gordon Murray, Jorge Perez, and Luis Perez-Medina.

The following names have been sent to Governor Scott:

Judge William Altfield
Judge Alexander Bokor
Judge Tanya Brinkley
Ayana Harris
Luis Perez-Medina

COUNTY COURT:

With the retirement of Judge Wendell Graham, the JNC interviewed one applicant for the open County Court seat: Ariel Rodriguez. They also considered all those applicants that were interviewed for the Denaro, Wolfson, and Francis vacancies.

The following names have been sent to Governor Scott:

Julie Harris Nelson
Jonathan Meltz
Gavin N.L. White

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

HERE COMES THE JUDGE .......FIVE NEW JUDGES .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A JUDGE .....

BREAKING - WE UPDATED THE POST BELOW BY PLACING AN *** NEXT TO THE NAMES BEING SENT TO GOVERNOR SCOTT.  18 OF THE 26 ATTORNEYS THAT WERE INTERVIEWED HAVE BEEN FORWARDED TO THE GOVERNOR; (6 NAMES PER OPEN SEAT).

It may be hot and muggy outside, and if you’re lucky enough to be Horace Rumpole, you may be able to afford a vacation "down under", but the rest of us are busy back in the Magic City working the corridors of the GJB. And, the 11^th Circuit JNC is also busy, really, really busy.

As you may recall, Governor Scott came a-calling for three Circuit Court Judges recently and he tapped Judges Dawn Denaro, Andrea Wolfson, and Renatha Francis, all of the County Court. That means the JNC needs three new County Court Judges and they aim to narrow the list on Thursday, August 9, 2018 when they will interview 26 candidates (out of the 31 that applied). Those being interviewed include:

9:00 Abreu, Milena (currently a candidate for judge)***
9:15 Bandin, Christine  ***
9:30 Barket, Michael (currently a candidate for judge)
9:45 Brown, Karl St. Hope  ***
10:00 Cabarga, Carmen R. 
10:15 Chamorro, Miguel J. 
10:30 Cuervo, Raul A.  ***
10:45 D’Arce, Madelin 
11:15 Delancy, Michelle  ***
11:30 Giordano Hansen, Marcia  ***
11:45 Gitchev Guerrero, Brenda  ***
12:00 Harris, Ayana  ***
12:15 Harris Nelson, Julie 
1:00 Heller Peter S. ***
1:15 Hillery, Kimberly C.
1:30 Janowitz, Scott ***
1:45 Jean, Lody ***
2:00 Kolokoff, Jeffrey M. ***
2:15 Meltz, Jonathan
2:45 Mena, Griska ***
3:00 Perez-Medina, Luis ***
3:15 Pracitto, Christopher (currently a candidate for judge) ***
3:30 Reboso, Manolo ***
3:45 Silver, Stephanie ***
4:00 Torrents Greenwood, Blanca ***
4:15 White, Gavin N. L

Fear not fellow barristers, for if you missed out on applying for one of these three openings, Judge Wendell Graham has announced his retirement after proudly serving for the past 24 years on the County Court bench. 
 
Wendell Graham began his career serving our community when he joined Janet Reno’s office in 1983. After spending five years there, he spent the next six years as a solo practitioner while also serving as a Traffic Magistrate and a Hearing Officer for the Dade County Public School system. In 1994, Governor Lawton Chiles tapped him to become a County Court Judge. Graham last won re-election in 2016 when he defeated Antonio Jimenez garnering 57% of the vote.

We want to take a moment to thank you Judge Graham for your service to the citizens of our community and to our great State of Florida. I’ve personally known Wendell for more than 30 years and he has always been so kind who all that ever came into contact with him. You never saw Judge Graham raise his voice to anyone appearing in his Court before him. He displayed the type of judicial demeanor we would hope for in all of our judges. I spoke recently to Judge Graham and he has indicated to me that his last day on the bench is scheduled for August 31^st. He has decided to return to private practice. He tells me that "he is extremely excited about this opportunity".

Please take a moment and join me as we wish him well in his next chapter of serving our community.

APPLICATION DEADLINE AUGUST 10^th .....

Those that would like to file an application with the JNC to replace Judge Graham have until tomorrow to get that done.

But wait, there’s one more open seat on the bench. As many of our readers will also recall, Judge Stephen Millan recently resigned his seat on the Circuit Court bench. The deadline to file an application to replace Judge Millan is also August 10^th.

EARLY VOTING BEGINS ON MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018

Look for our post on Monday as we review the ballot for the eight contested Circuit and County Court races.

Also on Monday, Governor Scott versus The Florida Supreme Court - The Battle for the Fourth Circuit Bench

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

GOV. SCOTT APPOINTS THREE NEW CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES .......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS:

AND YOUR THREE NEWEST CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES ARE ......

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced the appointment of three new Circuit Court judges to replace Judges Bagley, Marin, and Zabel.

JUDGE DAWN DENARO. She has been a member of The Florida Bar for 25 years. She is a former ASA (18 years) and current County Court Judge. She was first appointed by Scott in 2011 to the County Court. She was elected in 2012 without opposition and was up for re-election this year. She again drew no opposition. She fills the vacancy created when Judge Jerald Bagley resigned.

JUDGE ANDREA RICKER WOLFSON. She has been a member of The Florida Bar for 17 years. She is a former ASA (9 years) and current County Court Judge. She was first appointed by Governor Crist in 2010 to the County Court. She was elected in 2012 when she defeated Greer Elaine Wallace. She was up for re-election this year and she drew no opposition. She fills the vacancy created when Judge Antonio Marin resigned.

JUDGE RENATHA FRANCIS. She has been a member of The Florida Bar for 7 years. She previously worked as a staff attorney for the First DCA and then as an associate at Shutts & Bowen. She was first appointed by Governor Scott to the County Court only ten months ago, on August 14, 2017. She has not had to face the voters. She fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Sarah Zabel.  I believe Francis becomes the first Jamaican born Circuit Court Judge in Miami-Dade County and she will be the only black female to currently serve on the County's Circuit Court bench; (with the retirement of Judge Teretha Thomas, County Court Judge Tanya Brinkley becomes the only other black female judge in the County out of 123 judges).

This all means that the JNC will be hard at work over the next couple of months as this now opens up three more seats on the County Court bench.

Interesting side note: There were ten names sent to the Governor by the JNC to replace Judges Bagley and Marin. Those appointments were scheduled to take place this week. Of the seven not selected, all of the names (except one) that were sent up just two weeks ago to replace Judge Zabel were identical to those sent up to replace Bagley and Marin. The one new name sent to Scott: Renatha Francis.

Those who will have to try again include: Judges William Altfield, Alexander Bokor, Tanya Brinkley, and Carlos M. Guzman, and attorneys Ayana N. Harris, Julie Harris Nelson, and Luis Perez-Medina. (Carlos Lopez’ name was also sent up but he won election to the Circuit Court when nobody filed to run against him last month).

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