TWO NEW JUDGES IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY .......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS

AND YOUR TWO NEWEST JUDGES ARE .....

JUDGE LAURA GONZALEZ-MARQUES

Judge Gonzalez-Marques moves from the County Court bench to Circuit Court. She became a member of The Florida Bar in 2009. She worked with the law firm of Kobre & Kim until her appointment by Gov DeSantis to the County Court in September of 2021. In less than two years she takes over for Judge Michael Hanzman who resigned earlier this year.

JUDGE RITA CUERVO (aka Ritamaria Gonzalez Cuervo)

Judge Cuervo has been a member of The Florida Bar since 2005. She has been an associate with the law firm of Andrews Biernacki Davis since 2018. There she primarily handles PIP and insurance defense cases. She began her career as an APD in Miami-Dade County. She now moves to the County Court bench taking the seat previously occupied by Judge Fred Seraphin who retired earlier this year.

Happy (and surprised) to see the appointment of Ms. Cuervo. To date, Gov DeSantis has been in office for four years and seven months. In that time, he has made 230 judicial appointments. Of those 230, a staggering 147 were at one time an ASA, AUSA, or AAG (64%). Compare that to a total of 13 of 230 that were either an APD or AFPD (5%). Even more shocking, of the 230 appointments, 78 moved directly from the office of ASA, AUSA, or AAG to the bench (34%) compared to a whopping two (2) who came directly from the public defense side; one was an APD and the other was an AFPD (.008%).

IN OTHER NEWS .......

Gov. DeSantis appoints three to the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force.  

The three appointments include Brian Butler, Berny Jacques, and Antony Lee. Butler, President and CEO of JCB Construction was quoted as saying as to his successful career in the construction industry: “I owe it all to my great granddaddy who learned the construction trade as a slave working on a plantation in Georgia. But for him, I may have never gotten into the construction industry”.***

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

***The quoted section is what we call a joke.

HANZMAN RESIGNS!!

 

BREAKING!!

Long rumored in the comments section of the blog, where rumor is currency, and juicy rumors are like cyypto-up and down-  Judge Michael Hanzman, fresh off of a remarkable handling of the Sunny Isles building collapse tragedy, has RESIGNED from the Miami Dade Circuit Court bench. 

This is a loss for our judiciary and our community. 

WE HAVE A NEW PM AND HANZMAN AND COLBY MAKE THE NY TIMES

 The world's oldest democracy, and perhaps its best, has a new Prime Minister- Liz Truss- England's third female leader.  Truss will pick up Tuesday where PM Boris Johnson leaves off. A dedicated Brexiter and Conservative, she will travel to Scotland to meet the Queen, who will formally ask her to form a government. The Queen has met every PM since Churchill, but this will be the first time the Queen has met a Minister of Parliament outside of London and asked them to form a government.  The Queen is in Scotland for the summer and the 96-year-old monarch has some mobility issues, as the Palace discretely refers to her age-related challenges.

Truss has had a long and winding road to becoming PM. She was the foreign secretary before winning election, so she is well known to world leaders. But as a young woman she was a Liberal Democrat. Even after joining the Conservative party, she was staunchly an anti-Brexit European Union supporter ...until she wasn't. Which brings to mind a few Churchillian bon mots of wisdom: "Those that don't change their minds never change anything", and "A person who isn't a liberal in their youth has no heart. A person who isn't a conservative in their middle age has no brain." 

We supported former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, but alas neither he nor we prevailed. 

THE HANZMAN METHOD

Closer to home, the praise for the handling of the Surfside Building collapse continues to generate praise. The NY Times weighed in with a very flattering profiled of Judge Michael Hanzman, which included the quote from Judge Jon Colby that the survivors received "personalized justice."

Miami has a lot to be proud of in the way this case was handled and settled. It was done quickly; hard work uncovered several hundred million dollars of coverage that was not readily apparent at the outset of the case; and law firms were cajoled into relinquishing their normal 33-44% fee structure for recovery. It may be a road map for how the legal system handles future mass-tort disasters. Kudos to the Judges and the law firms who handled the case. It was very much a collaborative effort. First among the groundbreaking way this case was handled, was the speed in which it was resolved. 

 Ask just about any litigant in a case what the most frustrating part of the legal system is for them, and they will respond that it takes too long. There is no closure. Some of the problem lies with the new economics of the law. More lawyers means more competition which means lower fees which means lawyers take more cases to generate the fees needed to run a law firm which means cases move slower. 

Couple that with the overbooked dockets and inability to get a hearing within six months of filing a motion in civil court, and you have a court system not responsive to the needs of the public it serves. 

But maybe there is a flip side to that never ending downward spiral of the length of cases. And that is the quicker the case moves, the less time it takes, the less hours lawyers have to put in, and thus the lower the fees.  Call it the ....Hanzman Method???

Has a nice ring to it. 

One thing is for sure, Judge Hanzman can expect to be consulted by Judges across the country the next time one of these unfortunate tragedies hits the legal system. 

Summer is officially over- now comes the sprint of trials and hearings until Thanksgiving. Slow and steady wins the race. Well, maybe with the Hanzman Method, quick and steady will be the new normal. 

HANZMAN ON ZOOM

He was one of the premier civil lawyers, specializing in complex litigation and class action lawsuits. so naturally when he took the circuit bench he immediately went to  Dependency Court, dealing with the toughest family issues involving children. Now in the complex civil litigation division, where he is handling the Miami building collapse case, Judge Michael Hanzman gave an interview to the DBR the other day, where he spoke on the virtues of Zoom. His comments, coming from a successful civil practitioner, are not to be overlooked, but surely will, by the less capable, less tech savvy, and more insecure judges who need lawyers to prostrate themselves before them in court in person.

From The Daily Business Review this week:

"And as far as the coronavirus pandemic, he said the one silver lining has been the state court’s adoption of technology that makes it easier for practicing attorneys. As a result, in the future, the circuit judge said he is not planning to require attorneys to devote several hours to driving downtown, paying $20 to park, and waiting outside of the courtroom for their client’s 10-minute hearing.

“I’m going to continue to have most non-evidentiary hearings, particularly ones that are not complicated and raised relatively straightforward issues, handled remotely,” Hanzman said, “so lawyers can stay at their home or office or wherever they want to be.”

Simply said. Simply correct. 

COMPLEX BUSINESS KERFUFFLE

There is something in the civil court division that handles complex business cases. What could those be?  "Plaintiff sues defendant for failure to indemnify the debentured bonds issued on behalf of the party of the third part..."  Yawn...

In any event, in a decision that spilled on to the comments section of this blog for the past few posts, Judge Soto chose veteran Judges Betty Butchko and Will Thomas to fill two open spots in the complex division. Many of the comments opined that Judge Hanzman should have been selected. Judge Hanzman did indeed apply. A very successful litigator in private practice, Judge Hanzman joined the bench for all the right reasons and spent a considerable amount of time in what we consider to be THE toughest assignment for a circuit court judge: Dependency Court.

When Judge Hanzman was not selected for the complex business section, he asked to come to criminal court. His request was granted and we in the REGJB will be welcoming a premiere jurist and former top-notch litigator in 2017.

At some point during the comments, there were some misguided comments about Judge Hanzman's race, an issue that should not really occupy any important discussion. That being said, Judge Hanzman, who is caucasian, was thought to be African-American by some commentators. Eventually, Judge Hanzman had enough and posted this comment last week. His handling of the race issue was perfect- a humorous dismissal:

Michael Hanzman said...

This is Judge Hanzman. Please stop posting about business court. The Chief Judge picked two outstanding Judges who have been there longer than I have and who will do a great job. I practiced civil law my entire career and one of my goals in leaving and going on bench was to learn other areas and be exposed to different parts of our community. That is why I stayed in dependency for almost 5 years. And while I have enjoyed civil I never practiced or judged a criminal case and thought it would be an interesting new assignment. One of the benefits of our court system is the ability of Judges to be exposed to different areas of the law and this is an area I've never been exposed to. And because i have always aspired to be Federal Judge- and am considering applying- Judges who i admire and respect advised me that I should round out my experience by doing some criminal work. That is why I decided to transfer. And while i would have welcomed the opportunity to serve on our expanded business court the Chief Judge had many qualified applicants and made the choice she felt was best for the court. Her job is VERY difficult and often thankless and she does not deserve to be insulted for doing public service and working everyday to try and serve our system. If any bloggers feel they could do better join the court and contribute. Don't bitch from the sidelines. Finally, and as an aside- I'm not African American. Just a short white bald guy.

Friday, November 11, 2016 2:39:00 PM

  

We received some emails from some individuals purporting to be African-American who apparently want to invite Judge Hanzman to "join them". Now, first let us say that race is a sensitive subject. The African-American experience in this country, from slavery, to civil rights, to the current socioeconomic and racial issues that divide the country is no laughing matter. But in the spirit of this blog, we reprint some of the comments:

"Judge Hanzman, get yourself an ipod and download some Marvin Gaye, Donna Summer, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Jay Z, and Snoop Dog. Tune in, chill out, get your groove on, and there might be some hope for your bald-white-ass yet."

"Rumpole, if Hanzman will eat some collard greens, change his Sirius station to some soul, and read The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison as well as some Maya Angelou, then we would welcome him as an honorary brother. "

  

JUDGE MICHAEL HANZMAN

Michael Hanzman was appointed today as a Circuit Court Judge to fill the seat vacated by the death of Skip Gross.

Judge Hanzman, you have incredibly big shoes to fill.

Another near miss for a Judge who deserves promotion: Deborah White-Labora. Hopefully Judge White-Labora gets her well deserved promotion shortly.

Meanwhile attorney Richard Hersch returns to a private practice landscape radically changed by the availability of diversion for DUIs.

LOT 26 UPDATE:

It's summer time, and the parking's easy.

Many reports were emailed to us this morning about the stationing of a uniformed City Of Miami Official who was turning away FHP Troopers and officers in vehicles from several other departments. There was plenty of parking today at lot 26 and hopefully it will remain that way.

Query: To whom is thanks deserved on this contretemps?

SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU REALLY DEPRESSED:

The US spends 4 billion dollars a day more than it takes in.

See the article here.

See you in court, where there's always a nice parking spot available now.