Diary of a Mad Jurist.

Rumpole, I leave my diary for the moment to comment on the issues of the day.

Court Appointments. The system seems destined to fail. I was impressed by statistics by JAC that indicated that fraud or over billing was a concern in less than one percent of the bills. It also seems that the second PD office for Dade and Monroe, in which the lawyers will also have to cover juvenile cases, is woefully underfunded.

Forget for the moment the issue of capital cases. You have written in the past about the cases just below the level of death penalty cases: those serious cases which upon conviction merit a long prison sentence, but because they are not death penalty cases, they do not get the money or publicity. You are 100% correct about that. That is the area where a tragedy is most likely to occur. Is it really less of a tragedy if we lock an innocent man in prison for the rest of life? For every death penalty case, there are hundreds of cases where people face long or life prison sentences. If we're going to spend money to give people a fair trial, this is where the majority of money should go.

I read Judge Carney's (a judge from Broward) letter to the Herald the other day and it was right on point. I know you do not care for my colleagues "North Of the Border" but they do not have a problem up there. Florida has a great system for educating and training judges, and Broward is just like the client who never speeds and then gets three speeding tickets in three months. It is not indicative of a problem.

Final point. We are thankfully past the swearing in season. All the new Judges have been sworn in. Here is an open secret- many of my colleagues do not attend the ceremony for a new judge who won an election against a sitting judge. It is popular these days to call our seats "the peoples' seat" and yet when some lawyer tests that theory and wins an election, many judges do not attend their swearing in ceremony. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this. I do know that when a new judge looks out and sees 10-15 open seats where the Judges sit, it hurts them, and this is not good.

Anyway, thanks as always for the space. By the way, I like the moderation. I don't know how you have the time to get the comments up so quick (if you are just one person, and I have my suspicions) but I think moderation adds value to the blog and makes the reading of it more enjoyable. Those stupid and nasty comments have no place in something that you obviously work hard on. And I can tell you that many of my colleagues enjoy your blog as well, although I will not spill any secrets as to whether they read it during voire dire . Keep up the good work.


Rumpole says: Thanks for the kind words and the post. You are our favourite anonymous Judge (if in fact you are a judge) and many lawyers have emailed me to tell me how much they like your posts.

See You In Court Monday.

DIARY OF A MAD JURIST. III.

Judicial Conference Nonsense.

OK, here I am at a Judicial Conference at the same Hotel in Orlando. Its either Orlando, Tallahassee, or Jacksonville for these things. Sometimes Naples, which can be nice.

The same old Judges, with the same old jokes.

Here we go…calling the 11th Circuit the Republic of Miami….hahaha..nope…another cracker is calling us the 11th Judicial Circus…haven’t heard that one but 100 times at these affairs. Yup, we’re the Judges of Miami…we don’t put people in jail for 10 years for possession of cocaine for a first offense. Yeah we grant a motion to suppress every now and then….umm…the fourteenth amendment makes the US Constitution’s guarantees applicable to the State of Florida. Might be nice if that was ever discussed at a conference.

It’s true we don’t have too many Judges here named Robert E Lee or John Wilkes Booth, and we probably have more Jewish and Hispanic Judges than the rest of the state combined, but we seem to manage just fine thank you.

Here’s a dilemma- the bar tonight with the same old coots …or room service with the same rubbery steak. They wouldn’t know picadillo from a Ruben Sandwich in these parts.

That’s kind of the nice thing about my colleagues in Miami. A group of Hispanic Judges will get together for lunch at Jerry’s Deli, while a group of Jewish Judges will driver over to Isle De Canarias.


I remember when Judge Kahn used to hold cooking contests in the Justice Building. One month it would be best Lasagna, the next month best Cheesecake. We don’t have that kind of congeniality any more. It’s more cliquish, which is inevitable with the larger number of Judges. We have Judges now who I remember as CLI’s at the State or PD’s office. Kind of scary. They seem nice, but how much experience can they really have?

In every generation there is great…good and mediocre. I guess I have no right to complain. We had Judge Scott and Judge Cowart…. But we also had a bunch of hacks who couldn’t make it in private practice…so the more things change the more they remain the same.


[I have obviously incorporated some older diary notes about a Judicial Conference with more current events].

We have this major murder trial from Orange County. Jessica Lundsford. The trouble with this job is that sometimes we see the absolute worst of human nature. That poor girl. Her poor family.

I remember when Cowart had the Bundy case. That was a big deal. He was some Judge. I used to love to watch him handle difficult lawyers. “Why bless your soul” he’d say when an attorney objected, and the case went right on. Those records on appeal were a scream. But he was patient, and smart, and wise. And there is a difference between being smart and wise. Many of my colleagues are plenty smart. Less of them are wise.

I pray every day for the wisdom to do the right thing, and the humility to remember that I am only human and so long as I do my best, sometimes that’s good enough. The real problem with this job- the real agony that no one can ever know until they have sat in my seat, is when you try your best and fail. So many things can go wrong when I’m wrong. That’s why I have trouble sleeping at night.

Anyway Rumpole, that’s enough for this week.

And I hope you feel better. Try green tea. Anti-oxidants and all that.

DIARY OF A MAD JURIST II

We received this anonymous email:

Rumpole,

It's been a difficult week and I have not had the time to fully review my diary and create a post for your Sunday readers. Sorry. But I'm the Judge, so I don't have to give excuses, right?
However, I jotted down these brief notes to give your readers an idea where my thoughts were recently.


It's a quiet Tuesday morning. Thank goodness. What was that? Did that PD just flirt with me? I swear it's happened before. Lets see: 15,20,22, good lord, I'm more than 25 years older than that PD. Oh, that would be a good one. I can just see the headline in the Herald now. "Judge mauls PD in Chambers, sentences client to prison." Of course there might be Oprah, a confessional episode of sorts. The problem is, I don't have an alcohol or drug problem. Nothing to blame this on except...human nature. Ha! What kind of defense is that? I'd hang.

Lets see....10 minutes of pleasure (ok...maybe 5) versus ruining a career, losing my pension, shame; will have to hire an attorney for the bar complaint. Forget the JQC. I'd give that up. It's keeping my ticket that I'd fight for.

You see, if people could just go through that analysis before jumping into something they shouldn't, I'd have a lot less work here in criminal court.

Well, let them have their fun. Maybe they will stop filing these stupid motions. Here's a thought: "Judge, we have no valid motions. Let's just go to trial." I think I might topple off the bench if that happened. What is it about the training of lawyers that makes them think that they have to challenge every small detail? Granted, there are times for that. But some of the best lawyers I know are honest and forthright and don't stand in front of me, trying- not very successfully- to convince me that they honestly believe I should ignore a few decades of case law.

You know what really gets my goat? These Judges who offer to try my cases for me. "Hey. I can handle my calendar and case load. Stop sucking up. These guys were probably the milk monitors in grade school. They were probably the same ones that volunteered to run the AV equipment. They probably sat in the front row of law school and raised their damn hand every minute, when they were not busy volunteering to work on some pro bono case with a professor they were sucking up to.

Here's to the back row of life! Those of us who just did what we had to, tried our best, didn't suck up, and still managed to make something of ourselves.

Anyway, Rumpole, I enjoyed the response from last week, and I hope to have some more thoughtful comments in the future.