3rd DCA ROUNDUP

UPDATE JOEL BROWN SWORN IN AS CHIEF JUDGE TODAY!!!

Someone screwed up and we didn't get our invitation. Nevertheless the theme of his speech "We're not Broward" *  was quite a hit we hear.

It's hot out. Nobody wants to work. Seems like a good time for our 3rd DCA round-up:

Echevarria v. State: That sound you hear are the nails being driven into the appellate issues over preemptory strikes by the 3rd DCA in this short, sweet, and decidedly state oriented opinion:

Affirmed. See Knight v. State, 919 So. 2d 628, 632 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006) (“A

trial court’s determination that a peremptory strike is genuine, rather than

pretextual, ‘will be affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous.’” (quoting

Melborune v. State, 679 So. 2d 759, 764-65 (Fla. 1996))).

Judge Tony Marin joins the wall of fame for denying a 3.850 motion and attaching relevant portions of the record to refute the allegations of the defendant. Now how hard is that to do?

Well, it was too hard for Judge Reemberto Diaz, who gets into the hall of shame for his failure to do just that in Gonzalez v. State.

*that wasn't really the theme of his speech, but it should have been.

SEWAGE AND SLUDGE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE

Who among us hasn't at some time of frustration cursed our little courthouse as a "sewer" and some of its inhabitants as "sludge" ?

Be careful what you ask for....because now comes word courtesy of a DBR article that budget cuts have had the unintended effect of "bumping" workers from their regular jobs into our clerks' office.

So now we have workers from the Department of Water and Sewer transfered into the REGJB because their union contract requires that they be moved rather than laid off.

Court: The clerk will quash the warrant.

Clerk: Wash what?

Court: Estreat the bond.

Clerk: Under the street?

Court: Forget it, I'm taking a bathroom break.

Clerk: Oh, I fixed the leak and cleared the line. Just jiggle the handle after you flush.

Or something like that....

The article details serious problems like the reassignment of Demetrius Hadley- a fifteen year veteran who ran the complex docketing division and essentially insured that the trains ran on time and the cases were timely set on calendar.

Hadley was replaced with a more senior supervisor who has no experience in docketing.

How would you like it if, say, you were in a car accident and after having been rushed to JMH, a podiatrist was assigned to the ER because the trauma surgeon had been bumped by someone with a longer tenure at the hospital?

That in a nutshell (and that's an appropriate word) is what is happening at our clerk's office.

Clerks do a thankless job. We often ignore them when they do everything right (99.9% of the time) and loudly blame them when something is fouled up.

Get ready for the foul ups.

We don't want water and sewer employees handling a calendar any more than we want a calendar clerk working on our sewer line. That would be as nonsensical as say....a lawyer who spent a career in civil court becoming a judge and being assigned to criminal court.

We'd never let something as stupid as that happen. Right?

See you in court.

GOODBYE COURT REPORTERS (broward edition)

The DBR reports that court reporters are about to go the way of bond reductions North of the Border. The title of the post links to the article. The PDs and the SAO have agreed to stop using live court reporters and replace it with something called DepoTek.

This boondoggle charges $60.00 per hour to tape the deposition and then anywhere from $120.00 to $300.00 to transcribe 60 minutes of chatter. We don't see the real savings unless attorneys don't transcribe the depos. If the audio file could be downloaded, we guess an enterprising attorney with a laptop could do some damage at trial. But what do we know?

Judge Petersen:

There's been some real lively discussion on Judge Petersen speaking out about Judge Lederman's reign as chief judge at Juvenile. For our part we think it's refreshing for Judges to speak out against other Judges. This much is for sure: It is abhorrent to have a court system where Judges create atmospheres of fear and oppression.

But then again, without fear and oppression, not to mention "demands for rigid conformity and obedience" how would Broward continue to operate?

And finally, this is a pretty cool link to NASA that allows you to listen to various parts of the Apollo 11 Mission.

APOLLO 11 40TH ANNIVERSARY

UPDATE: Before we begin, Judge Tom Petersen reads the blog!!!

Judge Tom Petersen said...

Hey ! I enjoy the repartee and accept criticism but I am neither senile nor absent. I am 67 and sit in County Court Criminal.
Believe me, I get absolutely no pleasure of writing a letter like that but I believe it to be true and felt I had to say it.
Judge Tom Petersen

and

In response to my being uninvolved in Juvenile, I have been involved for 42 years, beginning as the first PD there after the Gault Decision in 1967. prosecutor, ten years as Judge and for the past 15 years administraor of the TROY Academy school and the Teen Cuisine restaurant/culinary arts training program, both of which I initiated in 1992, three years after becoming a Judge.I have been Adjunct Professor of Criminology at the UofM for almost 20 years.

Thanks for your comments.

Judge Tom Petersen

4o Years ago today Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully lifted off from the Moon (where Mission control cleared them as number 1 on the runway) and began their journey home fulfilling President Kennedy's commitment to landing on the Moon and returning safely before the decade was out.

It is worth remembering that when Kennedy committed this nation to a Moon landing (May 25, 1961) , NASA had a total of 16 minutes of manned space flight experience (Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight).

We had no idea about things like the ability of humans to survive a lengthy space flight.

Most of the equipment, technology and theories needed to get to the moon were not even invented, much less contemplated.

There are things you know. There are things you don't know. And there are things you don't know you don't know. Apollo 11 involved discovering, learning, and mastering hundreds of thousands of things we didn't know we didn't know in 1961. And we did it in a little over 8 years.

Think about it. We as a human race reached to the stars and touched one of them.

We wrote yesterday that Apollo 11 remained the high water mark for our country. That is saying a lot. More than the battle fields of the Ardennes. More than the beaches of Normandy. More than flight itself or conquering Polio, Apollo 11 remains the ultimate proof of the greatness of our country.

It should be no surprise that the first nation dedicated to the principle that people are equal and free to develop the best within them, was the first and only nation to develop the technology to land on the Moon.

40 years ago today three Americans began their great journey home.

The safe return of Collins, Aldrin and Armstrong represented the triumph of reason, genius, and the kind of dedicated hard work that only free people willingly perform.

This indeed was our finest hour.

FEAR AND OPPRESSION IN JUVENILE COURT

Update: Today, July 20 marks the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the Moon. Walter Cronkite opined that the event perhaps relegated all other events of the 20th century to an asterisk.

The Apollo program remains the high water mark for our country.

We believe the comments by Judge Petersen re: Juvenile court should remain the topic for the day. We will reserve our thoughts on Apollo for tomorrow.

"DEMANDS FOR RIGID CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE".....

"UNREASONABLE AND ARBITRARY DICTATES"....

"AN ATMOSPHERE OF OPPRESSION"...

A Soviet Gulag? No.

President's Bush's White House? Not quite.

Broward? Perhaps, but not in this context.

No, those were the words of Retired Circuit Court Judge Tom Petersen on

the atmosphere in Juvenile Court engendered by ousted Chief Judge Cindy "The Tsar" Lederman.

Strong words from a very well respected member of the bench about a fellow wearer of the robe.

The title of the post links to Petersen's letter to the Herald.

Petersen said this about life under Lederman:

Unfortunately, she has done so while simultaneously creating an atmosphere of oppression and fear among those who work there. Many lawyers and judges, myself included, left the juvenile justice system rather than submit to her demands for rigid conformity and obedience to her sometimes quite unreasonable and arbitrary dictates.

Meanwhile, being immersed in dependency matters, Lederman left the delinquency side of the court to her assistant administrative judge. The result in delinquency has been years of lack of progress coupled with the same atmosphere of fear and oppression that has permeated the entire court.

3rd DCA ROUNDUP

"And that's the way it was....."

WALTER CRONKITE HAS DIED. NY Times obit here.

"To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past,...To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. ... It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."

Walter Cronkite, after having returned from Vietnam, on the CBS Evening News, February 27,1968.

BREAKING NEWS (courtesy of Mr. D.O. MarKus) the finalists for US Attorney include REGJB Judge Daryl Trawick!!! David Buckner and Willie Ferrer round out the list.

Another REGJB Judge makes the cut. Congratulations to Judge Trawick who has shown through his professionalism and competence on the bench that he would make a great US Attorney.

Our mostly weekly (and weakly) roundup of the opinions that matter most. (yawn).

Corley v. State: En Banc opinion on obscure area of sex bat victim injury points under 1991-1992 guidelines: "Acknowledging our fallibility, we today recede from this holding in Arroliga and belatedly join every other district court of appeal in the state which, for

Category 2 Sexual Offenses committed during the time period in question in this

case, see infra n.2, has required evidence of actual physical injury to assess victim

injury points. "

Rumpole says: "Acknowledging out fallibility?????!!!!!!"

Who's going to be the first Appellate lawyer with the cojones to use that language in a motion for re-hearing?

Slow week at the 3rd.

Can anyone get anything done in this heat? Judge Brown should show some initiative and shut court down for August except for arraignments.

See You In Court. Hot.

Once again, congrats to Judges Scola and Bagely for making the short list to replace Federal Judge Hurley. Two former Janet Reno ASAs still making good. Go get-em guys.

JEFFERSON , PALIN, AND FOOTBALL

BREAKING NEWS: sometime shortly after writing our choices for Federal Judge, the "short list" was announced: Judges Bagley and Scola and Fed PD Kathy Williams are the three finalists. Congratulations to all three! Glad to know the JNC reads our blog.

MarKus broke the shortlist story.

Before we begin, we highly recommend you go to the federal blog and read guest blogger Dore Louis's reporting on the interviews in Federal Court for the open slot. State court Judges Barzee, Bob Scola, and Bagely got rave reviews, as did Federal PD Kathy Williams.

Anyone of those four would be a great great choice.

Item: Two thirds of Republicans want (soon to be former) Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be a "major national political figure." This poll was conducted after Palin announced she was picking up her salmon and going home.

Longtime and careful readers of the blog know our admiration for the 40th President of the United States: one Ronald Wilson Reagan. Said readers also know the despair which we have felt watching the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt and Reagan (not to mention G H W Bush) descend into the mindless madness of right wing anti-intellectual religious leaders.

And now 2/3's of Republicans want to add the name "Palin" to Lincoln, Roosevelt, et.al. It's like adding the names Moe, Larry and Curly to the story of the Exodus in the bible. Actually, it's a lot worse. Moe could have conked the Pharaoh on the head while Curly danced around on one foot hooting and hollering. We can't think of anything constructive Palin could have done with Lincoln or Roosevelt.

The New Yorker Magazine, noting Palin resigned on July 3, and the Declaration Of Independence was signed the next day in 1776, had this observation on Palin's resignation:

Here's Jefferson on political change:

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Here is Palin on the same topic:

Government's supposed to serve from the bottom up and not move towards this top-down, big government takeover, but rather will be protectors of individual rights, who also have enough common sense to acknowledge when conditions have drastically changed, and they're willing to call an audible and pass the ball when it's time so the team can win.

You see, the problem is that two thirds of Republicans don't remember that in the almost forgotten Federalist paper #99, Jefferson was a staunch opponent of calling an audible and passing. He believed in a strong ground game. Indeed it was Jefferson who first noted that "when you pass the ball, three things can happen, two of them bad."

See you in court, where it's still hot, and unlike most judges, we're still wearing a tie.

JUDICIAL SHAKE-UP

"Some day we'll look back and this will all seem funny..."

Bruce Springsteen, Rosalita.

CJ Joel Brown (seated behind a desk) There are things being negotiated now that are gonna solve all your problems and answer all your questions. That's all I can tell you now... (then, to Orlando) Orlando, you worked in Juvenile. When we make our move there, you're gonna be my right- hand man. (then, to the group) Cindy's no longer Consiglieri -- She's gonna be our Judge in civil. That's no reflection on Cindy, but that's the way I want it. Langer..small potatoes. He's out too. George Sarduy will be helping Orlando.

As we understand it- Cindy Lederman is OUT as adminstrative Judge in Juvenile, and REGJB Circuit Judge Orlando Prescott is IN.

Lester Langer is OUT as associate administrative Judge in Juvenile... new Circuit Court sensation George Sarduy is IN.

What can Brown do for you? Plenty ...if you supported him.

SOLVE THE MYSTERY

WHO IS THE LAWYER WHO IS KICKING BACK FEES TO A BONDSMAN?

WHO IS THE BONDSMAN WHO SHOOK DOWN A DEFENDANT AND HIS/HER FAMILY IN THE CASE BEFORE JUDGE BUTCHKO?

We received this comment:

Anonymous said...

it is worse than u think, there are dozens of hustlers who sit on computers all night looking at the last 100 bookings in . when they find a likely prospect they call the family and try to hustle both a bail bond and attorney and get a kickback 30 to 50 % from the lawyer. worse is booking desk workers at the jail also have bondsmen and lawyers they refer to , as do the "house men" at the jail who control phone usage. There are even lieutenants , and captains in on it. Every single time I have gone to see a client charged with trafficking, the client has a business card of a certain long time prominent attorney who's name heads up a multi attorney Miami criminal defense firm. EVERY TIME over ten years, . this stuff is old hat. the only way to stop it is to shut off access to booking info, but the county refuses. by the way all defendants should have to go to a bond hearing, it could be 24 hours like ny. the bullshit cases will get ror;d and the really bad shit will be treated with more care,best of all the bondsmen will loose their advantage over lawyers, win, win, win

Sunday, July 12, 2009 9:00:00 AM

Does the SAO care about this? How about the Miami Dade Police Department?

The Feds?

Anybody besides us?

JEFFERSON CODE CRACKED

A very sad day. We are sad to report veteran Miami Police Captan Robert (Bobby) Yee (retired) was murdered at his job in security at a Boat Yard at the Miami River.

The Herald article is here.

Those of you who knew Captan Yee, knew he was as dedicated as they come.

Thanks to Bill Matthewman (who is quoted in the article) for the tip.

Rumpole's summer reading for this week: Street Fighters- The last 72 Hours of Bear Sterns. (A quick interesting read.)

Anna Karenina: because what is summer without Anna Karenina?

And what we're waiting for: Homer & Langley- By E. L. Doctorow

Just in time for the 4th of July! (or shortly thereafter)

When in due course of human events, it becomes apparent that a 208 year old presidential code needs to be cracked......

Fascinating WSJ article (the title links to the post) on solving a 208 year old mystery.

Longtime and careful readers of the blog may remember that from time to time we dabble in cryptology.

And nobody can think outside of the box and wonder why we have a "21" attached to our email address.

Well, maybe it won't take 208 years.

See You In Court?

And while we're perusing the WSJ, here's an article on the ol' My DNA Made me do it defense.

Comments?

And just because we're bored, here's an article on a Lawyer who was denied admission to the NY Bar because over the 26 years it took him to complete his education he ran up over 200,000 in school loans (which a collection agency quickly turned into $400,000) and the NY Court of appeals rejected the Bar committee's approval of his application for admission. The Bar said the applicant's persistence was "remarkable". The Court of Appeals found his failure to make any payments sufficient to deny him admission.

Comments?

THIS STINKS

UPDATE: Tonight on NBC Dateline- The REGJB.

Bruce Fleisher. Manny Casabielle.

Judge Stan Blake.

The Departed- the True Story-Miami style.

We as defense attorneys all know that the situation

detailed in the comment bellow happens every day.

Judges who were not in private practice and

prosecutors may not be as aware of what goes on.

This stinks. It happens every day and the police

and the prosectors do not lift one finger to stop it.

If we find and can verify the name of the bondsman

and the attorney who is kicking back fees to him,

we will put their pictures on the front page every day

until this gets resolved.

You think Shelly Schwartz was mad?

Anonymous said...

Another bondsman kickback story:

Tourist gets arrested for a minor third degree felony. Standard $5,000 bond. Bond runner somehow gets the telephone number for his mother out of state. Tells the mom that since her son resides out of state, he will sit in custody for at least a week and that he needs to be bonded out immediately, before he sees the bond hearing judge, who will likely increase the bond "as they do with all non-residents."

Panic ensues. Mom gives her credit card number to the runner, who charges the $2,500.00 ($500 for the premium and $2,000 for "collateral"). Son bonds out and goes to see the bondsman. Bondsman states tha son must go see Mr. X lawyer immediately and have him represent him. He does the visit. Son doesnt like lawyer X and doesnt hire him. Lawyer calls bondsman. Bondsman then calls son and says that if he does not hire Lawyer X, then he will surrender the bond and that son will lose the premium and the collateral. So, you can either hire the lawyer or kiss your $2,500 goodbye. Then, when son says Lawyer X is charging too much, bondsman says that he will tranfer the collateral he is holding as a down payment over to the lawyer. Wow, what a swell guy.

Son hires me instead. I, of course, will call the bondsman (out of courtesy) and Lawyer X to back off MY client or I will file a Motion to Review Bond in front of the Honorable Betty Butchko and detail this entire scenario via affidavit and witness testimony. Of course, for completeness, I would be compelled to name the bondsman, the runner and Lawyer X who resort to intimidation, lying and deceit all in the name of a few bucks. Oh, and isnt this stuff illegal as well?

Sorry for the rant, but this is about the 50th time I've heard this happening. Bondsman kickbacks have somehow become a "little REG building secret." Pretty sad.

Thursday, July 09, 2009 4:05:00 PM

CJ JUAN RAMIREZ

The 3rd DCA (Motto in criminal appeals: "PCA AFFIRMED!") has a new Chief Judge: Former Miami private practitioner and former Miami Circuit Court Judge Juan Ramirez.  Congratulations. 

Here's our request: less PCA's. If we're going to lose, tell us why. 

And now...on with the show.

JS v. State: shows all the reasons why it is entirely useless to interview a witness in the hallway outside of court prior to trial. 

Joseph v. State: Judge Tinkler Mendez (who has previously made the hall of fame) now is in the hall of shame for denying a post conviction motion without attaching portions of the record. 

DOUBLE Ditto for Judge Pinero in Francois v. State. 

and Blake v. State. 

State v. Head re-affirms the long standing rule that polygraphs are inadmissible unless both parties agree. Rumpole notes they will never unleash that Genie from the bottle as it will turn jurisprudence on it's "head". 

Young v. State- the 3rd recedes from  "some ill advised dicta in Gaskin v. State" and affirms the existence of Burglary with the underlying crime resisting without  violence. 

Rumpole says "thank you" to Judge Sheldon Schwartz and the traffic attorneys for giving us some lively discussion in the middle of the dog days of summer. 

A LAWYER ANSWERS JUDGE SCHWARTZ

Starting on July 1, the shadowy and murky world of traffic attorneys became subject of blog discussion, fueled primarily by Judge Shelly Schwartz's criticisms of the ticket firms and their use of contract lawyers in court. Yesterday we printed Schwartz's primary complaints. We had earlier received an email from an attorney who wanted a front page blog response. Before we get to that, we re-print one comment yesterday that appears to be a knowledgeable criticism of Judge Schwartz (he is of course invited to respond):

In driver license cases, most judges in the building impose the standard $358 court costs. Shelly adds $525 for a total of $883, plus $250-$500 fines plus court costs plus high risk 30-hour traffic school in companion infractions even when they are non-moving such as no license plate or license not carriend or exhibited. That's unconscionable and hurts mainly the poor pro se defendants because the represented defendants will not plead guilty at arraignment as the unrepresented usually do. Those defendants could pay outstanding tickets and reinstate their licenses with far less money than it takes to pay Shelly's fines.

An attorney who hovers on the edge of this miasma has asked to respond:

Judge Schwartz:

You are correct and you are incorrect and here's the inside scoop.

First: I am not a traffic lawyer. I am one step up the ladder. I have a primarily misdemeanor and felony business. I handle the county court cases the traffic firms don't (DUI, Reckless, LSA) and the felony cases they can't.

The traffic business evolved from the work of one attorney, and then another, and then another, until there were dozens of firms competing for the same $69.00 ticket. How lucrative can it be? One well known firm had 20,000 OPEN cases when I saw their audit in the end of 2008. You do the math.

Here's what happens: Client's get tickets. They don't want to go to court. They don't want to even go to the lawyer's office. If they do answer an advertisement they received, they end up in one of a half dozen or so satellite offices the large traffic firm has (or on the phone with them). It is true that the client is then seen (or spoken to) by an experienced secretary who will give them the parameters of the case- what the possible sentences are and help them fill out a plea of absentia if they never want to appear in court. Most offices have one lawyer on the premises most of the time to handle more detailed questions.

I think Judge Schwartz would agree 99% of those cases go smoothly in court.

Here's the other 1-2%. The client is a problem client. Wants a jury trial before the Supreme Court on the running a stop sign. Being a problem client, they only want to pay $49.00 to have a team of top lawyers represent them.

I would suggest that the fault here is mostly the clients'. You get what you pay for. My firm will handle their stop sign case, but its going to cost almost a thousand dollars to have my assistant go to the scene with them, get pictures, do a diagram, and have me show up to try it.

So back to the 99% of the cases. When the ticket firms get the infraction case, they need to have every court and every ticket calendar in Dade and Broward covered. Do they employ dozens of attorneys to do this? Of course not. It's not economically feasible.

Once the ticket firms sprung up, the next economic necessity were the coverage or contract lawyers. They are a firmless group of nomads who get paid per case- usually ten bucks or so. They make camp in a courtroom or a small courthouse and they cover all the cases firm A has on the calendar.

But the analysis is not done. Because let's say firm A employs attorney X and Firm B employs attorney Y at the same courthouse. or courtrooms. Being of the same nomadic family, X and Y get together every morning and see what cases their firms have. Then X goes to courtroom 1 and Y goes to courtroom 2 and they cover the business for the traffic firms and X and Y work out what they're due and bill their respective firms.

That's a simplified explanation of what happens among dozens of ticket firms and dozens of nomadic ticket lawyers every morning.

And it works. The ticket lawyers do a good job. They spot the incorrectly written tickets. They know the cops who have faulty speed radars, and when they can't win, they argue for decent results. Occasionally the problem client shows up and what Judge Schwartz is writing about occurs.

But here's the problem Judge Schwartz does not recognize- The practice of law has evolved from the time he had his shingle out. Like it or not. The police write hundreds of thousands of tickets because their departments and municipalities make money. The ticket firms spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailing and marketing. The ticket lawyers, with virtually no overhead or headaches are driving Mercedes and feeding their families. In his day, I am sure people laid a couple of grand on Shelly to show up in County Court and handle their kid's careless driving. But today they can get virtually the same defense, by an experienced lawyer who does a hundred Careless Drivings month, for $150.00 or so. They have the choice to hire me or hire the ticket firms, but usually the issue comes down to money.

It is admittedly "drive -thru McDonalds" type of law. But it has to be that way. The numbers (tickets, clients, firms, lawyers) are way too high and the economics of the market place have created this environment. It will never be like it was in the days Judge Schwartz fondly remembers. The economics of law has evolved.

Judge Schwartz is wrong, and the clients are wrong, if they expect to pay $69.00 and get a high priced individually tailored legal defense. The client needs to know they get what they pay for. When I see my GP doctor, he has his Physician's Assistant spend 20 minutes with me, then he comes in for 3 minutes , tells me to eat less, lower my cholesterol and blood pressure, writes the scripts and leaves. If I want more personal service than my insurance will pay for, I am free to spend 5K a year on a "concierge medical practice." Until then, I get what I pay for. Why should a client spending $69.00 on a ticket expect anything different?

Remember-these are civil INFRACTIONS not criminal cases. But the practice has spread to criminal cases. Those ticket firms are my bread and butter. They spend on advertising and when the DUI or Reckless comes in they hire me- at my price (somewhat reduced for their volume.) I meet the client. I open a file. We prepare the defense and I am entirely responsible for what happens.

Let me close by asking Judge Schwartz this- is what the ticket firms do any different then if Exxon-Mobile hires a Greenberg Traurig Partner who promptly puts two dozen first and second year associates to start discovery? The CEO of Exxon-Mobile doesn't know the second year associate taking a depo on his company's behalf, but the work gets done.

What Judge Schwartz fails to acknowledge (and he knows this because he sees the numbers) is that no lawyer can survive on hanging out a shingle. and waiting for the odd thousand dollar LSA to wander in while a firm that is advertising gets 200 LSAs at 250 per a month. He doesn't like what he sees. It's not what he did when he was practicing (and doing a very fine job) but the law hasn't changed- just the business of law.

Hang in there Shelly and let these guys do what they do. You're fighting a battle you can't win. In my opinion it's not a battle you should win. The marketplace evolved this system as an efficient capitalistic response to the vast numbers of infractions the police write.

We all luv ya.

A Lawyer.

TRAFFIC TURMOIL

Judge Sheldon (Shelly) Schwartz saw fit to write in about a long standing situation involving the nefarious underworld of traffic attorneys.

You can find his full comments under the July 1st posting. We have edited his comments here (not in the comments section) to include the full gist of his feelings:

(Tomorrow: a traffic lawyer responds- we invite additional responses for consideration of a front page post. This is, as surprising as it may seem, one area of the Miami (quasi-criminal) legal community we know little about.)

Judge Schwartz said:

Times have truly changed in the practice of law. Once upon a time a client retaining an attorney actually met the attorney. Once upon a time an attorney or a member of the attorneys' law firm actually appeared before a court with a file. Once upon a time attorneys represented clients. Unfortunately those time have changed because of a few attorneys who merely believe their staff,non attorney may speak with the client, collect the money for the client and the attorney must never meet the client. Even the day of trial they have another attorney appear before the court having nothing to do with him/her or their respective law firm. The attorneys appearing do not even know the attorney in court if such "substitute"attorney appears and even then have no documents showing compliance.

They care not for their clients and do not make any attempt to properly represent the client.'knowing nothing of the persons past criminal history or traffic history.

These attorneys are a blight on most attorneys who provide proper representation to their clients.These attorneys are a blight on the judicial system.These attorneys,and they know who they are had better shape up,or be prepared to be called out.

...

[I] questioned the guarantees and promised many attorneys made to their clients:promising no points and no school.It is my belief the Florida Bar is the culprit here having forwarded a letter that such statements are not considered guarantees...
I have always questioned the propriety of "stand-in counsel,albeit in civil infractions.

DON'T TREAD ON ME

UPDATE: Coming Monday: A certain North Dade Judge is MAD AS HELL and he's not gonna take it anymore. In fact, if you open your window and listen carefully, you might just hear him say it.

Only here- at your favourite Local Blog.

H A P P Y

F O U R T H

O F

J U L Y

NEW PROCEDURES FOR COUNTY COURT

Kindly act accordingly: (Now if they could only get the escalators to run)

THE HONORABLE SAMUEL J. SLOM

COUNTY COURT JUDGE

1351 N.W. 12 STREET ROOM 513

Miami, Fla.  33125

Phone 548-5187

Fax: 548-5134

TO:    ALL ATTORNEYS

FROM:          SAM SLOM, ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE – COUNTY COURT CRIMINAL DIVISION

RE:            COUNTY COURT CRIMINAL DIVISION CHANGES  

 

DATE:           JUNE 30, 2009

Within the next month or two, the County Court Criminal Division will be implementing two changes to our current case setting practices:

1. 1. Misdemeanor sounding/trial dates will be announced in court: Whenever a misdemeanor case is set for sounding/trial, the judge will announce that future date in open court. Notices will still be mailed by the Clerk’s Office but the selection and announcement of the future date will be made by the judge in open court. In cases where lawyers have filed written pleas of not guilty, those misdemeanor files will appear at the arraignment calendar in order to receive their future date but the lawyer and their client need not appear. Traffic cases will continue to be set as they currently are and thus are not affected by this new procedure.

Exception: An exception to the above procedure will exist for misdemeanor cases which are arraigned at one courthouse location and transferred to another courthouse location for their future setting (i.e. a misdemeanor arraigned at a branch court but set for trial at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building). The Clerk’s Office will continue to set the future dates on such cases.

1. 2. Bifurcated calendar settings: Within the next 60 days or so, judges will (hopefully) have the ability to set their calendars so that the private defense bar’s cases, Public Defender’s cases, and unrepresented defendant’s cases are set at different times. For example, on sounding dates for a DWLS calendar, unrepresented defendants might have their DWLS sounding set at 9:00am, Public Defender DWLS cases could be set at 9:30am and unrepresented defendants could have their DWLS sounding set at 10:00am. Currently, judges lack the ability to set bifurcated calendars and thus all cases of a similar type must be given the exact same time. Computer programming changes however will provide judges with the flexibility to set cases in a bifurcated manner. Each judge will have the capability to set their caseloads as they deem appropriate - taking into consideration the number of cases pending in their division and the courtroom capacity to deal with those numbers. Judge Luise Krieger-Martin will conduct a pilot program in her division implementing this process before it is rolled out to the other divisions. This case setting flexibility has become crucial due to the fact that our limited courtroom capacity has not kept pace with our ever increasing caseload.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns I will be more than happy to meet with you.

Thank you.