Criminal Law

SENATE BILL 302 (NERO FIDDLES WHILE ROME BURNS)

Posted on March 21, 2008
1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to the indecent wearing of below-waist 3 underwear; prohibiting a student from exposing below-waist 4 underwear in a specified manner while on the grounds of a 5 public school; providing penalties; providing an effective 6 date...

JQC v. Terri-Ann Miller Part Deux

Posted on March 20, 2008
 Terri-Ann MillerDAILY BUSINESS REVIEW:After Dismissal, JQC Files Amended ChargesFilings in JQC v. MillerLAW.COM:$15 Million Libel-in-Fiction Against "Law & Order" Gets Green Light

Interesting cases from Feb. 29 FLW

Posted on March 20, 2008
DRUG TREATMENT RECORDS ? DISCLOSURE:  State v. Rudy, 33 Fla. L. Weekly D547 (Fla. 4th DCA Feb. 29, 2008).  This case holds that substance abuse treatment records are discoverable by the State during a VOP proceeding where the defendant signed an agreement to release all records to DOC...

SUPREME COURT SICK OF JACK THOMPSON

Posted on March 20, 2008
ORDER REFUSING PLEADINGS UNLESS SIGNED BY ANOTHER ATTORNEY BESIDES THOMPSON

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

CIRCUIT 17 BUDGET MEMO

Posted on March 20, 2008
TOBIN & ORTMAN  -  LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION - Q & A ON FLORIDA COURTSJUDICIAL BRANCH BROCHURE - FTE REDUCTION BY CIRCUIT

LEGAL AID SERVICE OF BROWARD FUNDRAISER

Posted on March 20, 2008
                                                                              Fundraising Effort for the 7th Annual FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD                Attend a Gift Gathering Party at Kavanaugh & Morrissey's in Plantation or D*Wade's in                Fort Lauderdale...

2 HOUR NOTICE

Posted on March 20, 2008
                                                                                               Broward Civil Judges Reduced To Tears The Civil Trial Pool is here (Administrative Order Number 2008-41-Civ)...

WE LOVE YOU JOE AND SHARI

Posted on March 19, 2008
                                                                                                                   Joseph J...

FUND-RAISERS FOR GONZALEZ NEXT WEEK

Posted on March 19, 2008
The Committee to Retain County Court Judge Julio Gonzalez, Jr. is hosting a fund-raising reception at Deborah Carpenter-Toye's Jib Room restaurant on Tuesday, March 25th, at 6:00 PM.  Please RSVP to 954-673-2144.Steve Melnick, Val Williams, Kathy Achille, and Eric Volz are also hosting a fund-raising party at Steve and Val's office (629 SE 5th Ave - across from the Courthouse) on Friday, March 28th, from 1:00 to 5:00 PM...

MEDIA 3/19

Posted on March 19, 2008
DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW:Senate Hearings Thursday on Justice System Budget CutsMIAMI HERALD:Our Opinion: Correction Needed For Florida's Jail-Them-All Approach"Florida spends more than $2.5 billion annually to house nearly 100,000 inmates, a majority of whom are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses...

TRUST ACCOUNT

Posted on March 19, 2008
Attorney Patrick Dooley, who was disbarred in February, has been arrested and is being held on $625,000 in bonds.                            www...

THE BEGINNING OF THE END STARTS MONDAY

Posted on March 16, 2008
The Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Conflict Counsel will begin limited acceptance of cases in the divisions listed below commencing, Monday, March 17, 2008 as follows: Circuit Criminal - Judges Ana Gardiner, Pedro E. Dijols, Mark H. Gold, Cynthia G...

"Governor Crist wants to maintain drug penalties"

Posted on March 15, 2008
       Perry Thurston                    Victor CristMIAMI HERALD:"The state's prison population is expected to swell at year's end to a record 100,000, about 20 percent of whom are non-violent drug offenders convicted of crimes such as trafficking and simple possession...

JAABLOG RUMOR MILL

Posted on March 15, 2008
     We weren't there (or were we?), but we hear Judge Gardiner addressed an Hispanic lawyer's luncheon on Thursday.  Apparently, the "new & improved" magistrates is now officially "more of the same."  Despite Vic Tobin's public commitments to providing timely legal hearings to the recently arrested, and despite the hard work of the SAO, PD, and BSO to fix the ancien regime's oldest bugaboo, nothing will be changing anytime soon...

MEDIA 3/14

Posted on March 14, 2008
DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW:Judges facing challengers must contend with differences from county to county"In Miami, judges often have to fight to keep their seats against a pool of challengers looking to don a black robe. In Palm Beach, judges ranked poorly by the Palm Beach County Bar Association are sometimes picked on...

"LET THE JURY DECIDE"

Posted on March 14, 2008
                                                                                                         Joseph Brazer              Mike Satz                           THE BROWARD STATE ATTORNEY'S OFFICE NEEDS TO CHANGEThis is old news, but I have been approached by many individuals who are incensed at the latest publicly exposed example of Mr...

55 APPLICANTS FOR GOLDSTEIN'S SEAT

Posted on March 14, 2008
 Richard ZadenAttached is the list of applicants for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court Seat to be vacated by the retirement of The Honorable Barry Goldstein.  We'll meet for a first round of pre-interview deliberations on March 25, 2008...

CASES - Civil

Posted on March 13, 2008
Torts -- Action by plaintiff who was injured when, as she was walking dog, dog pulled on leash and ran around her in an effort to reach another dog which was owned by an employee of the defendant company, alleging company was negligent for leaving gate of its business premises open and allowing employee's dog to freely roam off the property -- Defendant not liable for injuries occurring off premises involving dog which was not owned, maintained, or controlled by defendant and which was admittedly not vicious -- Trial court did not err in denying plaintiff's oral motion for leave to amend to allege violation of county ordinance imposing duty to prevent dogs from being at largeReported at 33 Fla...

CASES

Posted on March 13, 2008
Criminal law -- Argument -- Prosecutor improperly argued facts not in evidence during closing where prosecutor attempted to explain why victims, who identified defendant from photo lineup, had not seen a tattoo on defendant's arms by arguing that defendant obtained a tattoo since the identification -- Because there was no evidence as to when defendant obtained his tattoos and no evidence linking the sharpness and clarity of a tattoo to its age, prosecutor's argument was improperReported at 33 Fla...

COFFEE TALK WITH BARRY KRISCHER

Posted on March 13, 2008
 Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry KrischerDISCUSS: IS BARRY KRISCHER'S ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY AGAINST JUVENILE CRIME MORE EFFECTIVE                 IN PREVENTING FUTURE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY?"TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES"BACKGROUND:INTERVIEW WITH BARRY KRISCHER"Based on my experience as a prosecutor for 13 years, before I left the office, and what I saw as a defense lawyer for nine years specifically dealing with juvenile offenders going through the juvenile court system, juveniles do not take the juvenile court system seriously...

"Our jails and prisons should no longer be asylums"

Posted on March 12, 2008
FLORIDA MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM NEEDS REFORMby Stephen Grimes, Major B. Harding, Joseph Leander Shaw, Ben F. Overton and Parker Lee McDonaldThe Naples Daily News, © 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co.Annually, as many as 125,000 people with mental illnesses requiring immediate treatment are arrested and booked into Florida jails...

A FEW INTERESTING CASES FROM FEB. 1 AND 8 FLW ISSUES

Posted on March 11, 2008
CONTEMPORANEOUS OBJECTION ? COMMENT ON RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT:  Ventura v. State, 33 Fla. L. Weekly D368 (Fla. 3d DCA Feb. 8, 2008).  Defendant is charged with robbery.  During an officer?s direct, he volunteered the information that the defendant wouldn?t give any statements...

NEVER SAY DIE

Posted on March 11, 2008
          Contact: Gabriel Imperato, Broad and Cassel, Attorneys At Law, One Financial Plaza, Suite 2700, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394. 954.764.7060.  To suggest a Community Champion, send an email to bkrogman@broadandcassel...

MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

Posted on March 10, 2008
 Attorney Kevin KulikWatch your calendars. The week of April 28 - May 2nd should be a doozy in 2008.Candidate filing fees are due that week.  That's fish or cut bait time, when rumors are exposed as fact or fiction.Kevin Kulik tells us he's got the candidates, but he's not telling us who they are, or which judges will face opposition...

GET NOTICED ON JAABLOG

Posted on March 10, 2008
                                                                 Norm Kent's JAABLOG articles The Missed Dis-Justice System and Update From Norm Kent got him noticed by the folks over at the Daily Business Review (DBR)...

WHAT PRICE SUNSHINE?

Posted on March 10, 2008
                                                        I filed a public records request on February 26, asking for all judicial emails from the prior ninety calendar days...

4 on 17

Posted on March 08, 2008
Lazarus        Affirm          4D05-183-Tyrrell v. StateAramony      Reversed & remand  4D06-972-Bardowell v. BardowellLynch           Affirm part, Reverse part   4D06-2267-Blackburn v...

CASES - Civil

Posted on March 08, 2008
Torts -- Automobile accident -- No abuse of discretion in denial of motion for new trial following jury verdict finding no liability on part of towing company and sheriff for accident which occurred when plaintiff's tractor-trailer caught tow cable stretched from two steel booms on rear of wrecker, causing cable to snap, cut through top of plaintiff's cab, and graze plaintiff's head -- Argument -- Although remarks by defense counsel expressing personal opinions and attempting to discredit plaintiff's treating physicians were improper, comments were not so highly prejudicial as to deny plaintiff fair trialReported at 33 Fla...

CASES

Posted on March 08, 2008
Criminal law -- Bribery by public official -- Receiving unlawful compensation for official behavior -- Trial court properly denied motions for judgment of acquittal on both counts where there was direct evidence that defendant, as public official, solicited an ?equity piece? in a real estate development project and repeatedly threatened that city commission and housing department would not support the project if he was not involved in itReported at 33 Fla...

MEDIA 3/7

Posted on March 07, 2008
SENTINEL:PUBLIC DEFENDER WANTS THOMPSON ACADEMY INVESTIGATED:http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbthompson0307sbmar07,0,3188612.storyHERALD:PUBLIC DEFENDERS SPARED FURTHER BUDGET CUTS:http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/447251...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.