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Thank You Judge Silverman; Florida Legislature, Not So Much.

Well it was a good and bad day yesterday for our local court system.

On the good side, anyone else attend the rousing and inspirational dedication of historic Courtroom 6-1? It looks great:

The carved wood doors leading to Miami-Dade's newly renovated historic Courtroom 6-1 swung open Thursday, giving spectators a glimpse at its restored 1928 grandeur.

More than 200 spectators filed inside for the afternoon unveiling and dedication of the courtroom, which once again looks just like it did 80 years ago when the Miami-Dade County Courthouse opened for legal business at 73 W. Flagler St.

The $650,000 restoration of the spacious courtroom, which took eight months, is a natural move in preserving local legal history.

''No other courtroom in Miami-Dade has hosted as many historic cases as this one,'' said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Scott Silverman, who led the push for the restoration and heads the 11th Judicial Circuit Historical Society.

If you all haven't been by, please take a look. And take a moment to thank Judge Silverman as well as those firms who helped underwrite the restoration, including Boies Schiller & Flexner and Greenberg Traurig. Now, what can we do to get Judge S to preside over that majestic space?

The bad: Thanks to the wisdom of the voters and our State Legislature, Chief Judge Farina had to axe 14 court employees and lay off another 14. Just another really bad day at the office:

The court?s family division took the biggest number of layoffs, losing a court operations manager, two administrative assistants and an administrative secretary. A vacant court analyst position was dissolved.

The probate and guardianship division lost two court program specialists and deleted three vacant slots.

Five vacant law clerk positions were eliminated in the Office of General Counsel. The remaining cuts came in the traffic, criminal, juvenile, general magistrate, unified family court, court administrator and general jurisdiction divisions.

The cuts were by far the deepest for any circuits in Florida.

Oh well, the family division just hums anyways, so no worries there. And traffic, criminal, and juvenile, your days of living high off the hog are over. Just don't get concerned when the judge you are waiting for has to make copies, answer the phone, and fix the broken a/c while you wait to argue some meaningless and esoteric discovery dispute.

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on June 06, 2008 (boomark / email).