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An electronic digest of media coverage of interest to members of The Florida Bar compiled each workday by the Public Information and Bar Services Department. Electronic links are only active in today's edition. For information on previous articles, please contact the publishing newspaper directly.

March 8, 2013

--Judiciary--

PALM BEACH COUNTY PUTS OLD FORECLOSURE CASES ON FAST TRACK -- Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview.com, March 8, 2013.
Palm Beach Circuit Court renews efforts to clear a years long backlog of home foreclosure cases. By today [March 8], lenders who filed foreclosures lawsuits in 2007 must submit a status report on each case. Status reports must be turned in on 2008 cases by March 15 and on 2009 cases by March 29. This is all a precursor to setting trials in hopes of disposing of as many of the 9,000 cases predating 2010 as possible. Chief Palm Beach Circuit Judge Peter Blanc said more than 30 percent of the foreclosure cases are more than 3 years old. Judicial administrative rules suggest non-jury cases should get resolved within a year, he said.

PALM CITY ATTORNEY APPOINTED TO FILL 4TH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL VACANCY -- Jupiter Courier, http://www.tcpalm.com, March 8, 2013.
Longtime Palm City attorney and labor law specialist Alan O. Forst was appointed Thursday [March 7] by Gov. Rick Scott to fill a vacancy on the 4th District Court of Appeal. Though Forst, 54, has not previously been a judge, he has served in the quasi-judicial role of chairman of the Reemployment Assistance Appeals Commission (formerly the Unemployment Appeals Commission) since 2001. He is a former chairman of the Labor and Employment Section of the Florida Bar, a past president of the Martin County Bar Association and was appointed by Scott last year to the 19th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission.

--Legislature--

GOV. RICK SCOTT TELLS HOUSE TO TRY AGAIN ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE PLAN -- Tampa Bay Times, http://www.tampabay.com, March 8, 2013.
Gov. Rick Scott's aides told Florida House leaders Wednesday [March 6] that he cannot support their plan to raise campaign contribution caps from $500 to $10,000 in exchange for more rigorous disclosure. Senate critics and ethics watchdogs warn that the bill will create new loopholes, allowing political parties to control big checks with little accountability. The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee has proposed a plan that would raise campaign contribution limits based on a tiered scale: up to $3,000 for statewide offices and Supreme Court merit retention races, $2,000 for appellate judges merit retention races; and leave it at $500 for legislators and countywide offices.

--Criminal Justice Issues--

AS JUDGES EASE OFF HOME CONFINEMENT, RECORDS SHOW MORE POSSIBLE VIOLATIONS -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel, http://www.sun-sentinel.com, March 7, 2013.
As controversy continues to swirl around Orange County's troubled home-confinement program, judges have begun removing defendants from its monitoring, citing grave concerns that the program does not function as advertised. Karen Levey, a spokeswoman for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, said in an email that judges are bringing their home-confinement defendants in for hearings because Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry asked them to review all defendants on home confinement. Records released by corrections officials shed new light on the extent and frequency of violations by some defendants in Orange County's troubled home-confinement program.

--Other--

DAYTONA BEACH NATIVE, FORMER FLA. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE FRED KARL DIES -- Daytona Beach News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com, March 8, 2013. [Also: FRED KARL - A MAN OF THE PEOPLE - DIES AT 88 -- Tampa Tribune, http://www.tbo.com, March 8, 2013; KARL WAS PRINCIPLED AND TIRELESS PUBLIC SERVANT -- Tampa Tribune, Editorial, http://www.tbo.com, March 8, 2013]
Fred Karl, the Daytona Beach-born state Supreme Court justice, state legislator and county administrator for Hillsborough County, died Thursday [March 7] in his home on Harbor Island, Tampa. He was 88. He represented Volusia County in the Florida House from 1956-1964 and in the Senate from 1968-1972. He became the last Florida Supreme Court justice chosen by election in 1976.