Daily News Summary
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.
Aug. 27, 2010
DOWNS STEPS UP-- Florida Trend, http://www.floridatrend.com, Sept. 1, 2010.
Twenty-seven years ago, Mayanne Downs was working as a real estate broker when she was sued by a former client. Her real estate attorney told her to get a litigator. She was "dazzled" by the litigator's handling of the case and says she "fell in love with everything about the process." Downs sold her company and went to law school. Today, her career shift has her in position to shape and influence Florida's legal profession. She began serving a one-year term as president of the 87,000-member Florida Bar this summer, simultaneously holding two other jobs: She's the city attorney of Orlando and also a shareholder at King, Blackwell, Downs & Zehnder in Orlando. Saying she likes to keep busy and noting that she needs less sleep than most people, the single mother of two teenagers knows she's in for a challenging year.
--Judiciary--
BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY JOSEPH DAVIS APPOINTED TO MIAMI-DADE COUNTY BENCH-- Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview.com, Aug. 27, 2010.
Miami-Dade will soon see a fresh face on the county court bench. Joseph I. Davis Jr., a bankruptcy and insolvency attorney with Markowitz Davis Ringel & Trusty, was appointed Thursday [Aug. 26] by Gov. Charlie Crist. He will replace Jose L. Fernandez, who was elevated to the circuit bench.
3RD DCA ERASES MOST OF JURY VERDICT-- Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview.com, Aug. 26, 2010.
A state appeals court erased most of a jury award due to an attorney’s inflammatory and prejudicial language while representing a man injured when granite fell on his head in an elevator. It was the second time this month that the 3rd District Court of Appeal issued reversals and chided attorneys for inflammatory arguments. The three-judge panel agreed with defense arguments that Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Peter Adrien abused his discretion by denying a motion for new trial based on opening and closing remarks by Tampa lawyer Michael V. Laurato of Austin & Laurato.
--Lawyer Ethics/Legal Discipline--
DISBARRED LAWYER CHARGED WITH MISAPPROPRIATION OF ESCROW-- Daytona Beach News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com, Aug. 27, 2010.
Port Orange attorney Jerome David Mitchell, disbarred last year for his part in a $25 million real estate scam, has been charged with misappropriation of escrow money. Mitchell, 41, was held Thursday [Aug. 26] at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $200,000 bail, a day after his arrest by Daytona Beach police. If convicted of the first-degree felony, he would face a maximum of 30 years in prison. Mitchell was disbarred in July 2009.
HATCH, ATTORNEY PLAN TO APPEAL 30-YEAR SENTENCE-- Treasure Coast Newspapers, http://www.tcpalm.com, Aug. 27, 2010.
Even before convicted embezzler Ira Hatch returned to jail Wednesday [Aug. 25] after getting slapped with a 30-year prison term, he was already working to appeal his potential lifetime sentence. Hatch’s attorney Gregory Eisenmenger tried convince Senior Judge James Midelis that because evidence presented at Hatch’s trial proved racketeering activities occurred as early as 1998, his client should be punished under the state sentencing guidelines in effect at that time. It's the only appeal opportunity Hatch has, because in his no contest plea deal with the state, he gave up a right to appeal his felony conviction.
--Civil Justice Issues--
RAINY DAY DOLLARS USED TO ALLEVIATE FORECLOSURE BACKLOGS-- The Florida Bar News, http://www.floridabar.org, Sept. 1, 2010.
A one-time boost of $6 million to trial courts and $3.6 million to court clerks is buying desperately needed resources to dig courts out of Florida’s foreclosure backlog crisis. Beginning July 1, that total $9.6 million in nonrecurring dollars from the Legislature has been put to work in each of Florida’s 20 circuits. Chief judges made decisions tailored to their circuits to hire more case managers, general magistrates, and/or additional senior judge days to tackle the backlog crisis, while new cases continue to come. Looking at the numbers is the job of Kristine Slayden, who works in research and data at the Office of the State Courts Administrator. Her chart estimates the property/mortgage foreclosure backlog from FY 2006-07 through FY 2010-11 to be 559,945 cases statewide.
SB 360 GROWTH MANAGEMENT BILL DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL-- St. Petersburg Times, http://www.tampabay.com, Aug. 27, 2010. [Also: JUDGE DECLARES FLORIDA GROWTH LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL-- Treasure Coast Newspapers, http://www.tcpalm.com, Aug. 27, 2010].
A circuit judge on Thursday [Aug. 26] tossed out a growth management law passed in 2009 that relaxes building rules in an effort to spur economic development. The decision by Tallahassee Circuit Judge Charles Francis says the law is an "unfunded mandate" that would force cities and counties to spend at least $3.7 million to rewrite their land-use plans. The state Constitution generally prohibits the Legislature from passing laws that force localities to spend more than 10 cents per Floridian, which works out to $1.8 million. The ruling could disrupt Florida's construction industry, which continues to lag during the nationwide struggling economy. It's unclear if the ruling will be appealed, and a key lawmaker said he would prefer to simply rework the law next spring.
SAME-SEX COUPLES IN FLORIDA FACE MYRIAD OF LEGAL, FINANCIAL HURDLES-- The Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com, Aug. 27, 2010.
As dozens of attorneys gather in Miami Beach this week to brainstorm and share ideas, this fact remains: For thousands of gay couples in Florida and across the country, not being able to marry carries financial and legal burdens numbering in the hundreds. Only some of those issues can be fixed, and doing so requires careful planning that many couples never take the time to address. The attorneys are meeting to discuss these issues at the national Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Bar Association's annual conference. The largest barrier is the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that recognizes marriage as solely between a man and a woman. In 1997, the Government Accountability Office found that 1,049 federal rights, benefits and privileges are based on marital status. It found about 100 more after a 2003 update.
WAL-MART ASKS SUPREME COURT TO HEAR BIAS SUIT-- The Gainesville Sun, http://www.gainesville.com, Aug. 26, 2010.
Wal-Mart Stores asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday [Aug. 25] to review the largest employment discrimination lawsuit in American history, involving more than a million female workers, current and former, at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. Nine years after the suit was filed, the central issue before the Supreme Court will not be whether any discrimination occurred, but whether more than a million people can even make this joint claim through a class-action lawsuit, as opposed to filing claims individually or in smaller groups. If the Supreme Court allows the suit to proceed as a class action, that could easily cost Wal-Mart $1 billion or more in damages, legal experts say. More significantly, the court's ruling could set guidelines for other types of class-action suits.
--Criminal Justice Issues--
NEW RULING SPARES KILLER AN EXECUTION-- Florida Today, http://www.floridatoday.com, Aug. 27, 2010.
Her mother was shot before her eyes. The killer then placed the barrel of the gun to her head. Her mother's boyfriend confronted the gunman and chased him outside. Minutes later, the boyfriend, too, was dead -- saving the teenager's life. That was how Amber Williams' statement in court Thursday [Aug. 26] described the two murders in 1986 at the hands of George Porter, now 78. Porter, sentenced in 1988, spent more than two decades on Death Row before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that sentence in November. His among three death-penalty cases coming back to Brevard County courts this year for new trials or sentences. Shortly after Williams' account was read by a victim advocate, Judge James Earp sentenced Porter to a third life term in prison to be served consecutively with two previously imposed life sentences. The Supreme Court had cited Porter's service in the Korean War, when he won two Purple Hearts, and extensive mental health issues in rescinding the original death sentence.
[Revised: 08-30-2010]
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