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. 18, 2010
LAW FIRMS CHALLENGE BAR'S WEBSITE PROPOSALS-- Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview.com, Aug. 18, 2010.
Eight large law firms have banded together to fight proposed Florida Bar rules for web advertising and submitted a 66-page comment to the Florida Supreme Court. The deadline for comments was Monday [Aug. 16]. The Florida Bar has until Sept. 7 to respond.
--Legal Profession--
PROSECUTORS, PUBLIC DEFENDERS WIN ROUND ONE IN BAR DUES DISPUTE-- The Florida Times-Union, http://www.jacksonville.com, Aug. 18, 2010.
Florida's state attorneys and public defenders have won the first round in their fight to block a state budget proviso that would prevent them from paying their lawyers' annual Florida Bar dues. A spokeswoman for the Florida Secretary of State's Office said Tuesday [Aug. 17] the agency will appeal a Tallahassee judge's ruling against the proviso. At issue is whether lawyers who work for state agencies should pay their own $265 annual dues, a job requirement that their agency heads have had the discretion to pay. The Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association and the Florida Public Defender Association argued the law's language contradicts existing state law, which says state agency heads such as elected state attorneys can expend public funds for dues that are essential to their employees' jobs.
CHRIS CHESTNUT NAMED 'BEST ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR'-- The Gainesville Sun, http://www.gainesville.com, Aug. 18, 2010.
Gainesville lawyer Christopher Chestnut received the Best Advocate of the Year award as part of the first 40 Lawyers Under 40 Awards held recently in New Orleans. The awards were sponsored by the National Bar Association, a network of predominantly black attorneys and judges, and the nonprofit Impact organization of young black professionals. Chestnut is founder of the Chestnut Law Firm, which in four years has grown to a multimillion-dollar firm with offices in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Miami. He was recognized for both his legal work and community activities.
--Judiciary--
THIRTEEN CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR PINELLAS-PASCO CIRCUIT JUDGE, BUT ONLY FIVE CAN WIN-- St. Petersburg Times, http://www.tampabay.com, Aug. 18, 2010.
The article profiles candidates in five judicial races for the Sixth Circuit, which encompasses Pasco and Pinellas counties. Most of the 13 Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge candidates can sum up the reason they should be elected in one word: experience. However, as the article details, experience means different things to different candidates.
--Criminal Justice Issues--
ATTORNEY CONTESTS DUI POLICY CHANGE-- Key West Citizen, http://www.keysnews.com, Aug. 18, 2010.
A Key West attorney is challenging a new state policy that makes it more difficult and expensive for DUI suspects awaiting trial to get a temporary license to drive to work, school or other necessary tasks. Since July 1, if a law enforcement officer does not show for a defendant's license hearing, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles tells him or her to take their case to court, instead of automatically granting a temporary permit, as was the previous policy. Not having a hearing in which law enforcement must present evidence in the case violates their constitutional rights to due process, attorney Sam Kaufman said Tuesday [Aug. 17]. Kaufman on Monday [Aug. 16] filed an emergency motion in Monroe County circuit court challenging the policy on behalf of two clients. Miami attorney Richard Hersch, a member of The Florida Bar Criminal Law Section Executive Council, is urging attorneys across the state to challenge the rule.
--Other--
VIRGINIA Q. BEVERLY: RETIRED CIRCUIT JUDGE HAD MANY MILESTONES-- The Florida Times-Union, http://www.jacksonville.com, Aug. 18, 2010.
Retired Circuit Judge Virginia Quinlivan Beverly, a former assistant U.S. attorney and lawyer in private practice before being named to the state bench in 1977, died Monday [Aug. 16] of recently diagnosed pancreatic cancer. She was 83. She enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying child welfare. She soon decided she didn't want to make that her career and switched to its law school. When she graduated in 1953, she was one of two women in a class of 150. She moved to Jacksonville in 1960. Judge Beverly began working in 1965 as an assistant U.S. attorney. Three years later, she was the first woman lawyer to join the Jacksonville firm of Martin, Ade, Birchfield and Johnson. She remained with that firm until being appointed to the bench by Gov. Reubin Askew in December 1976.
A CITIZEN SEEKS TO HONOR SOLDIERS-- Daytona Beach News-Journal, editorial, http://www.news-journalonline.com, Aug. 18, 2010.
The editorial states: "We hope Eric Gill gets some help in fulfilling his wish to create something tangible to honor the U.S. soldiers who gave the last full measure of devotion in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Port Orange attorney envisions a war memorial on land he owns on busy Dunlawton Avenue. He's prepared to give the land to the city of Port Orange if the city will use it to provide a memorial for the soldiers killed in the long, grinding wars that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. . . . Eric Gill deserves credit for putting his own financial and emotional resources into the effort to memorialize the sacrifices of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq."
[Revised: 08-19-2010]
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