The purpose of this summary provided by the Communications Department of The Florida Bar is to present media coverage that may be of interest to members. Opinions expressed in the articles are attributable solely to the authors. The Florida Bar does not adopt or endorse any opinions expressed below. For information on previous articles, please contact the publishing newspaper directly.
October 09, 2024
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The Florida Bar
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS — FLORIDA’S LEGAL AID PROVIDERS RESPOND TO HURRICANE CRISIS
The Florida Bar | Article | October 09, 2024
Florida legal aid organizations were putting out a call Tuesday [Oct. 8] for more volunteers and scrambling to help Hurricane Helene victims as they watched a second deadly hurricane in less than two weeks draw a bead on the Gulf Coast. Legal aid offices in Central and Southwest Florida were temporarily closed Tuesday as mandatory evacuations were being ordered ahead of Hurricane Milton’s projected landfall in the Tampa Bay region late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. At Bay Area Legal Services, Inc., Disaster Relief Team managing attorney Jason Susalla said the group was experiencing “a significant influx of applicants for disaster-related legal assistance” on its statewide helpline. Bay Area Legal Services coordinates with county emergency management groups and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make sure the helpline made known to survivors, Susalla said.
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Criminal Justice
JUDGE IN DONNA ADELSON MURDER TRIAL DISQUALIFIES HER NEW ATTORNEYS OVER CONFLICTS
Tallahassee Democrat | Article | October 08, 2024
Just three weeks after Donna Adelson’s murder trial unexpectedly unraveled when her lead lawyer withdrew, the judge presiding over the case ordered that her two new attorneys can’t represent her either. Leon Circuit Judge Stephen Everett on Monday [Oct. 7] issued an order disqualifying Robert “Alex” Morris and Adam Komisar over actual and potential conflicts of interest. The conflicts stem from the same unusual situation that derailed Adelson’s trial last month: her initial decision to hire the same lawyer, Dan Rashbaum, who represented her son last year, to also represent her. Rashbaum withdrew as Adelson’s counsel on Sept. 17, the same day jury selection was set to begin in her trial, because of conflicts involving his representation of both mother and son. Morris, who served as co-counsel with Rashbaum, stayed on with Donna Adelson’s blessing. However, he filed a motion Monday asking for the court to clarify its ruling on her future counsel.
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Civil Justice
UNLICENSED WORK DOES NOT VOID CONTRACT WITH CONDOS, FLORIDA APPEALS COURT SAYS
Insurance Journal | Article | October 09, 2024
Being unlicensed as a contractor in Florida does not necessarily void a storm-remediation contract, Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeals said in a decision that could affect insurance defense strategy in hurricane claims. “This shows that it’s really important to know the scope of work being performed,” said Josh Beck, an insurance defense attorney in Boca Raton. The appellate court last week reversed a Monroe County circuit judge’s decision in three lawsuits brought by mold remediation contractor Incident365 Florida against Ocean Pointe Condominium Associations. The circuit judge had agreed with the condo associations that Incident365 was not a licensed contractor, which voided a repair contract. But the appellate judges said the situation was not so cut-and-dried. The cases stemmed from damage incurred at a group of Upper Keys condos in Hurricane Irma in 2017. These were not assignments-of-benefits disputes but could impact some AOB litigation that remains after 2022 Florida legislative changes, as well as more recent claims involving directives-to-pay, said Beck.
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Civil Justice
MOMS FOR LIBERTY CHAPTER GETS WIN IN FLORIDA SCHOOL BOARD CASE
News Service of Florida | Article | October 08, 2024
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday [Oct. 8] backed a chapter of the group Moms for Liberty in a constitutional challenge to Brevard County School Board policies that placed restrictions on speakers at board meetings. The panel said policies targeted at “abusive,” “obscene” and “personally directed” speech violated the First Amendment, overturning a decision by U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton. The opinion came after school boards in various parts of Florida and the country have become battlegrounds during the past few years about contentious issues such as restricting or eliminating access to certain school-library books. The majority opinion said the government “has relatively broad power to restrict speech” in what are known as limited public forums, such as school board meetings. But it said that “power is not unlimited.”
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Legal Profession
JUDGES SAY SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL POLARIZATION PUTS THEM IN DANGER
Legal Tech News | Article | October 08, 2024
As social media has cemented itself in the fabric of how the country communicates, a group of judges at the 11th annual Judicial Panel at Relativity Fest 2024 have noticed a marked spike in the negative feedback they are receiving. Indeed, as attacks on judicial members’ families and livelihoods have mushroomed across various platforms, those in charge of screening these threats, such as the U.S. Marshals Service, which is in charge of protecting around 2,700 federal judges, have been overwhelmed as they try to gauge the legitimacy of each intimidating post. In turn, judges feel more unsafe than ever before. And in some instances, left without any mechanism to defend or explain themselves in response to misinformation and disinformation, they feel unsupported by bar associations and lawyers. U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman of the Southern District of Florida says although he is used to letters that are disapproving or even scathing when it comes to decisions he has made, he said, “Now judges are being attacked personally, as opposed to their rulings being evaluated and attacked.”