As Hurricane season gets underway, the 20th Circuit reflects on Ian
Ian was another terrible reminder of the fragility of life by the sea. But it couldn’t have picked a more hardened legal infrastructure.
Hurricane Ian was the third costliest weather event in U.S. history and the deadliest to strike Florida since the 1935 Labor Day storm. Eight months on, Southwest Florida is well on the road to recovery and despite an essentially month-long hurricane recess on top of a pandemic-related backlog, 20th Circuit Chief Judge Michael McHugh says the local courts are resolving cases at a normal pace.
The June 1 start of another Atlantic Hurricane Season, eight months after Ian’s deadly landfall, finds the 20th Judicial Circuit up and running – with fingers firmly crossed.
Chief Judge Michael T. McHugh
“It starts you thinking again,” said Chief Judge Michael T. McHugh. “Definitely there’s the trepidation of, ‘No, please, don’t let it come to Florida generally, and especially not Southwest Florida.’”
McHugh spent September 28 on the upper floors of the Lee County Courthouse watching Ian’s Category 5 winds rip the roof off a building next door, and its storm surge sweep cars from the streets below.
Ian was the third costliest weather event in U.S. history and the deadliest to strike Florida since the 1935 Labor Day storm.
But Southwest Florida is well on the road to recovery, McHugh said, and despite an essentially month-long hurricane recess on top of a pandemic-related backlog, local courts are resolving cases at a normal pace.
“As far as courthouse operations, it’s been back up and running at normal capacity for quite some time now,” he said. “It varies by docket, but if you need a 15-minute hearing, you should be able to get it within a month, which is what we want.”
Ian’s aftermath is still obvious to anyone who ventures to Ft. Myers Beach, McHugh said, but less so on the mainland.
“If you go down U.S. 41, you see the business signs are gone, and probably will be for a while,” he said. “As you go through communities, you see lots of blue tarps and lots of roofing going on and lots more that needs to be done.”
The 20th Judicial Circuit serves Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, and Lee counties. Court personnel escaped serious injury but many lost homes, including some of the circuit’s 21 judges.
Court facilities held up well, with a few minor exceptions, McHugh said.
Lightning struck an air conditioning system in Charlotte County, and a replacement had to be trucked in temporarily.
“We had some leaks and some other damage, but they were all brought up quickly,” he said. “Our physical plants are all good.”
Ian was another terrible reminder of the fragility of life by the sea. But it couldn’t have picked a more hardened legal infrastructure.
McHugh notes that 20th Judicial Circuit imposed differentiated case management a decade ago and was the first jurisdiction to do so. The move was a response to an avalanche of foreclosures triggered by the 2009 economic meltdown. At the peak of the crisis, Lee County had 32,000 pending foreclosure cases, McHugh recalls
The circuit is sticking with aggressive case management to deal with a crush of cases that were filed shortly before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed sweeping civil litigation reforms – HB 837 – in late March, McHugh said. The “tort reform” measure became effective with DeSantis’ signature, and litigants were eager to have cases heard under the old law.
“In that week to 10-day period right before the bill was signed, I think we averaged in our coastal counties, Charlotte, Lee and Collier, about a thousand new cases per judge,” he said. “So, this is going to be a really good test.”
McHugh and other local Bar members say the circuit enjoys another powerful, but less quantifiable, advantage.
Florida Bar President-elect Scott Westheimer, a Sarasota native, describes the 20th Circuit as a sophisticated legal community with a small-town feel where lawyers take their Oath of Professionalism seriously and treat colleagues with respect. That leaves all sides freer to focus on clients and serving the community, Westheimer said.
McHugh agrees. The circuit couldn’t have weathered Ian so successfully if lawyers weren’t willing to work cooperatively, he said. Much of the good will was a holdover from the circuit’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, McHugh said.
“People did really pull together for the greater good, to make sure that our system was working the way it should, that it was there and available, and as efficient as it possibly could be,” he said. “It made my job a whole lot easier.”
McHugh’s unprecedented fourth term as chief judge ends July 1. His successor, Circuit Judge J. Frank Porter, should bring better luck, McHugh jokes.
“While I’ve been here, we’ve had Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Ian, the pandemic,” he said. “So, part of me feels, you know, maybe it’s me.”
