PDS FIRED?

SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES YESTERDAY. SORRY. WE'RE BACK UP AND RUNNING.

We received this comment:

Anonymous said...
Carlos and Bennett did it again. Instead of firing any of the old guard who mostly have no more passion for the work, make over 100k, and are already financially set for life, they fire the young attorneys making less than 50K who are just out trying to start a career. Those of us with inside contacts know exactly who was fired. And just because they all officially resigned does not mean that they weren't fired. When I was a new attorney, if I was given the option of resigning instead of being immediately terminated, I would have resigned every time. You have a future to think about and no one wants to start out a career getting fired from their first job.

Rumpole would like to know whether any assistant public defenders "resigned" last week. We edited the comment by leaving out a final line, containing an invective that made the observation that a certain substance "stinks" which was not, in fact, any new scientific discovery. Rather it repeated a well known fact.

The Broward Blog reprints this post from Bob Norman's article in the New Times on controversial Broward Circuit Court Judge (and accused "leaving the scene of an accident" driver) Ana Gardiner, who "suddenly" decided that rather than be chief administrative judge in criminal court, a stint as a regular ol' judge in civil court is just what she needed. She was apparently just following Judge Moreno's often quoted observation: "too many chiefs, not enough indians."

The article is HERE

Former Dade ASA Illona Holmes takes over Gardiner's slot.

Remember Rumpole's simple advice for Miami defense attorneys considering taking a case North of the Border: DON'T.
Just follow that simple rule, and your life will be much easier.

SAY IT AIN'T SO JOE (CARLOS & BENNETT)

Various media outlets are reporting that the Miami Dade Public Defenders Office has stopped accepting appointments for certain cases.

Rumpole wonders....Can they do that?

Here's the DBR article on State Court layoffs. DBR

For instance, the West Palm Beachers (motto "you don't belong here") have had to cut back on the dog sitters, and have reduced the number of magazine subscriptions to The Robb Report. In the number of court house masseuse's have been reduced by two.

Here's the DBR story on our new PD
To summarize: He's Cuban, gay, and a democrat, so he's not welcome almost anywhere. We applaud Mr. Martinez's courage for coming out of the closet- it's not easy to be a Cuban and an avowed Democrat in this town. For those of you getting ready to send us vicious emails, Mr. Martinez discusses his sexual orientation in the article, which is why we mention it here.

And here is Oh Susannah's article on the PD's saying NO to new cases: NO

See You In Court, very much not interested in having the PD's clients hire us.

THE PD'S OFFICE IS.....

CLOSED!!!!??????
(updated below and here: Sad news reaches us, apparently confirmed, that longtime REGJB Lawyer Stuart Mishkin has passed away. Stuart was a former prosecutor, and good friend to many lawyers, court reporters, Judges, and court staff.
Stuart Miskin passed away after a long brave fight. Those of you who were Stuart's friends, knew that at least two years ago, despite a grim diagnosis, Stuart kept working and surprised his doctors. Stuart Mishkin was part of a different era. He was a lawyer when Miami was changing from a sleepy southern tourist town, to the high powered, cocaine fueled, exploding metropolis of the "Miami Vice 1980's". Stuart was here when it all changed. When we think of Stuart, we think of other old-time lawyers like Max Engle, Paul Pollock, Sy Gaer, and of course his longtime former partners Steve Golembe and Ken Weisman. Stuart left his mark on countless clients and friends, and he will be missed and remembered.)

The rumor we are hearing is that very shortly because of the infamous budget cuts, the Public defenders, those champions of altruism and defender of those who no one else will defend, will very shortly be telling judges (politely we hope for their sake) that they can no longer accept appointments on new cases. The halls of PDs office are full of rumors of impending layoffs, attorneys being furloughed, no new lawyers or support staff being hired. It has not been the most pleasant place to work lately.

So, Mr. Martinez, as some of our favourite judges like to say "what say you?"

Are you guys putting up the shutters and closing the door and turning away the poor, the weak, the wretched refuse of Dade County. Has rain and sleet and gloom of no money forced the PDs to abandon the swift completion of their appointed cases? (Why are we quoting so many verses from words etched in stone in NYC?)

See you in court, where we often ponder the oath of admission to the Bar of Florida, in which, inter alia, young lawyers are required to swear that they would never turn down a case because of money.

Update: ASA David Ranck's "documents blog" getting some outside publicity:RANCK