The entire world has been focused on the Casey Anthony trial and especially the not guilty verdict. The news and chatrooms all over the world are exploding with commentary and outrage over what is widely perceived to be yet another failure of our judicial system and more to the point…it’s yet another black eye for Florida’s beleaguered courts.
I wish the world (or at least people within Florida) would spend just one tenth of the energy devoted to Casey Anthony on issues that are far more important to a far bigger cross section of our population…the crisis of chaos that is playing out in foreclosure courtrooms all across this country and especially in Florida.
One fact that is established fact Florida’s courts are chronically underfunded…and getting worse. For starters, the entire judicial budget is less than 1% of the entire state budget. Then, in 2009, the Florida Legislature changed the funding of our courts to a fee for service system where virtually the entire budget would be based on filing fees. The result is system that has crashed into free fall after the banks and foreclosure mills got caught engaging in grossly systemic and abusive practice….they got caught and while there has been no punishment or sanction for their conduct, the impact in the short run has been a dramatic decrease in filing fees. Just have a read of this article for more information about the impact this “pay to play” system is having on our courts.
And as outraged as the general public is at the Casey Anthony verdict, they should be equally or more outraged at how the banks and Wall Street Wizards have made a disaster of our court system by systematically failing to observe basic elements of due process and disrespecting our court system to a degree that the press and public now faces our courts with a concerned or skeptical eye.
And while we’re at it, let’s consider the cumulative impact of the budget policies that are gutting not just our courts, judges and court staff in this state, but also police, firefighters, paramedics and every other public service worker. Just last week, an article ran statewide reporting on the plight of more than 1,300 people who lost their jobs starting on July 1, 2011, read the article here and consider the cumulative impact of all these cuts and the continued hits state workers are taking all across this country. Now I’m a pretty conservative guy fiscally, but the public cannot expect flawless service and impeccable quality from the public sector when they continue to take serious blows in key areas. Get accustomed to more crimes going unchecked and investigated and less punishment, not more because we just are not spending the money required to fulfill the high expectations we have of our court and criminal justice system. Oh, and the white collar criminals and leadership that caused all the misery Americans are suffering???? They’re going to have an even easier moonwalk away from their crime scenes….less investigators, less prosecutors and a lack of initiative from those in power to do anything at all about it.
Everyone screaming, “Justice for Kaylee!”, What about “Justice for Anybody?”
The connection is, you have a plaintiff/prosecutor reaching to far, with questionable evidence.
I am so happy that the talking heads, who make their living, talking out of their asses, have shone what their opinion is worth.
So it seems that even Florida courts are fairer than the talk shows, when a jury is involved.
Television is the death of our culture and has been for a very long time. It’s the reason people are dumbed down and easily brainwashed.
Having listened to the rebuttal closing argument by the prosecution and heard the jury instructions, I am convinced that Casey Anthony could not have been convicted of the alternative versions of the crimes asserted by the state. People should be rejoicing that a Florida jury would not convict anyone of a crime for alternative theories of when the state has the burden of proof. It is terrifying to observe the verbal attacks against the jurors who followed the law in finding reasonable doubt where the state’s contention was EITHER the child was murdered by premeditation OR died as a result of child abuse. What justifies the outrage against the jury in finding reasonable doubt when all the prosecution provided an either/or theory on a capital crime or any crime for that matter?
Off Topic (and you’ve probably seen it ) but here’s something VERY interesting …
https://4closurefraud.org/2011/07/06/nationwide-title-clearing-doc-shop-services-include-optional-collateral-file-creation-services-can-be-performed-as-needed/
The Casey Anthony verdict was correct. The state failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Still there was no justice for Caylee or the people of Florida, who still don’t know what really happened to Caylee. The prosecutors presented half-baked theories that went nowhere.
As for the Florida courts, they are awful. There are too many special interests to bring meaningful reform. The Florida courts are just an expensive charade that erode public confidence in government. I would propose the following changes:
Significantly increase the filing fee in circuit court to something like $1,000-$5,000. The current filing fee of $300 is ridiculously low and encourages the filing of too many cases.
Dump the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, and use the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Florida rules, especially the discovery process, is unfair and easily manipulated, resulting in cases not being decided on the merits, but on the skill and maneuvering of lawyers.
Prohibit lawyers from becoming judges. The position of judge should be a separate profession, as done in Europe and elsewhere. From my observation of the selection process, judges are too often just burned-out lawyers who can’t earn a living anymore. The judicial selection process has been co-opted by lawyers, either through improper influence of JNCs (i.e. Scott Rothstein essentially bought a seat on the 4th DCA JNC), or campaign contributions from lawyers to judges whom they appear before (a.k.a. legal bribery). In addition, there is no meaningful oversight of Florida judges. The JQC is highly political in deciding which complaints it pursues. Judges who speak out about corruption are often the target of investigation, such as Circuit Judge Gregory Holder, who was investigated twice after he spoke out. Judge Holder was cleared of wrongdoing, but his legal bills approached $2 million.
Florida courts desperately need electronic CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Files) like the federal PACER system (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). The current Florida system, based on the physical handling of paper documents stored on shelves, dates to the horse and buggy. The scheme is kept in place because it is a cash cow and allows the Clerk to charge $1 per page for documents. The federal PACER system charges only 8 cents a copy, from the comfort of your home computer. In Florida judges and/or the Clerk sometime play hide and seek with court files, thereby denying access to public documents.
Some cases may be better off with no judge at all. Instead some cases could be done on computer with interactive software linked to a Westlaw data base that is immune to political influence, campaign contributions, and the often encountered crankiness of the bench. Litigants may not even need lawyers, another savings. This system would not be perfect, and some glitches may occur, but I believe overall it would provide more justice and a higher level of satisfaction with the legal process than the current system.
Most of the above reforms have no chance whatsoever of becoming law. So my advice is to avoid the courts, especially pro se. The courts are just another scam.