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![handle is hein.barjournals/flabn0049 and id is 1 raw text is: Board of Governors and YLD Board Races Set - Page 9
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Ther Forida Bar s
Volume 49, Number 1
FloridaBar.org /News
January 2022
Brown-Burton, Westheimer
seek the Bar's presidency
By Gary Blankenship
Senior Editor
Veteran Board of
Governors members Lorna
F. Brown-Burton and F.
Scott Westheimer have
qualified as candidates for
Florida Bar president-elect
in the 2022 election cycle.
Qualifying closed
December 15. Ballots will BROWN-BURTON
be mailed on or before
March 1 by the Bar's election company and
as in past years, members will have the option
of voting by paper ballot or online. Ballots
must be returned by 11:59 p.m. on March 21.
The winner will be sworn in as president-
elect at the Bar's June Annual Convention
(when current President-elect Gary Lesser
takes the oath as president) and then assume
office as president at the 2023 convention.
The News will publish platfonstatements
and a Q&A with the candidates, both online
and in the February printed edition.
Being of service has been my mission
both as an individual and as a lawyer and has
shaped my five guiding principles in who I
am, Brown-Burton said ofher decision to run
for president. With the guiding principles as
my foundation and service being in my DNA
along with my passion about my work as an
attorney and counselor of law, Bar service
came naturally to me. As president I will give
a voice to the everyday working lawyer and
for a Bar that provides all the resources and
tools necessary for each
and every member to be
the success they desire.
Westheimer said he's
running Tecause I want
to be able to truly help
all our members, from
the solo practitioner and
small law firms (which
are 70% of our Bar),
WESTHEIMER government lawyers
(which are approximately
16% of our Bar), to the big firm and in-house
lawyers, with their day-to-day practices, their
business, and their quality of life, health and
wellness, and to provide them with tangible
tools and resources to succeed. We are in
transformational times, and as we get back to
whatever our new nonnal is, The Florida Bar
needs to support our members in meaningful,
practical ways.
Brown-Burton, of Ft. Lauderdale, said the
main challenges facing the Bar are protecting
the independence of the judiciary, increasing
access to the courts for all Floridians, and
supporting Bar members in their practices.
The judicial branch is a coequal
and independent branch of government.
Maintaining that independence is critical
to the protection of our citizenry and a free
society, she said.
Courts must be supported to solve the
major inventory of cases, Brown-Burton
See Candidates, page 4
Board rejects special
committee's 'legal
lab' recommendation
Accepts recommendation for test program within
a legal aid office for expanded paralegal service
By Gary Blankenship
Senior Editor
The concept of having a statewide legal lab
to test new ways of providing legal services
has been unanimously rejected by the Bar
Board of Governors at its
meeting on December 2. 'I think ti
The Supreme Court's
Special Committee to has re
Improve the Delivery t
of Legal Services hadhe
conceptually approved the Comm
legal lab and recommended
the court give the special report i
committee an additional t
six months to flesh out how though
a lab would work, if the delibera
justices were amenable to
the idea.
The board did approve
some other recommendations from the special
committee. It endorsed the idea of allowing
legal aid organizations to organize under
Bar rules as nonprofit corporations, and to
have nonlawyer members on their boards of
directors. These changes would, among other
things, conform the rules to those used for
h
vi
p
in
Ill
ti
federal funding for their activities. But unlike
the special committee, the board said neither
idea needed to be tested in the legal lab.
The board also accepted a stripped-
down version of a special committee
recommendation to
e board allow Florida Registered
Paralegals to provide more
iewed legal services under lawyer
lecial supervision. The special
committee proposed
ttee's that supervised Florida
Registered Paralegals
a very (FRPs) be allowed to
S and provide more services in
ful n areas where litigants often
ve way' appear pro se or where
accessmay be otherwise
- limited. Instead, the board
accepted a recommendation
from board member Gordon Glover to have a
pilot program at one legal aid organization to
allow paralegals to provide expanded service
to defendants in residential landlord/tenant
and debt collection matters.
See Special Committee, page 5
Court calls for the creation of a sixth DCA
By Jim Ash
Senior Editor
Saying that it would significantly improve the judicial
process, the Supreme Court has recommended creating a
sixth district court of appeal and adjusting the boundaries of
the First, Second, and Fifth appellate districts.
If the Legislature agrees, it would be the first time since
1979 that Florida has created a new district court of appeal.
Chief Justice Charles Canady was joined in a November
24 opinion by Justices Jorge Labarga, Alan Lawson, Carlos
Muniz, and John Couriel, with Justice Jamie Grosshans
concurring in result only. Justice Ricky Polston cast the lone
dissent.
The opinion adopts recommendations made by the District
Court of Appeal Workload and Jurisdiction Assessment
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73
Committee that the Supreme Court appointed in May.
We agree with the Committee's conclusion that public
trust and confidence will be enhanced by the creation of a
sixth district court, the justices wrote.
The majority opinion notes that rule factors related to public
trust are largely subjective.
Nonetheless, we believe that the factors are meaningful
considerations, and that the Committee has identified a
reasonable basis for its approval.
In his dissent, however, Justice Polston stated that the
majority opinion adopts a committee recommendation that
is not supported by any of the five chief judges of the DCAs
or by any district court of appeal judge, on the committee.
I agree with the district court of appeal judges that no
changes are justified, Justice Polston wrote.
The majority opinion also certifies the need for six new
appellate judgeships.
But Justice Polston noted in his dissent that under our
annual certification process for the need for additional
judges, no district court requested certification of additional
judgeships, and none are justified by the average projected
judicial need analysis performed.
Chaired by Third District Court of Appeal Judge Ed
See DCA, page 7
Recommended Realignment of Districts
Cay
0una
Marron
A N
First District
] Second District
[ Thud District
Fourth District
] Fifth District
Sixth District
Supreme Court considers wide-ranging
changes aimed at streamlining civil cases
'Continuances are going to be very difficult to get in this new world'
By Jim Ash
Senior Editor
The Supreme Court is
about to weigh a Judicial
Management Council
proposal that would
bring sweeping changes
to Florida's civil trial
system, the chair of a JMC
workgroup told the Board of
Governors.
Addressing the board in
December, Second District
Court ofAppeal Chief Judge
Robert Morris said the
proposal is designed to bring
greater efficiencies to a civil
system that is struggling to
resolve 2 million cases.
Just about
every state
and every
jurisdiction
Iha s ma d e
an effort to
manage this
the federal
system did it
MORRIS decades ago,
Judge Morris said. We need
to do something about this,
and it's our time to try and
work on it.
Judge Morris warned that
lawyers and judges could
find the proposed changes
challenging to implement,
at least at first.
People don't like
change, he said. This is a
major paradigm shift.
One board member called
the proposal seismic.
The word that comes to
mind is sobering, President
Mike Tanner said.
The proposed changes
are contained in a 184-page
report by the Workgroup
on Improved Resolution
of Civil Cases that Judge
Morris chairs. (That reprot
had not been released as this
News went to press.)
But whatever the
court decides, justices are
expected to schedule a
lengthy comment period
before any changes are
implemented, Judge Morris
said.
He urged board members
to study the report carefully
and notify their constituents
to do the same and to
begin preparing comments.
In order to get buy in
by our whole community,
we've got to educate
people, Judge Morris said.
We've got to get serious
about that,
President-elect Gary
Lesser pressed for a timeline.
See Civil, page 8
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