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A TALE OF TWO TYPES OF JUDGES
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published April 23, 2018
There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re reading this blog,
at one time or another you came in contact with a courtroom. If
you lost your case, the experience may have felt awful. If you
won your case after litigating for years and years the
experience may have been worse.
In any event, of
the three branches of government, the branch that seems to be
shrouded in secrecy more than the other two, is the judicial
branch. Think about it. Members of the legislative branch are
out in public almost all the time. They have to be because they
are always out there trying to raise money for the next
campaign. Many members of the Executive Branch of government
are also elected officials who live and breathe on public
appearances and speeches. On the other hand, when it comes to
the judicial branch, you never see judges making public
appearances and discussing hot political topics. They never
give interviews on the radio or on TV. The United States
Supreme Court still won’t allow cameras in the courtroom. In
fact, before you get to the courtroom, you’ve probably never met
the judge who is going to preside over your case, have any
knowledge about what makes them tick, what their prior
experience is and why they do what they do. Until now.
If you didn’t come
to our Night Out With The Judges event this week --- kick
yourself. Twice. Broward County Judges Jose Izquierdo, Olga
Levine, Fabienne Fahnestock, Alan Marks, Robert Lee, Jennifer
Hilal and Al Ribas thoroughly engaged the audience at a truly
unique event where the community got to call them to the witness
stand, made them answer questions about what they do and why
they do it and afterwards sat and had coffee and cake and
mingled with the people over whom they typically judge. It was
awesome!
Going to court can
be scary, confusing and nerve wracking. Yes, even for the
attorneys. This event however, was the complete and total
opposite. It gave the community a chance to meet, discuss and
learn from judges who made it clear that they have a passion and
commitment to give back to the community and who repeatedly made
it clear that they are public servants who work for the people
in the audience and that their courtroom was not their courtroom
at all. Instead, it was theirs.
The next time we
advertise one of these events. Take my word for it and attend.
I want to thank all of the judges who participated and assure
them that the community they serve appreciated their
attendance. And for once I attended a seminar where I didn’t
have to talk for three hours.
After I wrote this blog and we met Broward’s best,
the news broke about a very unfortunate experience between a
judge in Broward County and a 59 year old female defendant in a
wheel chair, Sandra Twiggs, suffering from asthma and chronic
lung disease. As you will see in the video, the woman was simply
berated by the court, humiliated and embarrassed for no reason
whatsoever. She died two days after the hearing. The video is
absolutely shocking The dichotomy in demeanor between the
judges I hosted and the judge who is on the bench in this video
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-sb-judge-bullying-inmate-dies-20180420-story.html
is striking. That is why today Judge Merrilee Ehrlich finds
herself without a job and won’t be on the bench any longer, as
Broward’s Chief Judge Jack Tuter won’t let her sit there.
Obviously, the right decision. I just wish it happened before
Sandra Twiggs got the chance to meet her.
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from
the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after
receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community
association law for more than 2
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decades and is the owner of Glazer
and Associates, P.A. a seven attorney law firm with offices in
Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and satellite offices in Naples,
Fort Myers and Tampa.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host
of Condo Craze and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs
at noon each Sunday on 850 WFTL.
See:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the
State of Florida that designed a course that certifies
condominium residents as eligible to serve on a condominium
Board of Directors and has now certified more than 10,000
Floridians all across the state. He is certified as a Circuit
Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has mediated
dozens of disputes between associations and unit owners. Eric
also devotes significant time to advancing legislation in the
best interest of Florida community association members.
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