Florida’s chief justice orders judges to report colleagues who goof off
An administrative order (PDF) this month from Florida’s chief justice has reverberated throughout the legal community.
In it, Chief Justice Jorge Labarga says the chief judge in each circuit must “separately communicate” with every trial court judge “the importance of a professional work ethic and accountability to the judiciary as a full-time commitment,” reports the Broward Bulldog.
And, for those who don’t take heed of the initial message, any neglect of duty “shall be reported by the chief judge to the chief justice of this court,” Labarga writes.
“Until this order came out, the chief judge, at least in Broward, was largely a ceremonial title where you went to rubber chicken lunches and you cut ribbons at the courthouse,” Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein commented to the Herald.
Finkelstein says that at least four chief judges told him at some point “that, whether a judge was intoxicated on the bench or was violating people’s rights by not following the law, they had no authority to do anything.”
But Lambarga’s order, Finkelstein noted, apparently takes a different view. “This order, as I read it, puts it clearly on the chief judges,” he said.
Updated on Dec. 22 to credit the Broward Bulldog with the original reporting.
