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Legal Ethics

Bar Seeks Suspension for ‘Obstreperous’ Would-Be Judge

Posted Sep 16, 2008, 11:27 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The Florida Bar is recommending a suspension for the “obstreperous behavior” of a lawyer accused of failing to listen to the judge presiding over his traffic case. The lawyer, William Abramson, went on to challenge the judge for election.

The bar took the rare move of asking the Florida Supreme Court to ignore a referee’s recommendation for a public reprimand of Abramson, the Palm Beach Post reports. Instead, the bar says Abramson’s license should be suspended for 91 days.

According to the story, Abramson ran against the judge who reported his behavior, Circuit Judge Richard Wennet. Results of the Aug. 26 election are still up in the air as the search goes on for about 3,500 missing ballots.

The referee found that in a December 2005 hearing, Abramson had ignored Wennet’s instructions to sit down and be quiet and made disparaging remarks about the judge to jurors. The bar’s brief to the supreme court noted that Abramson was disciplined twice before for bad behavior with judges, and said he "engaged in angry, disrespectful and obstreperous behavior” in the 2005 case.

If Abramson wins the election and takes office before the state supreme court acts, the bar can no longer prosecute him, the story says. "I think we could prosecute him after he leaves the bench,” said bar prosecutor Kenneth Marvin.

Abramson contends the bar complaint is “payback” for his criticism of the judiciary.

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