Florida Bar Journal articles from October 2002

Florida Bar Journal archives from October 2002

A tribute to judges.(President's Page)
October 1, 2002... Judges, all too often, are misunderstood. More times than not they toil in solitude, silently wrestle with difficult decisions, quietly seek truth and fairness in their courtrooms, and receive no fanfare. In 1976, U.S. Senators Lawton...

Harry Lee Anstead: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida.
October 1, 2002... When a couple of Bermuda-shorts-clad, camera-toting tourists peek into the empty courtroom at the Florida Supreme Court and shyly step inside, a man wearing a black robe bellows out: "Welcome! Come on in! Where are you folks from? Why,...

"Here comes the money": a subcontractor's and material supplier's guide to perfecting construction lien and bond rights under Florida law.
October 1, 2002... Your brother runs a small tile installation company. He calls you complaining that he has not been paid on a job where he installed $15,000 worth of tiles for a general contractor. He wants to know what he can do. Your brother desperately needs...

Measure of damages in property loss cases.
October 1, 2002... Proving damages in a large property loss case is often tedious, sometimes complex, and occasionally treacherous. The drudgery of itemizing the damages is difficult enough. The battle over entitlement to economic damages is no less daunting....

The enforcement of investigative subpoenas issued by administrative agencies: an analysis of common defenses.
October 1, 2002... Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom. It is virtually impossible to hear those names and not think about the multiple investigations that have been and are being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Justice Department, and...

Voir dire necessities: the Florida Supreme Court clarifies when trial counsel's investigation of the venire must be undertaken.
October 1, 2002... It is axiomatic that absent an impartial jury, a fair jury trial--not necessarily a perfect jury trial--is impossible to achieve and will not result. In McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. 548 (1984), Justice Rehnquist,...

Intestacy in the context of Estate Planning in Florida: when to apply the intestacy rules and how to avoid them.
October 1, 2002... Florida intestacy laws address certain basic estate planning issues involving rights of spouses and children and distributional schemes for intestate succession. In most cases, intestacy is not a preferred planning device. In general, it is a...

Fiduciary allocations of the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption.
October 1, 2002... Every individual has a generation-skipping transfer tax exemption ("GST exemption"), currently $1,100,000 (1) for 2002, which may be allocated by such individual or his personal representative to any property with respect to which such...

"Let's make a deal"; the problem of vindictive sentencing: judges have nearly unlimited discretion in sentencing defendants to maximum statutory sentences. The facial legality of maximum sentences can lead to increases in vindictive sentencing claims.
October 1, 2002... "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which He said He would do unto them; and He did it not." 3 JONAH 10 "Repentance has a role in penology. But the premise of our criminal...

The importance of parent-child relationships: what attorneys need to know about the impact of separation; examining the formation of parent-child relationships and how attachment is impacted by parental contact can assist the court in determining the parameters of visitation.
October 1, 2002... Children who develop secure attachment relationships with their parents are at an advantage cognitively, socially, and emotionally compared to peers who have not developed secure attachments. (1) Within the family law arena, the relationship...

The origination and early development of free speech in the United States a brief overview: after the tumultuous early years in our nation's history, the status of freedom of speech remained fairly quiescent in American jurisprudence for over 100 years.
October 1, 2002... The First Amendment guaranty of freedom of speech is one of the most revered cornerstones of American society. The full text of the amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free...

Arbitration and attorneys' fees: a pandora's box; with the recent Florida Supreme Court decision in Moser, expanded judicial review of arbitrations awards may become a reality.
October 1, 2002... Arbitration, a privatization of civil justice, is a process without the right to a jury trial, and is free of the constraints of certain constitutional rights. Moreover, until very recently, the bases for appeal of an arbitration award were...

The Wailing Wind.
October 1, 2002... by Tony Hillerman Even the title The Wailing Wind--of Tony Hillerman's best-selling, fifteenth mystery featuring the crime-solving Navajos Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee--contains the puzzle: what, where, when, who, and so what? But aren't we...