3d DCA Watch -- Don't Follow Leaders, YOU MUST PAY YOUR PARKING METERS Edition

Hi folks!

I was in a pretty good mood for a while there.

For example, after court this morning I took a lovely stroll along the Miami River, and decided to sit and smoke a nice cigar at this bench along the water (see above photo).

Look at that wonderful "litter art" the city has strewn about the area for our olfactory and visual amusement!

And the homeless and/or vaguely menacing gentlemen who continually approached me as I sat amid the city-provided artwork?

I imagined they were all Audio-Animatronic figures, you know like from Disney's The Hall of Presidents, and that made their noises and gestures all seem hip, cool and retro/futuristic.

God I love this town!

But then I read the 3d DCA opinions today.

First off, there is the newly-released Third Revised Addendum To Amended Parking Instructions to the Temporary Judicial Bunker.

From what I can glean, the only substantive change is the insertion of this phrase -- "YOU MUST PAY THE PARKING METER CHARGE" at least 37 times in the one-page document.

This is funny because at the same time the instruction is drummed into our brains ad nauseum (because the 3d knows all appellate lawyers are cheapskates and looking to get free parking if possible), the 3d finds a less prominent arbitration clause to be binding:

In conclusion, we find that the simple, self-contained, and italicized arbitration provision, found twice in the four-page application, sufficiently put Mr. Mahan on notice that disputes with respect to the account would be subject to mandatory arbitration. Accordingly, the arbitration provisions were not procedurally unconscionable.

No caps and just italicized twice? Guess these aren't appellate lawyers we're dealing with.

But I actually agree with this decision, given the particulars (for more on the trend away from mandated arbitration provisions see this front-page WSJ article today).

What depressed me, however, were the number of obvious trial court errors that the Court had to address this week.

There were a lot of opinions released I grant you, but in just this batch we had a judge sanction an attorney without conducting a Kozel analysis; another judge grant summary judgment without conducting a hearing; and a third judge fail to hold an evidentiary hearing leading to a confession of error.

And no way I'm telling Judge Carnes about this case, where a bunch of investors read the WSJ four years after buying some Millennium Tower condos and suddenly "discovered" the condos may in fact be "securities" under the Florida Securities and Investor Protection Act.

Hail, I'd rather go back to smell the art and hang with the robots along the river.