Judge Seitz Strikes Defendant's Pleadings And Other News.

Order Striking Pleadings


Hi kids, I guess what I love best about South Florida is the lovely weather!

Well, that and Glenn Garvin.

And while we all know Garvin lives in the past, who knew it was way back in the 1930s:

A packed courtroom watched as defense attorneys Bruce Lehr and Roberto Pertierra acted as Capone’s trusted two-man team, originally former Broward Circuit Judge Vincent C. Giblin and J. Fritz Gordon.

On the other side were Miami-Dade prosecutors Charlie Johnson and Howard Rosen, acting as County Solicitor G.E. McCaskill and Special Assistant County Solicitor Richard H. Hunt.

The jury, which included Miami Herald columnist Glenn Garvin and Daily Business Review executive editor Eddie Dominguez, listened as the attorneys presented their cases, mostly improvised.

"Mostly improvised," huh -- just like Glenn's columns!

Kudos all around, what a great idea and a fine way of marking the Court's centennial.

In other news, Julie Kay does a nice curtain-raiser on the Potamkin divorce battle, which pits A.J. Barranco and Barry Wayne against Maurice Kutner and Cynthia Greene.

Finally, Judge Seitz strikes a defendant's pleadings in a hotly contested family business dispute in which the defendant allegedly hacked the plaintiff's email files.

The Order is posted above.

Stay dry folks!

Jude Law Spends Six Hours With Maurice Kutner!

You tell me how to read this:

Jude, who fathered the five-month-old baby girl during a fling with model Samantha Burke, met celebrity lawyer Maurice Kutner for six hours in Miami on Thursday, ahead of the summit.

A source said: "Jude was very on edge about the meeting."

I mean, wouldn't you be?

We're talking six straight unadulterated hours with Maurice Kutner, I know I would be plotzing!

(Huh, what's that? Oh, ok.)

Excuse me folks, I've just been reminded by one of my editorial assistants that perhaps Jude was not so much on edge over having to spend six hours with Maurice, but rather he was on edge over meeting his old flame and young daughter.

Interesting theory, but color me skeptical.

BTW, can you name a memorable Jude Law performance?

A.I.?

Cold Mountain?

I liked him alright in Alfie but that hardly justifies all the media attention.

Come on, someone help me out here.

SFL Friday -- Cursed Technology Edition

Let's try to put things in perspective before we windsurf over to the glorious South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which is always a blast (even if ticket sales are down and they are losing sponsors due to the crumbling economy):

Let's see -- it's raining rats at the Palm Beach County courthouse; even Blackwater(!) had to lay off some workers; we can't afford to build more prisons and may have to let some prisoners go free; and -- believe it or not -- but we will all have to pitch in and buy Maurice Jay Kutner's law office an answering machine:

Maurice Jay Kutner and Anthony Sabatino, listed in court records as Louise Sage Stanford’s lawyers in the Florida case, also were unavailable for comment late yesterday. Their law firm telephone didn’t have an answering machine.

"Their law firm telephone didn't have an answering machine"? Holy hail, did Bloomberg News just report that?

I hope many of you have volunteered to serve as judges in the various student mock trial competitions that we will soon be hosting -- both the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition (which will be held in a few weeks at Rump's joint) and Miami-Dade County High School Mock Trial Competition (which takes place next week at the Knight Center) need qualified volunteers.

Me, I've been studying new employment relationships, enjoying the latest issue of SI, and learning this very interesting fact about the internets:

Of course, some workplaces aren't keen on having dogs or private dance parties during the day, so office workers with online access find Internet distractions. Gretchen Doores, a senior account executive at Greenough Communications, lets herself check her social networking profiles and chat with friends for a few minutes. After she's had some virtual recreation, she's ready to go back to work.

You mean bored office workers sometimes fool around on this thing? You learn something new every day.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Maurice Kutner Lands a Big One

All you naysayers take note -- this one could be very big:

Capping a week of rumors about her husband's alleged infidelities, the wife of New York Yankee superstar Alex ''A-Rod'' Rodriguez is expected to file for divorce in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Monday, The Miami Herald has learned.

Cynthia Rodriguez, 35, who wed the Miami-bred slugger in 2002, claims the marriage is over because of Rodriguez's extramarital affairs. The couple own a waterfront home in Coral Gables.

In recent days, Rodriguez, 32, had been linked to Madonna, 49, by New York papers, which said Rodriguez was spotted leaving the Material Girl's Park Avenue apartment late at night. Madonna's own union to director Guy Ritchie has also been reported to be on the rocks.

Madonna vehemently denied a romance with the All-Star in a statement released to People magazine on Sunday.

In the divorce, Cynthia Rodriguez is represented by attorneys Maurice Kutner and Anthony Sabatino, both of Miami, and Earle Lilly and John Van Ness of Houston.

''She feels that she has exhausted every opportunity to salvage the marriage, and that Alex has emotionally abandoned her and the children and has left her with no choice but to divorce him,'' Kutner said Sunday.

The former Cynthia Scurtis married the third-baseman, a Miami-Dade Westminster Christian High School graduate, on Nov. 2, 2002 in Dallas, Tx. They have two children, Natasha, 3, and Ella, who is 3-months-old.

The couple is said to have a prenuptial agreement, drawn up on Oct. 3, 2002, a month before their marriage.

Late last year, Alex Rodriguez, the son of Dominican parents, signed baseball's highest contract - a 10-year, $275 million deal with the Yankees.

Prenup, eh? I wonder who prepared that document? If they did like Big Ira -- with the videos, witnesses, all the bells and whistles, A-Rod should be in good shape. Otherwise, get ready for WWIII.