Business Court -- Yay or Nay?

With Judge Freeman passing the complex business litigation torch to Judges Bailey and Rodriguez, the question inevitably arises:

Is the darn thing any good?

In the Yay column stands my pal Mike Higer, (I'm pretty sure that's him above) who says they are making some changes in 2012 to better improve how the courts operate, but in general they are working well:

"Business courts have accomplished exactly what the lawyers in the business community wanted to see occur," says Higer — "to get a judge whose more proficient and efficient in handling business disputes." 

Not everyone agrees:

Lawyers say several factors have left room for improvement, however. "There’s a perception that cases were moving too slowly and decisions were taking longer than hoped to get decided," says Jim Murphy, an attorney with Shook Hardy & Bacon in Tampa. Murphy says much of the problem has stemmed from funding issues — the business courts, he says, didn’t get the kind of support staff and other help to enable them to work through cases more quickly. "These are complicated cases that require research and active case managing, and the resources we initially had envisioned were not there," he says. "I think the caseloads were more than anticipated." 

My own take is I love the concept, but the execution needs work.

Judge Freeman of course is the best, but the procedural rules are clunky and sometimes favor form over function.

Still, it beats waiting behind several thousand foreclosure proceedings in order to get two minutes with the Judge.


What say you?

Announcing the All-New SFL Whole Wheat Pasta Bolognaise Foodtruck!

I've decided it's about time I jump right in and tap into the food truck mania that is sweeping South Florida.

And, like any good marketer, I am focusing on a niche market.

In fact, my niche market is exceedingly small -- I plan to park my truck in only one location, 1000 Brickell Ave, and I plan to serve only one item: whole wheat pasta bolognaise.

Why, you may ask, have I focused my new food truck business so narrowly?

Well let's just say I have my reasons, but I assure you they have absolutely nothing to do with certain food rituals observed by certain attorneys at La Loggia:

American Bar Association members and committee heads Melanie Damian and Peter F. Valori were there too, ritually ordering the whole-wheat pasta bolognaise while working hard to sway Florida Bar Business Law chair Michael J. Heiger into steering a portion of his leadership efforts toward the bar organization’s national arm. Heiger, apparently familiar with the payoffs of preparation, arrived at lunch armed with one of his young associates, whom he seemed to be offering up in his place.

"[R]itually ordering the whole-wheat pasta bolognaise"?

Thanks for the tip!

BTW Mike -- nice touch to offer up an unnamed and not-worthy-of-being-mentioned-in-this-article young associate as a sacrificial lamb -- we are talking about the ABA, after all!

Dean Hausler Continues Effort to Collect Assets From Cuban Government

You may recall the continuing efforts by Roberto Martinez, on behalf of longtime and beloved UM Law School Dean Hausler, to collect on a default judgment against the Cuban government relating to the 1960 torture and death of her brother Bobby Fuller.

The latest twist is a case recently removed and pending before Judge King in which Dean Hausler seeks to garnish funds allegedly retained by Tata Communications, a telecommunications company. Tata is represented by Michael Higer.

You can read the docket here.

Michael's answer (filed in state court before removal) asserts that the plaintiffs bear the burden and have not shown that ETECSA -- the telecommunications provider in Cuba -- is an instrumentality of the Cuban government and, even if it was, his client owes no money to it.

Higer also asserts that this case is entirely different than the Hausler I, the case brought against telephone provider EmtelCuba, in which there was no dispute that EmtelCuba was an agent or instrumentality of the Cuban government, and thus subject to garnishment for a judgment against the Cuban government.

The answer asserts that the extant evidence indicates that ETECSA is owned by Dutch, Italian, Panamanian and Cuban companies and thus would not be an agent or instrumentality of the Cuban government under existing law.

That seems like a tough sell, but who knows?

You can see some wonderful photos of Dean Hausler here.