Shoot The Messenger

I'm glad I don't have to go to Broward court all that often.

When I do, I find the usual annoyances -- parking, getting in, the meshuga elevator system, crowded/dysfunctional courthouse, lawyers wearing ratty tan blazers, some of the judges.....

One thing I don't often (ever?) think about -- JAABlog's poisonous effect on the Broward judicial system.

Apparently, however, others do:

Contributing to the tumult, Campbell said, was the Internet and people who post anonymous comments railing against judges.

He did not refer to specific Internet sites or blogs, but JAABLOG, a courthouse gossip blog that highlights judicial missteps and encourages lawyers to run for judge, has become a popular forum for anonymous, critical – sometimes racist – comments about judges.

“We have people using the Internet as a means of communication to force humiliation on people they may disagree with,” Campbell said. “We cannot allow this humiliation to continue, and I believe that’s one source of our problems at the Broward County Courthouse.”

Exactly -- a key "source" of the problems in Broward has finally been identified!

I love Skip, but on this he's a bit off base.

I'm pretty sure racism and humiliation can be found just about anywhere on the internet, and sometimes even around us in real life.

And talk about misplaced priorities.

Can anyone really say, in the wake of the Rothstein debacle, that one of the core problems with the Broward legal system is the existence of a bunch of dips*#t commenters on a blog?

If so, Broward's in worse shape than I thought.

God Punishes Broward Voters By Giving Them The Courthouse They Deserve

Everyone knows the Broward courthouse sucks. The stupid elevators, floors that don't match, bad parking, oh let's be honest -- it is just plain gross.

What's even worser are some of the judges you encounter once you are inside. No wonder they are so surly sometimes -- would you want to go to work in that building every day?

Still, those schmarty Broward voters rejected a bond issue in 2006 that would have built a regular courthouse instead of the dying, decaying rubble-like structure that presently houses all those prickly jurists.

So God decided to flood the building and be done with it.

Luckily Howard Finkelstein built an ark, put Skip Campbell on it, and they both sailed to safety.

Now Skip plans to sue for making court employees have to work in such a sickly building, and thus Broward voters will wind up paying substantial damages and still have that crappy building, assuming Skip ever finds a minimally acceptable courtroom to try his case in.

Way to go Broward!

Now excuse me I've got to go to 73 West Flagler, where I will wait in a cramped hallway with 60 other lawyers and hopefully get my two minutes before the fax machine breaks and all hail breaks loose again.

Oh well -- that's gonna be one nice Marlins stadium, huh?

Skip Campbell Represents Clients Who Actually Attended A Rob Thomas Concert

I love Joan Fleischman's column in the Miami Herald. She always finds some interesting nugget out there, usually involving the law or some local yokle. I didn't understand it when they moved and bumped her column to make room for Ana whatever-her-name-is, although I have to admit Ana turned out better than I thought.

Today Joan discovers that Rob Thomas, the punky lead singer for Matchbox Twenty, is actually a dangerous drumstick-thrower:

Lisa Gelbard, wife of Broward neurosurgeon Dr. Steven Gelbard, is suing rock singer Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty fame.

Lisa, 43, says she was hurt at a December '05 concert at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Thomas was on tour -- without MB 20 -- to promote his first solo album. A member of Thomas' band threw a drumstick into the audience, and it hit ''about her face,'' says Lisa's complaint, filed by attorney Walter ''Skip'' Campbell Jr. She suffered a cervical herniated disk, Campbell says.

Steve, 51, who attended the concert with Lisa, is party to the suit, filed against Thomas' company, Bidnis. He suffered ''the loss of his wife's services, support, consortium and the care and comfort of her society.'' They have been married since '02.

My first question is why the hail a couple their age is at this concert in the first place? Rob Thomas? Oy. And they got seats close enough to the stage to get hit by a drumstick?

Please, people of a certain age, do me a favor and stick to the Styx and REO Speedwagon moldy oldie shows, where there's no danger of anything dramatic or even particularly interesting happening on stage.