Dan Gelber Won the AG Election?

Well, according to Palm Beach County, he did:

Dan Gelber may not have won the race to become Florida's Attorney General, but Palm Beach County's official Guide to Services says he did.

The 88-page book, which includes names and phone numbers for county and state offices, lists Gelber as the state's attorney general, even though Pam Bondi defeated the former democratic state senator in November.

"We have apologized," said Lisa De La Rionda, the county's public affairs director. "We recognize our mistake."

The county printed 35,000 copies of the services guide. About 13,000 have been distributed since it was printed last year, county officials said.

Although the name is wrong, the guide lists the correct phone number for the attorney general's office in Tallahassee.

So at least the guide has that going for it.

BTW, this thing costs the county $27k to produce.

Simple question -- why?

Why spend that much money (and get it wrong) when the entire enterprise has been superseded by a Google search?

As they say....follow the money.

Oh well, enjoy the commercials and intermittent violent ground acquisition, kids!

Law Updates for January 28, 2011

Hill, 36 FLW 170, 1st DCA, Vehicle Stop-Flight - Where ofc observed def standing in front of a parked car in the vacant lot of a closed gas station in a high crime area at 1:15 a.m. and def entered the car and departed upon making eye contact with the officer, the ofc did not have reasonable suspicion justifying the stop of the vehicle.  Error to deny motion to suppress marijuana and firearm discovered in search of the vehicle.



The Law Offices of Roger P. Foley,P.A.

Law Updates for January 21, 2011

Ruiz, 36 FLW 99, 4th DCA, Search and Seizure, Consent, Voluntariness - The Appellate court must defer to the express finding of credibility made by trial court in denying motion to suppress drugs found in def's apartment.  Although pages on record, Appellate Court finds police version of events regarding def's consent unbelievable - good dicta

M.M., 36 FLW 105, 1st DCA, Resisting officer without violence - Juvenile's refusal to give name or identification to requesting officer did not constitute resisting or obstructing where juvenile was neither under arrest nor otherwise lawfully detained at the time of refusal.

M.W., 36 FLW 111, 2nd DCA, Obstruct or oppose officer without violence, lawful execution of legal duty - Trial court erred in finding that juvenile committed a delinquent act of obstructing or opposing an officer without violence where obstruction occurred during warrant less arrest for a misdemeanor assault outside the presence of an arresting officer.  School administrator is not a fellow officer whose observation of the assault could be imputed to the arresting officer.

Caldwell, 36 FLW 115, 2nd DCA, Voir Dire, Cause - Trial court abused its discretion when it denied def's challenge for cause to juror whose responses brought into question her ability to be impartial to a def who might not testify.  Good language is not the defense duty to rehabilitate the juror and reasonable doubt is not overcome by the juror's silence to a question later to the whole panel as to that general issue.





The Law Offices of Roger P. Foley,P.A.

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Governor Scott Starts Returning Federal Health Care Money!

For those of you looking for a silver lining in Judge Vinson's recent health care ruling, here you go:

In the wake of U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson's ruling that the federal health care legislation is unconstitutional, Florida insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty returned a $1 million federal grant awarded to the state to assist with reforms. The money would have paid for a system to provide information to consumers on the rates of large-group insurers.

"The purpose of this letter is to inform you that after deliberate consideration, I hereby rescind the acceptance of the above-referenced $1 million rate review grant, which occurred in a letter to you dated September 15, 2010. No drawdown of any of the $1 million will occur," McCarty wrote in a letter to the director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Consumer Information and Oversight. 

This is pathetic.

The court's ruling was vague as to enforcement, perhaps intentionally so.  

And it's obviously an issue in legal flux.

Why not wait for the dust to settle before you start returning monies provided pursuant to a federal statute?

This feels like cheap political theatrics at the expense of underinsured Florida consumers.

Oh hail this is way too depressing for a Friday afternoon, but I have to follow my muse, peoples (I'm paraphrasing Woody....)

Let me get some windsurfing in and see what it does to improve things, and I'll check back in later.

Bobby Gilbert Leaves Alters for Grossman Roth.

Gilbert Grossman Roth

The turmoil at Jeremy Alters' firm continues as class action litigator Bobby Gilbert is apparently leaving for PI powerhouse Grossman Roth.

This according to Judge King who is supervising the checking overdraft MDL, and who entered an order noting Gilbert's move to his new firm, creating a new position for Bobby as "Coordinating Counsel" and appointing Grossman Roth to the plaintiff's executive committee.

The Court also appointed war horse (ed. note -- this is a compliment!) Aaron Podhurst to serve as co-lead counsel with Bruce Rogow.

Congrats on the move Bobby!

Important Tip for Deponents: Don't Look at Anything.

Halmos Note Order

More fun and games in the never-ending, endlessly entertaining Pete Halmos yacht insurance dispute, now hitting docket entry HOLY CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE THE NUMBER OF DOCKET ENTRIES:

This matter is before this Court sua sponte. The Court was contacted regarding an issue in a continuing deposition of Mr. Halmos taking place on January 26, 2011. The issue had to do with a refusal on the part of plaintiff( s) to produce a document looked at by Mr. Halmos during the course of that deposition (see 6 et. al of the deposition).

This Court instructed plaintiffs to produce that document for the Court to review in camera and to produce the transcript of the pertinent part of the deposition. This was done. The Court has now reviewed both and finds there is nothing of evidentiary value, or discovery value in the document withheld, it's not really a summary, and at best it might be said to be some sort of index to other documents ... and it takes a little stretching to say that.

Ok, let's break this down.

First off, what the hail does any of this mean?

How can it be possible Mr. Halmos is still being deposed this late in the case -- I thought the matter was set for trial in a few weeks.

Then there's the issue of the document -- unless there's a predicate laid in the deposition (such as refreshing memory or some such), what would be the possible basis to request the production of a document looked at by a deponent, or even to order that it be produced for in camera review?

Then you got to love Judge Brown's description of the document -- it does take a little stretching (toe-tapping?) to say that!