Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Jim RosicaSeptember 19, 2016

Florida law school students’ downward spiral continues, with only 68.2 percent passing the latest state bar exam. The state’s Board of Bar Examiners on Monday released the figures for the July 26-27 examination. The results are for first-time test takers only. This July’s overall pass rate was 0.7 percent lower than last year’s, of 68.9 percent. In 2014, it was 71.8 […]

Jim RosicaSeptember 15, 2016

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday struck down part of the state’s election qualifying law as unconstitutional, calling it “irrational,” “unreasonable and unnecessary,” and ordered a candidate for City of Miami Gardens mayor to be allowed back on the ballot. The court’s 6-1 opinion reverses a 3rd District Court of Appeal decision, invalidates the city’s Aug. […]

Associated PressSeptember 14, 2016

Florida’s main teacher union is asking the state Supreme Court to keep alive a legal challenge to the state’s largest private school voucher program. The Florida Education Association on Wednesday appealed an August decision to throw out the lawsuit that the union and others had filed against a program used by more than 90,000 school […]

Brendan FarringtonSeptember 13, 2016

Florida Supreme Court Justice James Perry announced Monday he is stepping down Dec. 30, which will give Gov. Rick Scott his first opportunity to begin reshaping a court that has frustrated Republicans on issues ranging from political maps to protecting doctors from lawsuits. Perry, 72, is forced to leave the court because he’s reached the […]

Jim RosicaSeptember 12, 2016

James E.C. Perry, a justice of the Florida Supreme Court, says he will retire this Dec. 30. Perry, who joined the court in March 2009, announced his retirement in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, released Monday morning. (Click here to read the letter, which is at the end of the press release.) The vacancy now […]

Brendan FarringtonSeptember 9, 2016

The Florida Supreme Court reduced the sentence of a death row inmate Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it to reconsider his intellectual abilities based on factors other than his IQ. Freddie Lee Hall, 71, will now serve a life sentence for the 1978 murder of a 21-year-old pregnant woman who was abducted while […]

Jim RosicaAugust 25, 2016

The Florida Supreme Court Thursday ruled the husband of a Venice woman who committed suicide can sue her doctor for medical malpractice. The court sent the case back “with instructions to proceed to trial.” Robert Granicz had sued Dr. Joseph S. Chirillo Jr. after his wife, Jacqueline Granicz, hung herself in the couple’s garage in October 2008, according to […]

Staff ReportsAugust 25, 2016

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Two Florida lawyers accused of orchestrating the arrest of a rival attorney have been permanently disbarred by the state’s Supreme Court. The court on Thursday, in its first release of opinions after the 2016 summer recess, unanimously agreed with a referee’s earlier recommendation on Robert Adams and Adam Filthaut of Tampa. A third attorney involved, Stephen […]

Michael MolineAugust 16, 2016

Trial attorneys mounted an ardent defense Tuesday of Florida Supreme Court rulings blamed by business interests for threatening an increase in workers’ compensation insurance premiums of nearly 20 percent. Mark Touby, a Coral Gables attorney who helped persuade the justices to eliminate a limit on attorney fees in workers’ compensation cases, insisted during a public […]

Michael MolineAugust 16, 2016

A leading open-government advocate offered strong support Monday for a legal challenge to a proposed workers’ compensation insurance premium increase of nearly 20 percent. “I think he’s got a cause of action,” First Amendment Foundation President Barbara Peterson said of Miami attorney James Fee, who is challenging the rate hike on open-government grounds. Fee filed suit in Miami-Dade […]

Tag: Florida Supreme Court

Florida bar exam passage rate drops to lowest point in 5 years

Supreme Court strikes down section of state’s qualifying law

Legal battle over vouchers headed to Florida Supreme Court

Rick Scott to get first state Supreme Court pick

James E.C. Perry announces retirement from Supreme Court

Death to life: Florida reduces disabled murderer’s sentence

Supreme Court allows lawsuit against doctor for patient’s suicide

‘Love Sponge’ lawyers permanently stripped of law licenses

Attorneys defend Florida Supreme Court decision on workers’ comp rate increase

Open government activists back legal challenge to worker’s comp rate increase