Unprepared Injury Lawyers Appearing in Court
Around our courthouse here in West Palm Beach, Florida there has been a constant grumbling by our judiciary about unprepared injury lawyers appearing in court. They have stated their new “policy” of enforcing their pre-trial orders and holding the lawyers’ feet to the fire to get the cases tried and justice served.
In our country, the respective parties have a right to a speedy and public trial, this holds true not only for criminal cases but for civil disputes as well. With every case noticed for trial, the court issues a pre-trial order directing the timing of the case and handing out deadlines for the progress of the case.
I was in court the other day to object to a move by the other party who was trying to obfuscate the judge’s order by scheduling a medical exam of my client well after the applicable deadline. After much bluster, the court granted the other side’s request for this exam. This came over my strong objections to the contrary. My plea to the court centered on the respect for the rules of the court and orders handed down by the Judges that are equally applied to both parties. I realized, at that moment, that the same court in West Palm Beach, Florida that complains about lack of diligence on the part of the lawyers rewards this very conduct by refusing to enforce their own orders for fear of reprisal from insurance companies, the appellate court and who knows what else.
My job as an officer of the court is to zealously represent my client, uphold the constitution and the orders of the court. This is becoming increasingly difficult when the final authority allows its own rules to be broken but only after complaining about the parties being allowed to break the rules. Our system is what is really broken and it needs to be fixed from the top down.
Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.
Esther Uria LaBovick, Esq.
Mark R. Hanson, Esq.
Joseph R. Fields Jr., Esq.
Marcie Dodson, J.D.