Tobin Shakes Up Courthouse
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Chief Judge Victor Tobin has shaken up the courthouse, transferring longtime judges.
Attached is his order here.
Among those transferred were Judge Dale Ross, who moved from probate to general circuit court; Judge Cheryl Aleman, who moved from circuit to family court, and Judge Tom Lynch, moving from civil to criminal.
Hmmmmm.
November 16th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Or is this just random?
November 16th, 2009 at 8:59 am
The reason is obvious. The judge is cleaning house. Lynch and Ross opposed tobin’s election as chief judge.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Who got moved into Probate for Ross? He was a good Probate Judge. Actually, all the Probate Judges in Broward are very good, and I enjoyed practicing law in their courts.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Mr. NHI (No Human Involvement) Charlie Green goes to Probate.
This was done to cut Vic’s enemies at their knees. Based on the new upcoming judicial rotation plan, Ross and Lynch if they stayed where they currently are would be exempt from being rotated by another Judge who wanted either of their current divisions.
By moving them now, they are locked into their new divisions for 3 years. No one can take their spots and they can’t move.
Also, this prevents Lynch or Ross from being able to pick themselves what new divisions they want to go to. For example if someone took Ross’ spot he could choose to go to criminal if he wanted.
This is being done for pure political preservation and vengeance, nothng more nothing less.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:59 am
That’s it!!! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
What’s the story? 3 judges got transfered. Wow! Front page news.
FROM BUDDY:
See the other comments — especially Paine — for the importance of this news.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
This movement is just plain stupid.
Tom Lynch is one of the most respected civil judges in the Courthouse. You move him out of his division and you’ll be pissing off a number of people on all sides — he wasn’t a pro-plaintiff judge or a pro-defenant judge — he’s just a smart, fair and decent judge to all sides. What is the point to move him other than to prevent him from using his seniority to avoid a forced rotation under the hack plan being floated by the Chief Judge.
Moving Aleman to family is also horrifying. Not that she was any good in civil (try getting a hearing in less than 4 months in there), but FAMILY?!?!?!?! Isn’t this the same judge that terminated parental rights because a county bus broke down and a parent was late for a hearing and got smacked by the 4th DCA so many times her head is on a swivel? And you’re going to put her into a division where she controls children’s lives?!?!?!? Unfortunately, there isn’t a division where she can do no damage, but at least in civil it’s money at stake, and not a child’s life.
These movements are nothing but a show to push around those that the Chief views as enemies (Ross, Lynch) or an embarassment to his administration (Aleman). It has nothing to do with real change in the Courthouse.
New Boss, Same as the Old Boss. Hey, wonder if Vic follows through on his promise to not seek another term as Chief Judge — didn’t he promise to just serve 2 terms?
November 16th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
It is unfortunate that Tobin can’t do what is really needed which is to make some of these lazy judges work. There are a handful of judges who take two hour lunches and three quarters of Friday off. They are essentially stealing justice by delaying it and robbing the public. Tobin can’t force them to work harder, but he can compile a list of judges and the number of cases they complete, the number of hearings they hold and how many hours they work based on their calender.
November 16th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
ACCOUNT-ability … should not it apply to judges time as well???
November 17th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Keep an eye on Judge NHI Charles Greene. He never works !!!!! Never at the Courthouse !!!!! Guaranteed he will rarely appear in the courthouse now that he is in probate, although one of his many cars will always be in the judges parking lot…wink wink. Nice try NHI. You will always be NHI and we will assure the public that you GO TO WORK. Nice try NHI, though.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:32 am
NHI: What are you talking about? Greene is a trial judge’s trial judge. Tries cases. Keeps them moving. Respectful to both sides. Handles complex issues well and reads all the briefs and motions. Always prepared for hearings. He and Streitfeld got the complex division back moving because they both actually try cases ALOT. Tobin thinks it is smart to move him to replace Greene with Henning. Huh? None of this makes any sense.
November 17th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
NWI No Work Involved. Huh, you have no idea how lazy Greene is. I agree with NHI. I also agree he’s intelligent. He has figured out how to buck the system. Tobin didn’t replace Greene with Henning. Greene did what he does best, that is screw anyone for his own well-being.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
[…] Browardbulldog.com – a tasty new website that I am part of – has the full story here. Browardbeat.com had an early version two days ago here. […]
December 9th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
The Broward County Probate Division is run by thugs and is a total disgrace. Judge Ross along with his little boy Ahearn act with total disregard to the people they are to serve and only act in their own self interest. What will Ahearn do without Judge Ross to feed his pocket? Does anyone know if Ahearn gives a kickback to Judge Ross for his ability to get appointed to cases from Judge Ross? I am not saying this is the case, but if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck it must be a duck.