by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
One of the trial judges in the [Duval County] Circuit Court experienced a very frightening moment when a bullet came through the wall of his chambers and went [into the wall] next to him. In fact, he was relieving himself in the urinal when the bullet from the next courtroom pierced the wall and zipped past him.
In the next courtroom (this was before metal detectors were used in the courthouse) a lady was very mad at her husband during a divorce and decided to shoot at him. One of the stray bullets was the bullet that came through the wall in the circuit judge’s bathroom.
The judge’s statement became a classic remark around the courthouse: “Another few inches and I would have been circumcised.”
— An excerpt from a book attorney Jeff Morrow is writing.
When attorney Jeff Morrow decides to retire from practicing law he can always become an aspiring novelist. Wait, he already is.
With influences from everyone from Carl Hiassen to Tim Dorsey to John Grisham, Morrow has four novels currently in progress.
He’s writing a fact-based fictional novel about toxic waste and the Seminole Indians of South Florida. There’s the one about how lawyers and expert medical witnesses manipulate the system, juries and each other — lots of true stories with the names changed. A third book is one Morrow is helping another attorney, Karen Usdin, write. The last is not only the oldest and longest, but involves many local attorneys and judges and the strange but true, and usually hilarious, things that happen in the legal world in and out of the courtroom.
“I started writing it 12 to 15 years ago,” said Morrow, a board certified civil trial attorney who concentrates on victims of neglect and abuse in nursing homes and at the hands of HMOs. “I’ve changed the name a million times and the book doesn’t have a name at the moment.”
Asking Morrow about the collection of anecdotes is impossible without hearing several of them. While attorneys may be able to better relate to the stories, like a Grisham novel, they transcend all walks of life and professions.
Morrow has, admittedly, tried halfheartedly to get the attorney book published. At this point two things are preventing that from happening: one, he’s so busy at work that he doesn’t have time to cull through the stories and contact a publisher. Two, because his profession involves new clients and new trials on regular basis, the anecdotes continue to accumulate.
That may change soon. Morrow said he spoke to fellow attorney Walter Arnold a couple of years ago about getting his book published. Arnold had gone the independent route, self-publishing about 100 copies of a book he wrote. Morrow considered doing the same thing.
“Two years ago I thought about doing that,” said Morrow, who was born and raised in Jacksonville, as were his parents. “But the last two years I’ve had to work so hard. At the end of the summer I may try again. Three years ago I talked with [County Court Judge] Tyrie Boyer about getting an agent in New York. But he was right in the middle of his campaign and it never happened.”
While all of his books are works in progress, Morrow’s novel about the Seminole Indians is closest to completion. Tentatively titled “Thunder Rolling in from the Distant Sea,” the book is about the Seminoles and their battle against the sugar cane industry that controls much of South Florida. His protagonist is Jill Agent, a single mother who moves from New York to help the Seminoles. Ironically, Morrow created the character not knowing there was an attorney in Jacksonville named Julie Agent.
To get the novel historically correct and give it an authentic feel, Morrow spent a great deal of time with the Seminoles, learning their customs, way of life and concerns.
His other legal novel is called “Knights of the Post” a named based on an English phrase. In England, knights of the post are professional witnesses employed by attorneys.
“That’s what I deal with a lot,” explained Morrow. “Ten percent of them are professional liars paid to say outrageous things. The rest are honest and tell their true medical opinions on a case. Sometimes they can control how a case evolves and how it’s presented to a jury. I’m just getting started on that book. It’s fiction, but a lot of it is factual.”