With the spirit of the holidays now behind us, the continuing practice of law in 2003 begins in the ever more tenuous world for which we lawyers provide a critical foundation. Our role as lawyers becomes ever more important in the evolution of the law to deal with the world’s ever more important and increasingly global problems.
Watching Brian Williams announce the national news on Christmas Eve, we learned the latest updates in a world now haunted by acts of terrorism and an uncertain economy. We hear that ranchers in Western states are complaining about oil exploration companies ravaging their lands and destroying the once rugged and pristine American landscape to the point where the fundamental life views of ranchers begin merging with those of environmentalists. The civil jury trial system is also center stage with the news coverage reporting “massive damage awards” and hundreds of millions of dollars awarded in civil trials as raising questions of whether our trial system offers nothing more than “jackpot justice.” The question was raised as to whether our civil trial system is out of control or whether it continues to serve a valid purpose, a theme sure to be repeated into the first decade of the millennium.
Changes are coming. As professionals oftentimes at the forefront of these changes, we should be reminded of our critical role in ensuring the viability of our system of justice. It is a time to apply our experience and renew the vows we all took when we were sworn into our system of justice to support the Florida and United States constitutions. Truth and honor have proven good allies and they should continue to guide our actions. I am reminded of the wise words of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.:
“The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and practical theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed.”
As members of the Northeast Florida legal profession, we will continue to hold our heads high with these realities in mind as we go forward into the new year.