by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The election signs have almost disappeared along Duval County roads, but the work has only begun for candidates who won their elections, especially for judges in the Fourth Judicial Circuit.
Circuit Court Judges Adrian Soud, Group 11, and Virginia Norton, Group 28, were campaigning up until about two weeks ago while Circuit Judges Jim Daniel, Group 4, and Jeff Morrow, Group 19, ran unopposed and have been preparing for their transition since May.
“There is quite a bit of work to do closing down your practice,” said Chief Judge Don Moran. “Everyone except (Jeff) Morrow has a partner or a firm they can work with to take care of their cases. He has a private practice, so there is a lot more work involved protecting client confidentiality and making sure cases are complete. He’s had a lot of time, so I don’t think it should be a problem.”
Court assignments haven’t been handed out yet, though Morrow’s experience with criminal law makes him a candidate for presiding over criminal court, according to Moran. The first assignment the new judges received was their mentors, which are chosen by Moran and Circuit Court Judge Mallory Cooper.
“It’s a great program for helping new judges,” said Cooper. “They may do a lot of listening at first, but it’s good to have someone you can go to when you have a question.”
Circuit Court Judge Charles Arnold will mentor Soud. Circuit Court Judge Linda McCallum will mentor Norton. Circuit Court Judge Peter Fryefield will mentor Morrow and Circuit Court Judge Hugh Carithers will mentor Daniel.
“We try to match them up with judges who have similar experience,” said Cooper. “It helps that we have judges with experience in so many areas that participate in the mentor program.”
The Circuit Court’s stockpile of experience will get smaller when four judges with, collectively, over 100 years of experience step down. Circuit Court Judges Aaron Bowden, Bernard Nachman and Charles Mitchell are retiring this year while Judge A.C. Soud retired late last year.
“We will be losing a wealth of judicial experience,” said Moran. “I don’t ever remember bringing on four new judges at once, let alone four new Circuit Court judges.”
All will all go back to school in January. Judges College will take place for four days in Tallahassee from Jan. 1-4, and they will travel to Orlando for another four-day session in March.
“It helps them to learn about things they aren’t familiar with like contempt power and the JQC disciplinary committee,” said Moran. “We teach more of the mechanics of being a judge here. In Tallahassee they will learn more about benefits, discipline and health insurance, and things like that.”
They will all have to have their homework finished before they go to school. Soud and Norton are hard at work finishing cases at their current jobs.
“I met with Judge McCallum earlier this week and started to ask her some questions about what to expect,” said Norton. “We came up with a plan on how to be ready to go at the beginning of January.”
Norton, an attorney with the Office of General Counsel, is also training Lawisikia Hodges to take over for her as a Special Master. A Special Master presides over a City court and hears complaints regarding violations of municipal code in the maintenance of residential and commercial property.
Soud has had the benefit of working with his brother at the Soud Law Firm and attributes the family ties to the smooth transition.
“The Soud Law Firm will continue to serve the community after I leave,” said Soud. “(Jeff) does well and he will carry on without me.”
Soud has been somewhat surprised while learning about everything that goes into preparing a judge to take the bench.
“The first thing I asked after the election was, “When do I start work?’” said Soud. “I didn’t know about everything else, like the robe fitting, the letterhead and all the planning that goes into the investiture.”
Once all the details get worked out and the judges return from college they will need a courtroom to preside over, but those assignments are still be considered.
“We move people around every January,” said Moran. “But we can’t just put all the new judges in juvenile court, for instance. We need to have people who know how the system flows and how to manage the case load. There’s a little bit of a learning curve, so we are still discussing the court assignments.”
If there is one thing above all else Moran hopes the new group learns, it’s the proper judicial temperament.
“The trick to being a good judge is temperament, no doubt in my mind that judicial temperament serves you better than anything else,” said Moran. “If we got it right all the time there wouldn’t be appellate courts. You have to have the willingness to listen to all sides to make the best decision.”
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