by James C. Rinaman Jr.
One June 2, Jim Rinaman marked 50 years of service to the Marks Gray firm in Jacksonville. Rinaman earned his bachelor’s degree in 1955 from the University of Florida and received his bachelor of laws in 1960. His career has been with Marks Gray. He served as president of The Jacksonville Bar Association as well as The Florida Bar, the Florida Defense Lawyers Association, and the Association of Defense Trial Lawyers. Rinaman wrote a series of columns about the practice of law. The is the fourth and last installment.
In the late 1960s, Circuit Judge Roger Waybright dragged our bench and judicial system kicking and screaming into the 20th century by single-handedly creating standards for judicial administration the other judges were shamed into adopting.
Before Judge Waybright, a civil suit could languish for many years if neither party pushed it. Judge Waybright began setting cases for trial on his own motion, sometimes finishing final arguments at 9 p.m. and giving the case to the jury to see if they could reach a verdict that night.
He had his orders color-coded, and at a hearing on a motion he would listen politely to arguments of counsel and then reach in his desk and pull out an order he had previously prepared.
His example vastly improved the docket and disposition of litigation in Duval County. He was a fount of legal knowledge and a paragon of judicial temperament.
In the 1970s, The Florida Bar adopted a new program called “Designation” by which lawyers could designate themselves on their stationery and in the Yellow Pages as specialists in particular fields of law.
Designation was flagrantly abused by some lawyers designating themselves in areas of law in which they had no knowledge or experience. Designation was adopted because of opposition to board certification, which some lawyers objected to on the grounds that it was elitist. Problems with designation increased support for board certification, and in 1983, while I was president of The Florida Bar, we created certification for civil trial and tax lawyers.
Today we have more than 50 board-certified specialties requiring minimum years of experience, passage of a written examination and endorsement of other practitioners and judges.
Because I strongly supported certification for several years, I felt that I should put my money where my mouth was and take the civil trial certification exam, which I managed to pass.
Several months later Florida Bar executive director Jack Harkness handed me several hundred certificates to sign for civil trial and tax lawyers who had passed the exam. I asked Jack if it was appropriate for me to sign my own certificate, and he retorted there was no one else who could sign it, so I did, probably the only Florida board-certified lawyer who has signed his own certificate.
In the 1960s, Shannon Linning was our small claims court judge with a civil jurisdiction up to $500. We had a civil court of record with jurisdiction up to $1,500, initially presided over by Judge Wayright and later Judge Tyrie Boyer. The civil court of record ran much the way the circuit court did, but the small claims court was a hodgepodge of pro se litigants, often with no lawyers involved.
Judge Linning was somewhat eccentric, but a no-nonsense judge. He provided fast and final justice, docketing as many as 100 cases each day, disposing of the simple ones at the bench and setting more complex ones for trial.
Twenty-three years ago we began an organized plan for alternative dispute resolution, mostly mediation. Stockbrokers had been contracting with their clients to settle disputes by arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution has reduced litigation to a bare minimum, which has been good for the public and the judicial system, but we are left wondering how to train trial lawyers, or how they can get 15 jury trials to become board certified.
In 1989, Chief Justice Raymond Ehrlich issued an administrative order of the Florida Supreme Court requiring that all pleadings be on 8 1/2 x 11 recycled papers after Jan. 1, 1990, rather than the traditional 8 1/2 x 14 legal papers.
In federal court we now do electronic filing and are on the cusp of going to paperless court files in state court with dockets and pleadings accessible online.
Many aspects of the practice of law have changed since the Superior Court of Duval County convened Dec. 1, 1822, under an oak tree on the northwest corner of Market and Forsyth Streets, but the role of lawyers remains strong and continues to be a pervasive and vital force in our government, in business and in our system of justice.