Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince shared insights with the Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association Thursday at The River Club, including comments about the amended oath attorneys take for admission to The Florida Bar.
Last year, the Florida Supreme Court amended the Oath of Attorney.
“It is an amendment about professionalism and civility,” Quince said.
The amendment states, “To opposing parties and their counsel, I pledge fairness, integrity, and civility, not only in court, but also in all written and oral communications.”
The Florida Supreme Court believes “this is a statement that indicates that we care about our profession and that we want to do all that we can do to continue to have the public respect and understand what lawyers do,” said Quince.
She also talked about the importance of the right to vote, the budget for the judiciary and civics education.
In 1993, Quince became the first African-American female to be appointed to one of the
district courts of appeal.
She was appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles to the Second District
Court of Appeal and was retained in office by the electorate in November 1996.
She was appointed by the late Gov. Lawton Chiles and Gov.-elect Jeb Bush to the Florida Supreme Court Dec. 8, 1998, where she serves today.
Quince charged the lawyers with educating the public about the judicial system.
“People really don’t understand that the judicial branch, unlike the other two branches, is not a political branch of government. We are there for all people, (for) whatever part of the political spectrum they are on. Fair and impartial, that is the purpose of the judicial branch,” said Quince.
She also urged the group to encourage the public to be actively involved in the voting process for public officials.
“(Florida) had an abysmal record for voting in 2010. Only 42 percent of the people in this state who are eligible to vote voted in 2010,” said Quince.
“It took us years, as women, to be able to vote. It took years, as blacks, for us to be able to vote, and now we don’t even exercise that privilege. And it’s so easy,” she said.
Quince cited the hardships that people in other countries endure to vote.
“People walk for miles and days to be able to vote and we, if it rains, won’t go to the polls,” said Quince. “I just cannot believe how people will sit and complain, but they won’t do anything about it.”
Quince also provided some information about the state of funding for the state court system.
“Since 2008 the court budget has suffered greatly,” said Quince. “We thought we were doing a really good thing by getting the Legislature to establish a court revenue trust fund for us.”
The idea of the trust fund was that money in the fund would be safe from budget cuts and used specifically for the courts. The problem was the fund was filled by fees, including foreclosure fees that have steadily declined and reduced the revenue for the court system.
“We had to go to the governor and the Legislature begging for loans just to make payroll. That wouldn’t be necessary if there was a true balance in our revenue trust fund of general revenue monies and some filing fees, but not a major portion of it from foreclosure filing fees,” said Quince.
“The Legislature can fix this … if they want to,” said Quince.
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