While I genuinely loved being an advocate, I became a judge because I valued even more the opportunity to hear and evaluate both sides of a case, to determine the facts and to apply the law to those facts to reach an equitable and lawful outcome. Additionally, since judges have both the ability and the responsibility to improve our judicial system, I committed from the outset to implementing innovative court-based programs to address the many needs seen daily in our courtrooms. For example, as chair of the statewide Family Courts Steering Committee, I presented the Supreme Court of Florida with committee recommendations, later adopted by the Court, for “unified family courts (UFC).” Courts implementing UFC principles consolidate related family law cases so that all such cases are heard by one judge. In that way, families attend fewer hearings, suffer less inconvenience, incur less expense, obtain speedier resolutions, and avoid inconsistent outcomes.
