The lawyers of the Eighth Judicial Circuit have a vital interest in attracting and retaining judicial officers with the highest possible qualifications, so that our courts demonstrate trust, respect and honor for our laws. This duty and responsibility of lawyers is recognized in the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern lawyers in Florida.   

To assist and educate the public about this circuit’s judicial officers, the Eighth Judicial Circuit Bar Association surveyed lawyers who practice law in our circuit. Our circuit comprises Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties.  

The poll is intended to reflect the composite opinion of the local lawyers concerning the judicial abilities demonstrated for the 2023 calendar year for each of the judicial officers listed. Lawyers were instructed to disregard political considerations, and vote their conscience and opinion. If a lawyer did not have knowledge or experience as to a judicial officer’s experience or capability in any one area sufficient to form a reasoned opinion, the lawyer was instructed to vote “No Opinion” as to that area.  The poll captured the lawyers’ opinions in three broad categories:

· Legal acumen;
· Communication skills; and
· Professionalism.

Within each of these categories were more specific categories, as follows:

Legal Acumen:
1. Demonstrates knowledge of the law;
2. Listens to legal arguments;
3. Comprehends legal concepts;
4. Analytically reaches decisions in unsettled areas of the law; and
5. Willing to make decisions based on established law.

Communication Skills:
1. Able to articulate question and decisions;
2. Decisions are well reasoned;
3. Decisions are clear and concise; and
4. Decisions address issues raised.

Professionalism:
1. Shows courtesy/civility;
2. Shows patience/temperament;
3. Shows industry/promptness;
4. Has integrity/ethics;
5. Shows impartiality;
6. Shows preparedness; and
7. Participates in professional activities.

The scale used by the lawyers to evaluate each judicial officer was as follows:

6 – Strongly agree;
5 – Moderately agree;
4 – Slightly agree;
3 – Slightly disagree;
2 – Moderately disagree;
1 – Strongly disagree.

While the EJCBA is providing you with all of the results, please carefully note that the results become significantly less meaningful as the number of lawyers who responded to any single judicial officer decreases. For example, if only 10 people responded to a judicial officer, one voter has the ability to significantly impact the outcome, making the overall results for that judicial officer less reliable.  

The Association included federal area judicial officers and administrative hearing officers, even though these are appointed positions, rather than elected. Starting with this year's poll, senior judicial officers who presided over matters within the Circuit will be included. 

In addition to the detailed results, poll summary results are presented for each judicial officer based on averages as well as the most frequent response for each category.  

In 2024, 109 lawyers participated in the poll.

2024 JUDICIAL POLL - Click here to download
2023 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2022 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2021 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download 
2020 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2019 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2018 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2017 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2016 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2015 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2014 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2013 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2012 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2011 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2010 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download

 

Please join us for the Ilene Silverman Show as we feature the Eighth Judicial Bar Association with our guest Bar President Phil Kabler, highlighting the EJCBA’s Bench, Bar, and community activities, initiative, and priorities in and for the six counties in the Eighth Judicial Circuit. Please tune in and share our broadcast schedule, airing through May 2nd.

WUFT-TV
Sunday at 1:00
MY11 – EGFL
Saturday at 5:30am
Sunday at 7am and 8am
Saturday and Sunday at 3am

CBS4 – WGFL
Saturday at 6:30am
Sunday at 5am
Saturday at 4am

NBC9 – WNBW
Saturday at 5am
Sunday at 6:30am
Monday at 6am
Saturday at 3:30am
Sunday at 2:30am
Saturday and Sunday at 4:30am

Antenna TV – WYME
Sunday at 11am and 12:30pm

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JQ-KRlCH0AXCza69op_jvqa-DkCUPHr2/view?usp=sharing

Dear 8th Circuit attorney, Can you spare a few hours over the next few months to help someone get their Florida drivers license restored?  The loss of a drivers license typically leads to a cascade of problems, including job loss and mounting penalties and fines.  The EJCBA is assisting County Judge Kristine Van Vorst by seeking lawyers to assist her with her "Drivers License Reinstatement Clinic" project, which is in its 3rd year of successfully helping local citizens to regain their licenses.  You would receive online training beforehand, and have a UF law student assigned to assist you throughout the process.  The Drivers License Reinstatement Clinic event will be held online via Zoom on February 5, 2021.   Your time commitment would be about 1-2 hours during the 30 days prior to February 5th, when you would be working with a participant to get them ready for the event, and then about 2 hours on February 5th during the event (we'll work with your schedule that day).  Our role as lawyers will be to help the participants to identify the unpaid fines and penalties that led to their license being revoked, so that they can repay them.  At the February 5th event, Judge Van Vorst and her team will have all of the necessary players present via Zoom breakout rooms, to process these debts so that the drivers licenses may be restored (i.e., the Clerk of Court, DHSMV, the tax collector, the Dept. of Revenue, etc.). If you would like to participate in this EJCBA Pro Bono activity (and earn pro bono hours), simply email Ray Brady, Esq., at Rbrady1959@gmail.com.  It is anticipated that participant registration will be limited to 100, and each lawyer will be asked to accept 5 participants total.  Thank you, as always, for dedicating your time and talents to assisting the under-served and under-resourced members of our 8th Circuit community!  For additional information about the license restoration process, click on the video link below. Drivers License Reinstatement Clinic Video Sincerely, Raymond F. Brady Chair, EJCBA Pro Bono Committee

The law firm of Donnelly + Gross, frequent contributors to the EJCBA monthly newsletter, Forum 8, has prepared an informational bulletin entitled, “Information on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic for Small and Mid-Size Employers” and generously offered to share it with our members.  If you are interested in reviewing this bulletin, please click on the link above, and remember to thank Paul, Laura, Jung, Jim and Cole for all of the work that went into this production.

Thank you very much to those who supported the Eighth Judicial Circuit Bar Association Charity Golf Tournament, “The Gloria” (in memoriam of Gloria Fletcher) benefitting The Guardian Foundation on Friday, March 2 at the UF Mark Bostick Golf Course.

Your generosity resulted in $16,630 going to The Guardian Foundation! These proceeds will improve the lives of abused, abandoned, and neglected children in our community. We are grateful for your support.

Congratulations to our tournament winners:

Foursome – Paul Donnelly; Ron Kozlowski; Adam Lee; and Charlie Hughes

Twosome – Ty Rucarean and Andrew Slaton

Thank you again to those who were a part of this year’s tournament!

The lawyers of the Eighth Judicial Circuit have a vital interest in attracting and retaining judicial officers with the highest possible qualifications, so that our courts demonstrate trust, respect and honor for our laws. This duty and responsibility of lawyers is recognized in the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern lawyers in Florida.

To assist and educate the public about this circuit’s judicial officers, the Eighth Judicial Circuit Bar Association surveyed lawyers who practice law in our circuit. Our circuit comprises Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties.

The poll is intended to reflect the composite opinion of the local lawyers concerning the judicial abilities demonstrated during the past year for each of the judicial officers listed. Lawyers were instructed to disregard political considerations, and vote their conscience and opinion. If a lawyer did not have knowledge or experience as to a judicial officer’s experience or capability in any one area sufficient to form a reasoned opinion, the lawyer was instructed to vote “No Opinion” as to that area.

The poll captured the lawyers’ opinions in three broad categories:

· Legal acumen;
· Communication skills; and
· Professionalism.

Within each of these categories were more specific categories, as follows:

Legal Acumen:
1. Demonstrates knowledge of the law;
2. Listens to legal arguments;
3. Comprehends legal concepts;
4. Analytically reaches decisions in unsettled areas of the law; and
5. Willing to make decisions based on established law.

Communication Skills:
1. Able to articulate question and decisions;
2. Decisions are well reasoned;
3. Decisions are clear and concise; and
4. Decisions address issues raised.

Professionalism:
1. Shows courtesy/civility;
2. Shows patience/temperament;
3. Shows industry/promptness;
4. Has integrity/ethics;
5. Shows impartiality;
6. Shows preparedness; and
7. Participates in professional activities.

The scale used by the lawyers to evaluate each judicial officer was as follows:

6 – Strongly agree;
5 – Moderately agree;
4 – Slightly agree;
3 – Slightly disagree;
2 – Moderately disagree;
1 – Strongly disagree.

While the EJCBA is providing you with all of the results, please carefully note that the results become significantly less meaningful as the number of lawyers who responded to any single judicial officer decreases. For example, if only 10 people responded to a judicial officer, one voter has the ability to significantly impact the outcome, making the overall results for that judicial officer less reliable.

The Association included federal area judicial officers and administrative hearing officers, even though these are appointed positions, rather than elected.

In addition to the detailed results, poll summary results are presented for each judicial officer based on averages as well as the most frequent response for each category.

In 2017, 225 lawyers participated in the poll.

During the active polling of our members, Hearing Officer and former Gilchrist County Judge, the Honorable Edward Philman, passed away; we give our condolences to his family for this fine jurist who served our community for many years.

2017 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2016 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2015 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2014 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2013 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2012 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2011 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download
2010 JUDICIAL POLL – Click here to download