EIGHTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT BAR ASSOCIATION, INC. News

2026 Judicial Poll Results

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT

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 2025 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:

• Demonstrates knowledge of the law;
• Listens to legal arguments;
• Comprehends legal concepts;
• Analytically reaches decisions in unsettled areas of the law; and
• Willing to make decisions based on established law.

Communication Skills:

• Able to articulate questions and decisions;
• Decisions are well reasoned;
• Decisions are clear and concise; and
• Decisions address issues raised.

Professionalism:

• Shows courtesy/civility;
• Shows patience/temperament;
• Shows industry/promptness;
• Has integrity/ethics;
• Shows impartiality;
• Shows preparedness; and
• 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 senior judicial officers, federal area judicial officers and administrative hearing officers, even though these are appointed positions, rather than elected.

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

Street Closures at the Criminal Courthouse

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 02:55:21 GMT

The County intends to close 3rd Avenue and the area behind the Courthouse beginning Monday, November 17, 2025. There will be no access from Main Street to either 3rd Avenue or 2nd Street.

We will continue to share information about construction and access routes as it becomes available.

Parking Changes at Criminal Courthouse

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 01:28:37 GMT

Construction will soon begin on the new parking garage and civil courthouse. The county will begin putting up construction fencing on Monday, August 4, which will make much of the parking around the criminal courthouse inaccessible. A map of the impacted area is included below.

If your work includes visits to the courthouse, you’ll need to plan for alternate parking (and alert your clients, witnesses, etc.). The closest parking area is the SW garage at 105 SW 3^rd Street.

Phil Kabler Discusses the EJCBA on the Ilene Silverman Show

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 20:57:41 GMT

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

Drivers License Reinstatement Clinic

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 15:25:01 GMT

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

Information on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic for Small and Mid-Size Employers

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 14:29:51 GMT

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.

EJCBA Charity Golf Tournament Results

Fri, 02 Mar 2018 12:33:42 GMT

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!