Blog Leads To Demise of State Judge

Judges Feel Legal Blogs' Glare is a very interesting November 28, 2007 National Law Journal article by Julie Kay. The article discusses how a blog run by the criminal defense bar in Florida lead to a Judge in Florida resigning from the bench. As the article states:

In May, Dale Ross, chief judge for the Florida circuit court in Broward County for 16 years, stepped down following a year of embarrassing scandals, gaffes and bad behavior by his judges.

Although pressure was building for Ross to resign for years, many legal observers say it would not have happened if not for the new Broward courthouse blog, JAA Blog.

That blog hammered Ross on a daily basis and reported on such incidents as a judge arrested for smoking pot in a park, another judge making an off-color sexual remark and another judge allegedly taking a loan from a defense lawyer appearing before him.

The JAA Blog was started in August 2006 by a group of criminal defense lawyers fed up with the way things were being run in the Broward courthouse. They believed that it operated like a "good ol' boys network" rather than the second-largest county court in Florida.

This article points out the power of blogging. I would expect more scrutiny of public officials in this manner as blogs become even more popular.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein