All Knucklehead Day Award One

There is an All Saints Day and an All Souls Day. Leave it to TFM to have an All Knucklehead Day.

Our first winner Miami Dade Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick. He gets the award for the following.

A Miami-Dade Circuit judge has voided his own order intended to seal an entire court file ``until the end of the earth.''

Judge Daryl Trawick tossed the order after The Miami Herald reported Sunday it was among more than a dozen sealing orders issued by judges in Miami-Dade and Broward counties that didn't follow new Florida Supreme Court rules aimed at preventing the wrongful sealing of court records.

''Upon review of the court file, the court finds that the subject order failed to comply'' with the new rules, Trawick wrote in his order.

The Supreme Court acted in April after The Miami Herald reported that hundreds of civil and criminal cases in Florida courts were hidden from public view. Most of the cases were filed in Broward.

Trawick issued his sealing order Aug. 1 in a defamation case involving doctors. Neurology Associates Group and Dr. Michael M. Pfeffer had sued Dr. Richard L. Glatzer, alleging he wrote baseless ''peer review'' reports used by insurers to challenge the medical treatment and bills of accident victims who were patients of the plaintiffs.

Miami lawyer Brian Glatzer, Dr. Glatzer's son, requested the sealing. No motion for sealing the court file was ever filed, even though the new rules require sealing requests be made in writing.

Trawick, in dismissing the case, instructed the court clerk's office to seal the court file and docket and keep it hidden ``from public view by anyone, ever until the end of the earth.''

What reason can this Judge have for sealing the court file in the fashion he intended? There has been plenty of recent controversy about other South Florida courts sealing records unnecessarily. In Broward County's case it appeared to be acts of judicial favorism for well known people and court officials. Is there something like that at play here?

It don't really matter. This judge broke rules, he as an officer of the court, are supposed to follow. That's why Miami Dade Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick is today's first Knucklehead award winner of the Day.

Linked to- Big Dog, Right Wing Nation, Stop the ACLU, Third World County, Woman Honor Thyself, Rosemary,