Courts react to new budget realities: suffering 'substantial budget pain'.

Weighing the consequences of bleak budget cuts to the courts, Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Harry Lee Anstead offers his thoughts on today's grim reality. There will be no new judgeships. Valuable programs will be slashed. Employees will lose their jobs, including 13 deputy court administrators. The courts did not come out of this legislative session whole. But he also offers hope for better times ahead.

"This was the most difficult budget year the judiciary has faced in at least a decade. The good news was legislative approval for the road map our trial judges developed to implement the shift in trial court funding mandated by Revision 7 to Article V next year," Chief Justice Anstead said.

"As I emphasized upon becoming Chief Justice, this is the most significant issue facing Florida's courts since our adoption of a unified state court system in 1972. This was the court system's single greatest priority in this session, and we in the system owe a debt of gratitude to the countless judges, lawyers, administrators, and other members of the justice system, who worked passionately and exhaustively to be certain that Florida's outstanding trial courts be maintained at their current level of excellence."

In particular, Chief Justice Anstead thanked Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer and Eighth Judicial Circuit Judge Stan Morris, both members of the Trial Court Budget Commission who spent countless hours in Tallahassee lobbying the legislature, for providing "outstanding leadership" on this issue.

"Unfortunately, the court system suffered some substantial budget pain, and the brunt of that was borne by the trial courts and Office of the State Courts Administrator. My concern is that we are losing effective...