Judge declares CCCRC offices unconstitutional: stop work order stayed while state appeals order.

Saying the new law "amounts to an attempt to amend the constitution by legislative fiat," Second Judicial Circuit Judge P. Kevin Davey struck down all five Offices of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel as unconstitutional.

In his December 20 order granting petition for writ of quo warranto, Davey agreed with the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers that the five OCCCRCs are "essentially public defenders that have not been subject to the qualifications provided by Article V, Section 18 of the Florida Constitution."

The FACDL successfully argued that the counsel, paid $80,000 a year, are second-tier public defenders, yet are not elected and do not live in the area where they have been elected, as required by the Florida Constitution.

The legislature created the new offices, which were to be up and running January 1, 2008, to save money in handling criminal cases when the public defender has a conflict--as well as many civil cases, including Baker Act, guardianship, dependency, and termination of parental rights cases.

Judge Davey ruled that Gov. Charlie Crist "acted outside his constitutional authority by appointing the regional conflict counsel respondents; and the Senate would exceed its constitutional authority by confirming those appointments."

Davey's order quashed the appointments of the five counsels, whose offices are located within the geographic boundaries of one of the five district courts of appeal: Jeffrey Lewis, Jackson Flyte, Joseph George, Philip Massa, and Jeffrey Dean. The judge's order also enjoined Secretary of State Kurt Browning from submitting certificates of appointment and Senate President Ken Pruitt from confirming the counsel.

The five counsels, in varying degrees of progress, had hired some staff, began taking cases, and were scrambling to find office space which some counties were reluctant to provide because of uncertainty due to the pending lawsuit.

Chief Deputy Solicitor General Louis Hubener, on December 20, immediately filed a notice of appeal to the First District Court of Appeal.

"We are considering moving the DCA to certify the case to the Florida Supreme Court," Hubener said, which is where the petition for quo warranto was originally filed on September 20 until the high court transferred it to the Second Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee.

As for the day-to-day operations of the offices struggling to be up and running by the first of the year, Hubener said, "We think they will go...