The time to act is now.

Supreme Court of Florida

500 South Duval Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1925

HARRY LEE ANSTEAD, CHIEF JUSTICE

CHARLES T. WILLS

BARBARA J. PARIENTE

R. FRED LEWIS

PEGGY A. QUINCE

RAUOL G. CANTERO, III

KENNETH B. BELL, JUSTICES

February 27, 2003

THOMAS D, HALL, CLERK OF COURT

WILSON E. BARNES, MARSHAL

An Open Letter to All Florida Lawyers

Dear Colleagues:

Florida's justice system needs your help.

In 1998, the voters of Florida approved a constitutional amendment to Article V which calls for a shift in funding of a substantial part of our trial court costs from the county level to the State. The amendment was essentially intended to ensure that the quality of justice in Florida not depend upon whether you were in a property poor county or a property rich county, and that a state court system be uniformly state funded.

While the amendment provided six years for implementation, the deadline for implementing this sweeping change is now only a year away on July 1, 2004. Importantly, the manner in which this transition will take place and the trial court responsibilities that the State will fund will be determined in this 2003 Legislative session. The future of Florida's trial courts will be determined in this session.

You will be proud to know that the judicial branch has been hard at work on this issue since November 1998. Essentially, we have placed the responsibility for planning this transition with the trial judges of Florida who have performed magnificently. Formally, this Court created the Trial Court Budget Commission, presently led by Judge Susan Schaeffer as Chair and Judge Stan Morris as Vice Chair. Florida's trial judges have, and continue to work exhaustively to identify every penny spent by the courts and every source of revenue used. Those same judges have come up with an excellent scheme that has been presented to the Legislature that would both carry out the intent of Revision 7, and maintain, the operations of our trial courts throughout Florida at present levels.

As your Chief Justice, I must call upon you, the lawyers of Florida, as the front line guardians of our justice system, to act as our Legislature convenes in Tallahassee. Our elected representatives need to hear firsthand from those most familiar with the important work being done by Florida's trial judges. Everyone in Florida will be impacted, and especially those who depend upon state courts for justice and the redress of wrongs--you, your clients, your neighbors...