CAN A FLORIDA TRIAL JUDGE BE DIS-QUALIFIED FOR FACEBOOK ACTIVITY ? ( yes — but when is a motion to disqualify a Florida judge proper ? )

Uncategorized • Feb 10, 2014

Under what circumstances does a Florida trial judge go too far on Facebook, such that the Florida trial judge should be disqualified from hearing a case? Q: When can you disqualify a Florida trial judge from hearing your case?

Evidently in Palm Beach County, Florida, a Palm Beach judge “friending” attorneys on Facebook is not permissible. But in a new Florida appeals court opinion issued on January 24, a Florida trial judge from another Florida County tried to “friend” a party to a present lawsuit — this caused the Florida trial judge’s disqualification. Florida judges should not be contacting parties who have Florida lawsuits in front of that judge.

Social media has been the darling of Wall Street over the very recent past, with new IPOs and run ups in the prices of stocks like Facebook, although shares of Twitter had just taken a big hit. This recent Florida appeals court opinion which dealt with disqualifying a Florida trial judge suggests that Florida trial judges may wish to stick to owning shares of Facebook, rather than using Facebook to “friend” those who appear in front of them.

Okay, here’s what happened: there was a divorce case in Florida. Evidently the Florida divorce case was moving along. Prior to the final judgment, the trial judge reached out, ex parte, to one of the parties who was in front of the judge in the divorce case. The judge made a “friend” request on Facebook. An “ex parte” communication between a Florida trial judge and a lawyer or a party to a Florida lawsuit is a communication where the other side is not present, and which typically involves the underlying Florida trial. Ex parte communications are generally prohibited and certainly discouraged. In other words, you or your client shouldn’t be talking to the judge about a present case without the other side present, in court.

The party to the Florida lawsuit did not respond to the Florida judge’s friend request on Facebook. After that, the Florida trial judge attributed most of the marital debt to the party the Florida judge had tried friending on Facebook. Evidently, the other party received a “disproportionately excessive” alimony award.

Evidently this got the party who was friended feeling uncomfortable. Were the financial rulings by the Florida divorce court somehow related to the person not accepting the friend request from the judge on Facebook? Who knows? But here’s what happened:

PARTY TO FLORIDA LAWSUIT/DIVORCE FILES MOTION TO DISQUALIFY FLORIDA JUDGE

the party had learned of other cases where this Florida judge had ex parte social media communications that resulted in her disqualification
the party filed a motion for disqualification seeking to remove the Florida trial judge from the case

STANDARDS TO REMOVE A FLORIDA JUDGE FROM THE CASE

The Florida appeals court explained under what circumstances a motion to disqualify a Florida judge may be proper:

Does the party seeking the disqualification of the Florida judge have a well-founded fear that he or she will not receive a fair trial ?
Are the grounds asserted in the motion to disqualify the Florida trial judge “legally sufficient”?
Would a reasonably prudent person fear that he or she could not get a fair and impartial trial before that Florida judge?
Subjective fear is insufficient to disqualify a Florida judge

FACEBOOK FRIENDS WITH FLORIDA LAWYERS AND LITIGANTS IMPROPER

This Florida appeals court clearly drew a very clear line in the sand: Florida trial lawyers know that a Florida judge’s ex-parte communications with a party is a legally sufficient claim for disqualification of the Florida judge. What this recent Florida appeals court opinion clarifies is that Facebook is off-limits.

This Florida legal opinion distinguished another Florida appeals court case where a Florida judge, on Facebook, friended attorneys through social media. In that case, a judge’s “friendship” on social media with a prosecutor of an underlying criminal case could create a fear of someone not receiving a fair and impartial trial. That case was from the Florida appeals court sitting in West Palm Beach, Florida: the fourth district court of appeal.