A justice's priority: full and fair funding for Florida's courts.

I first met Justice Barbara Pariente in 1997 when she was sworn in to the Florida Supreme Court. As a local lawyer, I have observed her great skills as a jurist, and I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know her personally. She is someone I admire very much. This past year has been an extremely difficult one for Justice Pariente and her family. Nevertheless, Justice Pariente has handled her personal challenges in a very dignified yet humble manner, and is stronger as a result of them.

The photograph of her with a sparkling tiara atop her shiny crown, laughing, is a testament of her steadfast strength in her battle with breast cancer. That photo originally appeared in the Palm Beach Post with an article that documented her decision to face cancer publicly by allowing the newspaper to photograph her medical treatments and bald head that resulted from the chemotherapy.

The same courage that has been a hallmark of Chief Justice Pariente's personal life also will carry into her professional one at the state's highest court. Indeed, while undergoing her treatment, Justice Pariente did not miss a single oral argument at the court.

"My first priority is to continue to work together to ensure full and fair funding of the courts so that our citizens have equal access to justice no matter where they live or what they do for a living," she said at her swearing-in ceremony at the Florida Supreme Court.

Although that statement should not be particularly challenging in this country, Revision 7 to Article V of the state's constitution has required our judiciary to confront a potentially disastrous transition as the funding of the courts shifted primarily from the counties to the state this past July.

It will be Chief Justice Pariente's challenge to guide this new budgetary system for the courts through its infancy. Like former Bar President Miles McGrane promised then Chief Justice Harry Lee Anstead, I pledge the continuing support of The Florida Bar to Chief Justice Pariente. Together, we can work toward increasing funding for our courts and fulfilling the needs of our state by appointing more judges. I have no doubt that under Chief Justice Pariente's leadership, our courts are in excellent hands.

During this season of change for the court system, several members of the judiciary worked diligently with the legislature to make sure the third branch of government would be well taken care of. On January 12, 1999, then-Chief Justice Major Harding established a steering committee to study the details of court funding. It fell to his successors, Charles Wells and Harry Lee Anstead, to alert the judiciary, the Bar, editorial boards, and citizens throughout the state that the needs of the judicial system could not be ignored.

Chief Justice Anstead worked tirelessly in 2003 and 2004 to convey this important message, and he will always be remembered for his honor, civility, and the dignified yet impassioned manner in which he warned us of growing partisan attacks against the judiciary.

There were others who worked with the legislature to fund critical elements of court funding: Judge Susan Schaeffer, chair of the Trial Court Budget Commission, and Judges Joe Farina, Charlie Francis, John Laurent, Stan Morris, and Belvin Perry. Judge Schaeffer called this group her A-Team heroes who were "the backbone and lifeblood of the Revision 7 effort." We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

Funding was resolved to the courts' satisfaction, Justice Anstead said in June at the Bar's Annual Meeting. But he cautioned that even though state money for trial courts has increased, counties still have significant responsibilities for court funding and the court system is looking at a $10-million deficit statewide.

While there was success in attaining the funds for trial courts this year, we need that same perseverance of will during the next session to ease the courts' workload through more judges.

Although the 2004 Legislature agreed that additional judges were needed to resolve the state's caseload, none of the 88 new judges certified by the Supreme Court were approved. It was the second year in a row that the legislature chose not to fund any of the judgeships that were certified by the court.

During the fiscal year 2002-03, 815 Florida judges had to contend with over 3.5 million circuit and county court filings. Only a handful of circuits carry the bulk of the state's massive caseload. Based on data from the Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator, the larger circuits (Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, 11th, 13th, 15th, and 17th) deal with almost 70 percent of the county court dispositions and close to 60 percent of the circuit court dispositions. The workload of judges continues to grow and more judges are needed to ease the overburdened circuits.

On behalf of the 75,000 attorneys of The Florida Bar, I wish to express our gratitude to all of the members of the judiciary who stood up and demanded adequate funding for our courts when Revision 7 to Article V went into effect. The public will largely never know of your service, but among your peers you are recognized for your efforts during this court funding change. On a grander scale, the independence of our third branch of government has been strengthened by your perseverance.

The judiciary is to the courts what teachers are to the classroom. When public schools don't have enough funding, it's the educator who rings the public's bell for a call to action. As officers of the court, we must work to ensure fairness to all who pass through the halls of justice by making sure our courts are fully funded and our judiciary independent.