We love our esteemed judiciary in Florida, but we love real justice more and therefore must offer observations which may be hard for some to hear. The Honorable Chief Justice Canady astutely observed at his annual state of the judiciary that a strong and independent judicial system is necessary to preserve our great nation. His Honor continued that the judiciary has served this function well through the era of COVID-19. This advocate could not disagree more, but perhaps more important than an advocate’s opinion, is the opinion of the very people the system exists to serve. It has been long said that justice delayed is justice denied. As the Chief Justice acknowledged, “many cases will not be resolved until there is the imminent prospect of a trial.” Our state is open for business. We can walk into a grocery store, a hardware store, a restaurant, or a theme park, but we cannot walk into a courthouse to conduct a hearing or try a case. The citizens of our state have real hurts, real harms, and real needs that can be resolved only by the courts, and they must be resolved now. These very citizens are railing against and have lost faith in their judiciary. Legal professionals all around this country are, in droves, counseling their clients to move away from the courts and toward arbitration because real justice is time sensitive. The courts do not need resources from the legislature to tackle the mounting backlog; they need to re-open the doors of justice now.
