Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Leon County Judge Seat 4 Candidate - Robert Churchill

Transcript

Leon County Judge Seat 4 Candidate - Robert Churchill · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, folks, here we are. You thought I was
0:03
Speaker 1: done doing the podcast for the election season, and nay, nay,
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Speaker 1: I am not. I am sitting with Robert Churchill, who
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Speaker 1: is running for Leon County Judge seat four. Robert, good
0:14
Speaker 1: to meet you.
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Speaker 2: How are you. Thank you.
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Speaker 3: It's wonderful to be here present. I am wonderful. I'm well,
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Speaker 3: and I'm delighted to be here.
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Speaker 1: Are you delighted as well that you're at the end
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Speaker 1: of this cycle?
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Speaker 3: I am delighted to be nearing the end. You know what,
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Speaker 3: We are in the last two laps of the five
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Speaker 3: k race here. So it's when people ask me how
0:34
Speaker 3: I'm doing, I say, I'm in the last two laps.
0:37
Speaker 3: You know, we're kicking and we're working hard. But it's hard.
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Speaker 3: And I have never run for office before. I'm not
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Speaker 3: a politician. I'm not a good campaigner, but I want
0:48
Speaker 3: the job and I care about the court, which is
0:50
Speaker 3: why I'm doing it.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about that for just a second. Because you're
0:55
Speaker 1: not a politician. I think every judicial candidate says that
1:00
Speaker 1: we find out sometimes usually in the higher levels, whether
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Speaker 1: it's the Supreme Court or whether it's a higher level
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Speaker 1: of appellate court. Maybe they're a little more political than
1:10
Speaker 1: we thought, But the reality is, you do have to
1:14
Speaker 1: run in this political arena, or prepared you for that
1:19
Speaker 1: or is there any preparation for it?
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Speaker 3: Well, I say I'm not a politician now, and that
1:27
Speaker 3: is true now, and that's because I was sure that
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Speaker 3: I was going to become a politician when I was younger.
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Speaker 2: In law school. I did law school.
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Speaker 3: I didn't the FSU College of Law has because we're
1:38
Speaker 3: so here in the capitol and are connected to government institutions.
1:44
Speaker 3: There's an externship that they had offered at the legislature.
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Speaker 3: And I was certain that I was going into politics
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Speaker 3: at that point, and I wasn't quite sure where I
1:53
Speaker 3: was where it was going to take me, but I
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Speaker 3: wanted to see it in action, and so I did
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Speaker 3: the externship at the Florida Legislature, and that completely cured
2:02
Speaker 3: me of my desire to go into politics. It was
2:06
Speaker 3: an interesting time, but you know, what I found was
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Speaker 3: that what I cared about and was good at doing
2:13
Speaker 3: was the legal research part of that job. And so
2:16
Speaker 3: I found myself kind of working on the legal analysis
2:21
Speaker 3: that they needed done. But I was not in committee meetings,
2:25
Speaker 3: and I did.
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Speaker 2: Not care at all for the.
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Speaker 3: Show of it, really, And then while I was still
2:34
Speaker 3: doing the externship, the entire world came to Tallahassee during
2:39
Speaker 3: Bush versus Gore, which was just an extraordinary thing to
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Speaker 3: witness and watch and be sitting there in working in
2:47
Speaker 3: the Capitol while that was playing.
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Speaker 2: Out, and it still cured me. I'm not a politician
2:53
Speaker 2: and never have been. Whether I thought I was going
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Speaker 2: to or not, I'm not doing it.
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Speaker 1: So I think a lot of people, whether they'd admitted
2:59
Speaker 1: or not. As another story, but when I think about
3:03
Speaker 1: someone wanting to be a judge, I for years had
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Speaker 1: this idea that it surely had to be kind of
3:10
Speaker 1: like the basketball team or the football team. You had
3:13
Speaker 1: the varsity, and then you had the JV and then
3:17
Speaker 1: you had the freshmen and they all kind of tried out,
3:20
Speaker 1: and then you'd pick and you'd move your way up
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Speaker 1: from freshmen to junior varsity to varsity. And so I
3:26
Speaker 1: think a lot of us think that, well, you want
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Speaker 1: to be the county judge seat, for surely you've been
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Speaker 1: a judge somewhere else, someplace else, But it doesn't quite work.
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Speaker 2: That way there.
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Speaker 3: I would venture say, there are probably some people who
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Speaker 3: view it in those terms. The county judge seat is
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Speaker 3: the lowest level trial court in the state. So the
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Speaker 3: county court is where small claims court is handled where
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Speaker 3: and it used to be smaller than it is now.
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Speaker 3: That is, the jurisdiction limit for county Court used to
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Speaker 3: be fifteen thousand dollars. It has because of the workload
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Speaker 3: on the entire court system. The legislature has changed that
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Speaker 3: and so now the county load is up to fifty
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Speaker 3: thousand dollars and they'd handle criminal misdemeanors and batteries and
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Speaker 3: housing disputes like landlord tenant things. What that means is
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Speaker 3: that now the county court is concerned with really what
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Speaker 3: our most small business disputes most If you are in
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Speaker 3: a small business dispute that involves more than fifty thousand dollars,
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Speaker 3: you have real problems. Most of those disputes are for
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Speaker 3: less than that amount of money, and there are many,
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Speaker 3: many of them. So I built my law practice here
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Speaker 3: around defending small businesses in county court and individuals being
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Speaker 3: chased for money or housing disputes, landlord tenant matters. And
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Speaker 3: that was just because as a business matter. When I
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Speaker 3: went out on my own, it made sense there was
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Speaker 3: nobody else doing that work, and I sort of niched
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Speaker 3: into it and turn the corner running my business doing
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Speaker 3: that work. But many people, to address your point, a
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Speaker 3: lot of people see a county court job as like
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Speaker 3: a stepping stone to bigger, better things later on. And
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Speaker 3: there are many people who start as county court judges
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Speaker 3: and then move on to becoming circuit judges, which is
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Speaker 3: the higher jurisdiction court, etc. Or DCA appalot judges. I
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Speaker 3: can't say that would never occur for me, but what
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Speaker 3: I will say is that I don't view the job
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Speaker 3: as a stepping stone. This is where I work, and
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Speaker 3: I care about this court and I care about the
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Speaker 3: product of its work.
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Speaker 1: How does somebody literally, though, become qualified to even run
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Speaker 1: to become a judge. I think a lot of people
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Speaker 1: are under the impression that, like I said, you've been
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Speaker 1: a judge somewhere else doing something else, that you're you're
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Speaker 1: like born a judge, you know you're a judge. But
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Speaker 1: it's not that way. So everybody that's going to run
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Speaker 1: for this position has to have certain qualifications, though.
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Speaker 3: Correct well to constitutional qualifications under Florida law are that
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Speaker 3: to be a judge you have to have been a
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Speaker 3: lawyer for a certain number of years, and when you are,
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Speaker 3: as it happens in this seat, we both have markedly
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Speaker 3: more experience than is required as a minimum to to
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Speaker 3: be that thus qualified that way on numbers of years
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Speaker 3: of experience, but then it depends on how you're getting there.
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Speaker 3: So if you're judges are supposed to be elected under
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Speaker 3: our system, and there was a referendum done decades ago
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Speaker 3: where the people of the state of Florida decided yes,
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Speaker 3: judges should be elected when judge. When judicial vacancies occur
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Speaker 3: by a judge's retirement or a judge moving from position
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Speaker 3: to position, then the ovenor appoints the replacement, and that
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Speaker 3: appointment is done through a merit selection process through the
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Speaker 3: Judicial Nominating Commission. I've been through that process four times.
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Speaker 3: I've been nominated by the Judicial Nominating Commission four times
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Speaker 3: and have not been appointed. But now this seat has
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Speaker 3: come open because a judge is retiring and did not
7:23
Speaker 3: put his name into qualify for the election, and so
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Speaker 3: that's why the seat opened. And it's an open seat,
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Speaker 3: which is relatively rare, but that's why it's happening this way.
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Speaker 1: When you say you care about this court, try to
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Speaker 1: quantify that or qualify that for me, what do you mean?
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Speaker 3: Well, because I work here on a day in, day
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Speaker 3: out basis, and I have been working in this court
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Speaker 3: since two thousand and six, roughly a little bit earlier
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Speaker 3: than that, but I started my business focusing on it
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Speaker 3: in two thousand and six. I have in that time
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Speaker 3: seen five or six judges come and go, and they've
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Speaker 3: all been perfectly professional and good people and hard working.
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Speaker 2: And what.
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Speaker 3: My experience has been is that most of the experience
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Speaker 3: of the judges who end up on any court anywhere
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Speaker 3: have a lot of prior experience in either criminal law
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Speaker 3: through the state attorney's office or in state government somewhere,
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Speaker 3: neither of which happens to be on my resume in
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Speaker 3: any extensive amount. What I have done is focus my
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Speaker 3: time and energy on civil litigation and the nuances and
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Speaker 3: the depths of those cases. That means that the judges
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Speaker 3: on this court tend to look to lawyers who practice
8:46
Speaker 3: in areas that the judges are rather under exposed on
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Speaker 3: in their own.
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Speaker 2: Prior careers to.
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Speaker 3: Assess the areas of law that need exploration and to
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Speaker 3: do better work. And so I and other lawyers like
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Speaker 3: me working in my practice area have been leaned on
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Speaker 3: that way for years. My opinion on this is my
9:11
Speaker 3: experience has been that the court is better served by
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Speaker 3: having people on the bench who have different professional backgrounds
9:20
Speaker 3: and experiences on which to draw, and we end up
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Speaker 3: with a better product overall when the court system is
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Speaker 3: populated by people with broad and diverse backgrounds of experience.
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Speaker 3: And that's why, that's at least a large part why
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Speaker 3: I'm doing it, But I also want the product of
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Speaker 3: the court to be elevated through that process. I'm doing
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Speaker 3: this because I think I have something to bring to it.
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Speaker 1: Over the years, I've told my radio audience that I
9:46
Speaker 1: don't do interviews with judicial candidates very often because I
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Speaker 1: can't ask about what would you do in this case?
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Speaker 1: How would you view that case? There are specifics, and
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Speaker 1: I appreciate why you just can't talk about because it
10:02
Speaker 1: could come before you in a case. So let me
10:04
Speaker 1: broaden and go back out a little bit and maybe
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Speaker 1: get to the thirty thousand and sixty thousand foot view.
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Speaker 1: Is there a judicial philosophy that in this type of courtroom,
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Speaker 1: with the types of cases that you'll face can summarize
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Speaker 1: your view of the job.
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Speaker 3: Yes, I don't know that I have a label for it,
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Speaker 3: but basically it's my philosophy over the way judges are
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Speaker 3: to approach their own power is sparingly. That is I
10:40
Speaker 3: viewed judicial power and I've talked about this and one
10:43
Speaker 3: of the campaign forums. I view the exercise of judicial
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Speaker 3: power as akin to the reverse gear in a car,
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Speaker 3: and a reverse gear in a car is something that
10:52
Speaker 3: you want to use.
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Speaker 2: When I was.
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Speaker 3: I've now gotten through three of my daughters learning how
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Speaker 3: to drive, sat in the passenger seat, and what we
11:00
Speaker 3: came away from that lesson with was we use this
11:03
Speaker 3: reverse gear as little as possible. You you use it
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Speaker 3: to safely back up, and as soon as you can
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Speaker 3: get in drive and navigate around, you do that. And
11:11
Speaker 3: that's because you have more control, more vision, more you're
11:15
Speaker 3: just a better driver in the drive gear than you
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Speaker 3: are in reverse. When you're in reverse, too often you
11:20
Speaker 3: run into things, you step, you do things that you
11:24
Speaker 3: did not intend, and a judge's power is like that.
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Speaker 2: In my view. You we when when.
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Speaker 3: The legislature writes a law and the governor participates in
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Speaker 3: the crafting of that law by by by allowing it
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Speaker 3: to go through, not vetoing it.
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Speaker 2: Et cetera. That is the policy of the state.
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Speaker 3: And the judge's job is to carry out that policy.
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Speaker 3: And there's there are nuances, there are ambiguities in law
11:55
Speaker 3: at times that the judge has to interpret, but that's
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Speaker 3: really rare relative to how often it's invoked. So more
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Speaker 3: often the job of the judge is to enforce the
12:05
Speaker 3: law that's on the books and to do what it
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Speaker 3: says far more often. And and then if the legislature
12:12
Speaker 3: gets pushed back that law is missing its mark, that's
12:16
Speaker 3: up to them the fix or change.
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Speaker 1: It's not a judge's responsibility.
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Speaker 3: Right And and every lawyer that I know who when
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Speaker 3: the legislature changes a law in an area of practice
12:27
Speaker 3: that a lawyer is practicing in, what you what you
12:30
Speaker 3: get is the lawyers who are more creatively minded start
12:34
Speaker 3: to figure out, how are we going to get around
12:37
Speaker 3: this now do we and what?
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Speaker 2: And And the way that they.
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Speaker 3: Argue this is, in large part is to say judge,
12:44
Speaker 3: as sometimes they will say they didn't really mean what
12:48
Speaker 3: they said, but but very often what they say is
12:51
Speaker 3: just think about the practical implications of what happens here.
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Speaker 2: Judge, if we.
12:55
Speaker 3: Do what the legislature said to do, it's it's a
12:59
Speaker 3: bad idea. And so what they're then doing is asking
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Speaker 3: the judge to effectively veto in this case for whatever reason,
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Speaker 3: what the legislature said, and that, in my view, is
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Speaker 3: not the role of a judge. The judge's job is
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Speaker 3: to is to do what the statute says on the books.
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Speaker 1: If I were to ask you to define how you'll
13:23
Speaker 1: approach the idea that I mean, there's two sides to
13:26
Speaker 1: every case. That's the point of having a judge. You've
13:28
Speaker 1: got a plaintiff, you've got a defense, right, you've been
13:32
Speaker 1: on one side of that versus the other. More, how
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Speaker 1: do you balance that moving forward as a judge?
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Speaker 3: I well, you have to understand that your job when
13:42
Speaker 3: when you move forward, as this is true of almost
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Speaker 3: every judge. Every every judge who has come to the
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Speaker 3: bench has come there from a background experience of normally
13:51
Speaker 3: being steeped in some area of law where they were
13:53
Speaker 3: playing one part of the other. And we then have
13:55
Speaker 3: to trust the ability of the judge to basically take
14:00
Speaker 3: off that hat and put on a different one. That
14:02
Speaker 3: is essentially an arbor and you're you're not playing the
14:05
Speaker 3: game now, you're you're a referee or an.
14:06
Speaker 2: Umpire, and and.
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Speaker 3: The and and that is a role that I'm I'm
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Speaker 3: happy to embrace. I'm not I'm not concerned at all
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Speaker 3: about my inability to be impartial in reference to cases
14:22
Speaker 3: that come before me. I and I think that I
14:24
Speaker 3: can bring something to the cases that add perspective to
14:28
Speaker 3: the and complement the existing makeup of the court, just
14:32
Speaker 3: based on that background.
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Speaker 1: How important is it that just the people listening right now,
14:39
Speaker 1: overwhelmingly are not ever going to be in front of you.
14:43
Speaker 1: Most of them just aren't. They're not going to find
14:45
Speaker 1: their way into a courtroom, but yet they're deciding who's
14:49
Speaker 1: going to sit in this judge's seat.
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Speaker 2: Right?
14:52
Speaker 1: How important is it that they understand the why behind
14:56
Speaker 1: your rulings?
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Speaker 3: The It's important for everybody that comes before the court
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Speaker 3: to understand the why, and it's important for the community
15:07
Speaker 3: to understand the why of this system itself. Basically, we
15:12
Speaker 3: are we are all better off when the law is
15:16
Speaker 3: predictable and the law is adequately, evenly, fairly applied as
15:21
Speaker 3: it reads. What what in my view, where we are
15:25
Speaker 3: worse off or worse off in business. We're worse off
15:29
Speaker 3: in social relationships and interactions in everyday life when you
15:33
Speaker 3: don't know when whether in this transaction that you're having
15:37
Speaker 3: today or this one that you have on the road
15:40
Speaker 3: down the street from wherever you go out from here
15:43
Speaker 3: might be treated differently based on which judge hears it and.
15:49
Speaker 2: The what what.
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Speaker 3: The legislature has done in reference to those things on
15:54
Speaker 3: matters that are of concern to them enough when when
15:57
Speaker 3: when they when they care enough about an issue, then
15:59
Speaker 3: they will legislates something into it. Then it's the job
16:02
Speaker 3: of the judge to carry it out well.
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Speaker 2: Two.
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Speaker 3: And that regulates the and then allows us to And
16:10
Speaker 3: when I say regulate, I mean it it may it
16:12
Speaker 3: should make predictable what the interaction of the court system
16:16
Speaker 3: is then in these relationships. And that's exactly what the
16:21
Speaker 3: legislature is trying to do. And that's what the job
16:23
Speaker 3: of the judges to carry out. And that affects us
16:26
Speaker 3: all in our relationships, business and otherwise.
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Speaker 1: See I asked the question because the email I get
16:32
Speaker 1: most often at election time is what do I do
16:35
Speaker 1: about the judges up for retention? The Supreme Court stuff
16:39
Speaker 1: it's kind of low hanging fruit. They don't make a
16:42
Speaker 1: ton of rulings, and so you can read, you can
16:44
Speaker 1: find out who voted what and why they might have
16:47
Speaker 1: signed on with a majority versus a dissenting opinion. But
16:51
Speaker 1: for about every other judge's retention, and you're not facing
16:56
Speaker 1: that you want this seat. You're trying to figure out, okay, well,
17:00
Speaker 1: how they rule. And that's one of the big flaws
17:03
Speaker 1: in our system of retaining and electing judges is the
17:07
Speaker 1: public just doesn't have information to hang their hat on
17:11
Speaker 1: to know to make a good informed choice. So would
17:15
Speaker 1: you rather only inform people vote on the judges race,
17:20
Speaker 1: because you're really at the whim of you know, well,
17:24
Speaker 1: I like his personality or I like the way that
17:27
Speaker 1: he answered that question versus anything beyond that that has substance.
17:32
Speaker 2: I would rather I would rather.
17:35
Speaker 3: The the people voting be very well informed on what
17:40
Speaker 3: they're voting on. And the election that you're kind of
17:43
Speaker 3: elections that you're referring to, are these retention elections for
17:46
Speaker 3: appellate judges, which are and they have their rulings. Appeals
17:52
Speaker 3: court judges have a sweep to them or basically what
17:54
Speaker 3: they say matters and governs or buyings all lower trial courts.
18:01
Speaker 3: So they have a lot of power.
18:02
Speaker 2: And yet not.
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Speaker 3: If average person on the street could not name one
18:08
Speaker 3: of those judges, correct, and they have a privilege and
18:13
Speaker 3: right to do their work anonymously. Literally, they can have
18:16
Speaker 3: an opinion that where we don't know who wrote it.
18:20
Speaker 3: And so when you're asked whether we should retain this
18:26
Speaker 3: judge or not, they I don't think any appellate court
18:29
Speaker 3: judge has ever been rejected, but in the history since
18:34
Speaker 3: since that system has been in place, whether we should
18:39
Speaker 3: do it that way or not, I don't know. But
18:42
Speaker 3: what I will say is that when you have an
18:44
Speaker 3: open election to an open judicial seat, it matters that
18:49
Speaker 3: people have done some background research on these candidates. I
18:55
Speaker 3: don't know whether we could come up with a better
18:57
Speaker 3: way than what we're doing the way that we're doing.
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Speaker 1: I've Robert, I've long suggested that there be either either
19:03
Speaker 1: the judge or the court that the judges is serving.
19:07
Speaker 1: Basically write a summary of Okay, here was the case,
19:10
Speaker 1: here was the ruling, here's why for everything, to give
19:14
Speaker 1: us the people in the public, a look into Okay,
19:18
Speaker 1: what was the judge thinking in that case and why.
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Speaker 3: Right, and that I will tell you, and that has
19:24
Speaker 3: particular particular sort of pertinence to this job in particular,
19:29
Speaker 3: and that's because the county court happens to be And
19:31
Speaker 3: you were saying that most of your audience is never
19:34
Speaker 3: going to show up in county court or any court,
19:36
Speaker 3: and that's probably true, and it's fortunate for them. Most
19:40
Speaker 3: people that I deal with in court are there are
19:42
Speaker 3: kind of one and done's they're there and they're surprised
19:45
Speaker 3: to be there a lot of times. But but yeah,
19:50
Speaker 3: they got a letter in the mail. But in the
19:54
Speaker 3: in the process of that, because this court happens to
19:58
Speaker 3: be the one where if you're ever going to interact
20:00
Speaker 3: with the court system, unless it's in your divorce, which
20:03
Speaker 3: is in circuit court and it's a contested matter, then
20:06
Speaker 3: this court, the county court Small claims court, is where
20:08
Speaker 3: you're going to see the court in action. Okay, So
20:11
Speaker 3: this court essentially serves in some way as an ambassador
20:15
Speaker 3: for the court system to the.
20:16
Speaker 2: Public and.
20:19
Speaker 3: It around the state. County courts do a relatively poor job.
20:25
Speaker 3: Sometimes they do an awful job of carrying out that
20:29
Speaker 3: important duty. That is, people go into court and walk
20:32
Speaker 3: out of there, not knowing what just happened, and there
20:37
Speaker 3: was lawyers were up there talking.
20:39
Speaker 2: I didn't.
20:40
Speaker 3: It was like a foreign language. I had no idea
20:42
Speaker 3: what was happening that It seemed like they were too busy,
20:45
Speaker 3: too hurried. They said my name, something happened. I walked
20:49
Speaker 3: out of there. Now the reason I know that is
20:51
Speaker 3: because then those people end up in my office telling
20:53
Speaker 3: me exactly that, and I have to then go and
20:56
Speaker 3: look on the docket and explain to them this, from
20:59
Speaker 3: what I can see, this is what happened to you,
21:01
Speaker 3: and this affected your rights. They were deciding something about
21:05
Speaker 3: you while you were sitting there and didn't understand it. That,
21:08
Speaker 3: in my view, is a fundamental problem and something that
21:12
Speaker 3: is the job of the judge to address.
21:15
Speaker 1: So how much discretion do you have in that type
21:18
Speaker 1: of case without going into details, and how much discretion
21:22
Speaker 1: do you have to maybe create a trail for people
21:26
Speaker 1: to understand the rulings that you make and why.
21:30
Speaker 3: One of the ways that one judge I've talked to
21:34
Speaker 3: about what the important roles and duties of a judge
21:38
Speaker 3: are said he has told me, and what I like
21:41
Speaker 3: a lot is that a judge's job is to listen
21:44
Speaker 3: well to listen more than they talk, to make sure
21:47
Speaker 3: that everyone is heard and feels heard. That matters, and
21:52
Speaker 3: to explain well what their rulings are. If you're making
21:55
Speaker 3: a ruling, you have to be able to explain it
21:57
Speaker 3: in a way that people understand what just happened, whether
21:59
Speaker 3: they or lost. And they Meanwhile, there's a lot of
22:07
Speaker 3: the docket is crowded, there's a backlog for whatever reason,
22:11
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of emphasis on moving things through
22:15
Speaker 3: where that part of explaining well what happened is perhaps
22:20
Speaker 3: being underserved at times, and that's not where you want
22:23
Speaker 3: to cut these corners. In my view, a part of
22:26
Speaker 3: the job of a judge is to make sure that
22:28
Speaker 3: the rulings are understood. Now, a judge cannot and what
22:32
Speaker 3: many judges will tell you is, look, I can't give
22:33
Speaker 3: anybody advice, and that is true.
22:35
Speaker 2: They can't. They What they can tell you.
22:38
Speaker 3: Is, here's what happened, here's and here's why it happened,
22:41
Speaker 3: and they can explain that in as much detail as
22:44
Speaker 3: they need to to make sure the point is across.
22:47
Speaker 3: Some people can't fathom that they have lost. And the
22:52
Speaker 3: reality is when you have a case that is a
22:55
Speaker 3: versus b one of them is going to lose, So
22:57
Speaker 3: fifty percent of the people are going to be unhappy,
23:00
Speaker 3: but they deserve the explanation.
23:03
Speaker 1: You have offices in Tallahassee, Thomasville and Saint Pete. Still correct, Yes,
23:11
Speaker 1: real weird question, but I think it's a fair one.
23:14
Speaker 1: What happens to the other offices. Clearly you shut down
23:17
Speaker 1: your office in Tallahassee.
23:19
Speaker 2: No, I don't know the law.
23:21
Speaker 3: The law office will will keep going just without me
23:24
Speaker 3: in it, and it will not have my name on it.
23:27
Speaker 3: But the I have an attorney who is of counsel
23:30
Speaker 3: to my firm who is in Jacksonville. I used to
23:32
Speaker 3: have a branch in Jacksonville, and then she's from Tallahassee.
23:37
Speaker 3: Your name is Marilyn Wells, and she took she took
23:42
Speaker 3: the Jacksonville office and then turned the corner and grew
23:45
Speaker 3: it herself and thrived and is doing well. She is
23:49
Speaker 3: still of counsel to my law firm, meaning that she's
23:51
Speaker 3: she's associated with my firm. And then my branch office
23:55
Speaker 3: in Saint Pete will keep on running. And then they
23:57
Speaker 3: the two of them, and probably another lawyer here locally,
24:00
Speaker 3: we'll keep running the office. If I become a judge,
24:02
Speaker 3: the office in Thomasville, Georgia would would cease to exist,
24:07
Speaker 3: and the and my Georgia work would then shut down
24:10
Speaker 3: because nobody in my law firm is admitted in Georgia
24:13
Speaker 3: other than me, so and I. And when he pretty
24:16
Speaker 3: much ends that, then, yes, sir, so, when you when
24:18
Speaker 3: you become a judge, you're no longer allowed to practice
24:20
Speaker 3: law in any form, and that's why that would shut down.
24:23
Speaker 1: What do you think is most important for voters to
24:25
Speaker 1: know beyond the things we've chatted about so far as
24:28
Speaker 1: they you know, obviously early votings underway and we're about
24:32
Speaker 1: halfway through that. But what do you want them to
24:35
Speaker 1: consider when it comes to making a decision on this race?
24:41
Speaker 3: Just to be well informed on the the background, the philosophy,
24:46
Speaker 3: the philosophy, the approach of the judge, the judicial candidates
24:49
Speaker 3: that are in the race, and to understand that my
24:53
Speaker 3: the as you were referring to, and as we were
24:57
Speaker 3: talking here before we started, the the the rules that
25:01
Speaker 3: apply to judges and judicial candidates make it so that
25:05
Speaker 3: I'm not allowed to talk about and a lot of
25:08
Speaker 3: matters of import to you and your audience.
25:10
Speaker 2: So I.
25:12
Speaker 3: Have no opinion on those things by because that's the
25:15
Speaker 3: way it has to be.
25:17
Speaker 1: Even if you had an opinion, you have no opinion
25:19
Speaker 1: because you have to base your rulings on what's presented,
25:22
Speaker 1: not anything you hear ancillary to that right.
25:24
Speaker 3: And so we all these amendments that are on the ballot.
25:27
Speaker 3: What do you think about the amendments? The presidential election
25:29
Speaker 3: obviously is a huge thing, and there's all these other
25:31
Speaker 3: contentious local elections, and there are there's there is what
25:38
Speaker 3: seems to be a rather constant pull on me and
25:42
Speaker 3: my opponent, Miss Riggins in this race too, to identify,
25:47
Speaker 3: to tell us who, where, where are what side of you.
25:51
Speaker 1: On support right?
25:53
Speaker 3: And our job is is to RISI I didn't write
26:00
Speaker 3: these rules, but our job ultimately is to resist those
26:04
Speaker 3: influences and to say, listen, based on my background, I'm
26:07
Speaker 3: the best person for this job.
26:09
Speaker 2: Now. The forced banality of this, I mean.
26:14
Speaker 3: The the the absolute vanilla flavor of what what you're
26:18
Speaker 3: getting in a judicial campaign is because that's that's the
26:22
Speaker 3: way the rules are written. And what it also does,
26:24
Speaker 3: and I think what it's done in our campaign is
26:26
Speaker 3: it's it's made it so that we genuinely like one another.
26:32
Speaker 3: I'm I we've become fast friends in this campaign. I
26:35
Speaker 3: wish her well. I want the job and I and
26:39
Speaker 3: I'm prepared to explain why I think my background.
26:42
Speaker 2: My view of the judicial role as.
26:46
Speaker 3: Shown in these forums that you're referring to that people
26:49
Speaker 3: can look at, is best suited for the job.
26:53
Speaker 1: Now you've mentioned the dollar limit that is on cases
26:58
Speaker 1: that would come before this court, which is the Leon
27:02
Speaker 1: County seat for court. What about the breadth of it.
27:08
Speaker 1: Let's go just a little bit deeper in explaining the
27:11
Speaker 1: type of cases that you see, because when you see
27:15
Speaker 1: you hear a dollar figure, you're thinking, Okay, there's a
27:17
Speaker 1: financial crime. You mentioned small claims, kind of civil court
27:20
Speaker 1: type things, but criminal matters.
27:23
Speaker 3: Yes, the county county judges deal with criminal misdemeanors basically
27:29
Speaker 3: crimes that are punishable by less than a year put away.
27:33
Speaker 1: So if there's an armed robbery that's going somewhere.
27:36
Speaker 3: Else, correct, Yes, that's going to circuit court. If it's
27:39
Speaker 3: a felony, does that.
27:45
Speaker 1: Expansion of the types of cases you'll hear. What kind
27:49
Speaker 1: of requirements does that place on you? Given your area?
27:51
Speaker 1: You mentioned you have a niche practice.
27:54
Speaker 3: Right, Well, the requirements that puts on me and on
27:58
Speaker 3: every other judge is that you have to you have
28:00
Speaker 3: to be prepared to understand the full breadth of the
28:04
Speaker 3: law and the scope of what applies to it to
28:06
Speaker 3: deal with the case as well that come before you.
28:09
Speaker 3: In criminal law practice, one of the things that I've
28:13
Speaker 3: been collecting feedback from everybody i can on this campaign.
28:17
Speaker 3: I've talked to the state attorney, to the sheriff, to
28:19
Speaker 3: the to the chief of police, to the public.
28:23
Speaker 2: Defender and their office.
28:24
Speaker 3: And one of the things, one of the bits of
28:26
Speaker 3: feedback that I'm getting from those involved in the criminal
28:29
Speaker 3: legal process is that it matters that that good lawyering
28:36
Speaker 3: is adjudicated. There are so many cases in the criminal
28:39
Speaker 3: system that are basically wheel and deal jobs. You know,
28:43
Speaker 3: let's let's let's make a deal happen here and get
28:46
Speaker 3: this done that. And I see that also on the
28:51
Speaker 3: civil side in my own practice, where where there's we
28:55
Speaker 3: people are encouraged to get things resolved and settled. Number one,
29:01
Speaker 3: because it reduces caseload, It gets the case off the docket,
29:06
Speaker 3: and usually it's a better, more predictable outcome for everybody involved.
29:12
Speaker 3: That said, there are cases that have to be adjudicated.
29:15
Speaker 3: And the role of the judge when you have two
29:17
Speaker 3: lawyers before you is to say, I see that you're here,
29:20
Speaker 3: and I'm not going to ask you whether you've talked,
29:22
Speaker 3: if everybody here knows what they're doing, and if they
29:26
Speaker 3: have not been able to make a deal, I have
29:28
Speaker 3: a job to do, and that job is adjudicating the case.
29:32
Speaker 3: That is something that I think is incumbent upon every
29:36
Speaker 3: judge to address your question. There are as My particular
29:43
Speaker 3: background and my area of depth of knowledge and expertise
29:47
Speaker 3: has been in civil litigation, in collection matters and garnishment procedure,
29:54
Speaker 3: and a lot of things that come before county judges
29:57
Speaker 3: all the time, Okay, which is why I that's where
30:00
Speaker 3: I pitched my tent. There have been in our great
30:07
Speaker 3: great judges who like me, have come to the bench
30:10
Speaker 3: steeped in some prior background knowledge of one particular area
30:15
Speaker 3: of law, but not in the other areas of law
30:17
Speaker 3: that judge will necessarily touch on the bench. So James
30:21
Speaker 3: Hankinson a great great judge. Here, Kevin Carroll another great judge.
30:27
Speaker 3: Both of them came from entirely different career paths. One
30:31
Speaker 3: was civil and one was criminal. And then when they
30:33
Speaker 3: were judges, they handled everything and they did a fantastic job.
30:39
Speaker 3: To the extent that I am done the honor of
30:42
Speaker 3: being elected to the seat, I would be in that
30:44
Speaker 3: mole and basically I'm going to be doing everything that
30:46
Speaker 3: the judge, the judicial seat touches. But my background is
30:52
Speaker 3: extensive in civil litigation.
30:54
Speaker 1: You mentioned talking to attorneys and prosecutors and other judges
31:00
Speaker 1: and sheriffs and all of that. What have you heard
31:02
Speaker 1: from people, just people as you've gone around to these forums,
31:07
Speaker 1: business owners, regular citizens out there, and what they voice
31:11
Speaker 1: to you anything catch you off guard?
31:14
Speaker 3: What the most common thing that you hear from regular
31:18
Speaker 3: people is, well, it's twofold. The people who have are
31:26
Speaker 3: are one time players. That is one and Done's tend
31:32
Speaker 3: to say. All I want to know is that you're
31:36
Speaker 3: going to be fair, that you're going to do justice.
31:38
Speaker 1: Okay, the justice can be perceived through just their lands.
31:42
Speaker 3: Well, this is just the devils and the details, because
31:45
Speaker 3: they know what they mean justice as I see it,
31:51
Speaker 3: that's right and when when? And others who are there
31:57
Speaker 3: more often a small business owner's landlord, ards, et cetera say,
32:02
Speaker 3: and I think rightly say, listen, I want to know
32:04
Speaker 3: that the judge on the bench is somebody who's going
32:09
Speaker 3: to do what the law says, because god I'm doing
32:12
Speaker 3: I'm doing my business based on what I'm reading in
32:15
Speaker 3: the law, based what my lawyer is telling me the
32:17
Speaker 3: law says. And what makes makes those particular mom and
32:23
Speaker 3: pop business clients want to pull their hair out is
32:26
Speaker 3: when they do everything that they have been advised to
32:28
Speaker 3: do and then they get a result that just doesn't
32:32
Speaker 3: square with that advice because a bad day in court
32:36
Speaker 3: and the judge didn't do what their lawyer said the
32:38
Speaker 3: law requires be done.
32:40
Speaker 2: And that.
32:43
Speaker 3: Is perhaps more frequent than it ought to be around
32:46
Speaker 3: our state. But it's something that I think is the
32:48
Speaker 3: job of the judge and the court system to address.
32:52
Speaker 1: Let's wrap this up with this question, and I'll let
32:54
Speaker 1: you play an attorney once more and make the argument,
32:59
Speaker 1: because ultimately the people listening are the judge. They're going
33:02
Speaker 1: to make the decision on their ballot. So make the
33:07
Speaker 1: case why, Robert.
33:08
Speaker 3: Churchill, I have been thank you for that. I have
33:13
Speaker 3: been working in this court for eighteen years. I've built
33:17
Speaker 3: a small business catering to and handling the caseload that
33:23
Speaker 3: exists on the Leon County Court. My view of our
33:29
Speaker 3: court system in general is that it has to it
33:34
Speaker 3: has to accomplish one of the central roles of the
33:37
Speaker 3: judiciary is to bring confidence in the rulings of the court.
33:42
Speaker 3: Because you can see that the bench is strong and
33:48
Speaker 3: the way that that's been applied over some years, it
33:51
Speaker 3: means that there are people on the bench who have
33:55
Speaker 3: similar backgrounds to me, those whose cases are being handled.
34:02
Speaker 3: The reason I'm in this race is because I think
34:06
Speaker 3: that my candidacy brings something to.
34:08
Speaker 2: The table for this court.
34:10
Speaker 3: That my experience and background in civil litigation, in running
34:15
Speaker 3: a small business, in handling small business related matters in court,
34:22
Speaker 3: in handling collection and landlord tenant matters for moms and
34:25
Speaker 3: pops and for college students, for my pro bono background,
34:29
Speaker 3: and my giving back and my community service, means that
34:34
Speaker 3: that perspective would.
34:36
Speaker 2: Aid the court and.
34:39
Speaker 3: Would improve the product of the output of the court.
34:43
Speaker 3: Now and I hope to earn the vote of every
34:46
Speaker 3: one of your listeners for this seat.
34:48
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time today. Appreciate it.
34:50
Speaker 2: Thank you for Preston. I appreciate it.