Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Temporary Trial Coverage in Miami

The MIA district has been one judge short for the last several months. As a result of that absence, other judges have been covering trials in Judge Castiello's division. I understand that this has been frustrating to some practitioners, as they have learned the identity of the judge who would hear their trial only shortly before trial and some pretrial procedural decisions have been made by a judge other than the one that ultimately hears the trial. We are therefore instituting a new trial coverage process effective immediately.

Until further notice, all active GCC division cases in District MIA will be overseen by the following judges: 

Judge Almeyda - All case numbers beginning with “14-“

Judge Medina-Shore - All case numbers not beginning with “14-“ and ending in either “1” or “2”

Judge Kerr - All case numbers not beginning with “14-“ and ending in either “3” or “4”

Judge Rosen - All case numbers not beginning with “14-“ and ending in either “5” or “6”

Judge Massey - All case numbers not beginning with “14-“ and ending in either “7” or “8”

Judge Charles Hill -  All case numbers not beginning with “14-“ and ending in either “9” or “0”


This will hopefully provide practitioners with more predictability regarding their upcoming trials. 

In situations where more than one case number is currently active for a particular injured worker, the judge handling the combination of the multiple cases is based upon the last digit of the lowest of the Claimant's active case numbers. For example, if a Claimant has case number 13-xxxxx5 and 12-xxxxx9, the case would be handled by Judge Hill because the lower case number ends in "9."

Please direct any questions or concerns you have to Judge Medina-Shore, Administrative Judge for the MIA district or to Judge Langham. I appreciate your assistance and patience during Judge Castiello's absence.