Annual reports of sections and divisions of The Florida Bar.

The Administrative Law

Section had another active and successful year thanks to the hard work of section members and their Executive Council. The work of the section has continues to focus on education with several seminars and publications, as well as a Procedure Act, but cannot afford representation. The section is also proud to report that, at the time of this publication, it has significantly upgraded its presence on the web with a revised and hopefully far more useful page and links.

Under the leadership of Administrative Law Judge Linda Rigot and former Administrative Law Judge T. Kent Wetherell II (now serving as an appellate judge with the First District), the section and the Bar published the eighth edition of its popular Florida Administrative Practice Manual. This represents the first significant update of the manual since 2004. The manual provides chapters on several administrative procedures and on substantive areas, such as environmental regulation and bid protest law. The manual combines t

As it has always done, the section continues to publish regular editions of its newsletter. These quarterly publications are always full of information about the most recent APA case law (thanks to Mary Smallwood), insights into administrative agencies and judges, and lively debate on topics of interest to administrative law practitioners. The section greatly appreciates the diligence of its most recent editor, Amy Schrader, for keeping the newsletter on time and informative.

The section offered an active roster of continuing education programs. Seminars conducted this year included "The New Era in Public Records and Government in the Sunshine Law" (held in conjunction with the Government Lawyer Section) and an introductory course on administrative law sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division. The section also worked with the Government Lawyer Section to offer a preparatory course in connection with the certification exam for State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice. Finally, the section offered its biannual "Practice Before DOAH" course this past October. This course offered live lectures as well as a mock trial presided by sitting administrative law judges and litigated by active APA practitioners. The section thanks Bruce Lamb for his work as chair of the CLE Committee and the dozens of lawyers that dedicated their time and efforts to prepare written materials and offer live lectures. If you didn't have a chance to attend any of these CLEs, we encourage you to buy or stream them from your friendly Bar CLE staff.

As it has over the past couple of years, the section continued its pro bono efforts. Under the leadership of Andy Bertron, the section is coordinating efforts to assist the developmentally disabled as they struggle to understand and litigate the changes made to their benefits as a result of budget constraints imposed by the legislature, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities' responses to those mandates, and interpretations made to those responses by both Florida appellate and federal district courts. Seminars offered by the section are available through a link on its website, as is a link to sign up individual lawyers willing to volunteer their time to the disabled community.

Speaking of websites, the section is very proud to report a significant improvement to its Florida Bar Section page. Thanks to some tireless help from Daniel Nordby and input from several members of the section, we believe that the improved site offers a much improved source of information regarding the APA, recent section newsletters, and case developments and continuing education units. We encourage you to visit the site and make use of its resources.

SEANN FRAZIER, Chair

Appellate Practice

We have been honored to see our judicial representative, Peggy A. Quince installed as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Florida and the installation of many of our members to the appellate judiciary. Returning as chair-elect of the section was retired Supreme Court Justice Raoul G. Cantero III, who has been extremely active as an officer of the section and as liaison to the Supreme Court's Historical Society. Retired Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Bell joined the section and serves as our liaison to the Real Property Section.

As part of our section's effort to improve and expand the quality of its appellate education for its members, the section moved in two directions this year: It strengthened its relationship with the ABA Appellate Judges Conference, which covers the ABA Appellate Judges, ABA Council of Appellate Lawyers, and ABA Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys, and strengthened the section's relationship with Florida appellate judges.

As to the first prong, in November 2009, the section hosted a joint ABAAPS welcome reception and heavily participated in the ABA Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit (AJEIS), under the leadership of our programs chair, June Hoffman, and our joint ABA-APS liaison co-chairs, Harvey Sepler and Siobhan Shea. In November, more than 300 appellate judges, staff attorneys, and appellate practitioners from around the country met in Orlando for the summit. The ABA's Appellate Judges' Conference, the Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys, and the Council of Appellate Lawyers developed the annual four-day summit. Our Fourth District Court of Appeal Judge Martha Warner chaired the ABA Appellate Judges Conference. The section hosted a joint "AJEIS-Florida APS Welcome Reception" to 325 attendees, including state and federal appellate judges from Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Washington, the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and 11th circuit courts of appeals, and appellate judges and justices traveling as far as Guam and Trinidad and Tobago. Our section also had a strong showing at the summit, both in attendance and in speaker presentations from our section members including five of Florida's seven Supreme Court justices, and most of Florida's district court of appeal judges, including all 12 judges from the Fourth District, 11 of the 14 judges from the Second District, and more than half of the judges from the First, Third, and Fifth districts.

Building on that outreach momentum, the section is currently working with the Florida Appellate Judges Conference to advance a similar format to promote greater appellate educational efforts with the Florida appellate judges for the coming year.

Also to that end, the Florida appellate judges have been active in the section, most notably in the area of continuing appellate legal education. Under the leadership of Henry Gyden, chair of the Appellate Telephone Seminar Series subcommittee, we have hosted seminars every month this year. We are enormously grateful for the regular participation of our Florida appellate judges in our continuing appellate legal education seminars, chaired by Ceci Berman, and telephone seminars this educational year for our members, including CLEs on appellate ethics, appeals of post-judgment orders, appeals of orders denying the workers' compensation immunity defense, other workers' compensation appeals issues, pass-through jurisdiction of Florida's appellate courts, premature appeals and abandonment of post-trial motions, federal appellate issues, federal and state criminal appeals, preservation of error, better appellate brief writing, and oral arguments.

This July, Raoul Cantero spoke on ethics in appellate practice. In August, Judge William D. Palmer of the Fifth DCA, chair of the Supreme Court Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules and Policy, discussed the proposed changes on appellate mediation in Florida, as well as provided information on the appellate mediation program in effect in the Fifth District since 2001.

In October 2009, Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims David W. Langham; Judge of Compensation Claims John J. Lazzara, Tallahassee district; Judge of Compensation Claims, Kathryn Pecko, Ft. Lauderdale district; Judge of Compensation Claims Thomas W. Sculco, Orlando district; and Judge Charles Kahn and Judge Peter Webster, First District Court of Appeal, spoke in Tampa on "The Art of Appellate Advocacy in Workers' Compensation," as well as via a live webcast.

In February 2010, Chief Judge Paul Hawkes spoke on "Updates at the First District Court of Appeal." Also in February 2010, Chief Judge Hawkes spoke on the first of a two-part series on electronic filing in Florida's courts, with an emphasis on e-filing in the First District Court of Appeal. In February, our section produced its Advanced Appellate Practice Certification Review Course for all section members.

In March, Tom Hall, clerk of the Florida Supreme Court, spoke on Florida Supreme Court jurisdiction. Also in March 2010, we had participation and instruction from almost the entire Fifth District Court of Appeal: Chief Judge David Monaco, Judge Jay Cohen, Judge Kerry Evander, Judge Alan Lawson, Judge Richard Orfinger, Judge William Palmer, Judge Thomas Sawaya, Retired Judge Robert Pleus, Jr., and the clerk of the Fifth District, Hon. Susan Wright, who taught us about practice before the Fifth District.

In April, Judge Judith Kreeger and Tom Hall spoke on the second of the two-part e-filing series regarding developments in a statewide portal on e-filing. In May, we had the participation of Florida appellate judges from around the state to teach us about "The Art of Objecting: A Trial Lawyer's Guide to Preserving Error for Appeal," including, in order of speaker appearance, Chief Judge David Monaco, Judge Melanie May, Judge Edward LaRose, Judge Mark Polen, Judge Bradford Thomas, and Judge Alan Lawson.

In June, the Florida Supreme Court justices have approved a revised format to our annual discussion with the Florida Supreme Court, and the...