Saturday, May 30, 2009

Assignment of Judges

In Strong v. OCHS (2D09-1020), the Second District dismissed the petition for writ of prohibition and/or mandamus for lack of jurisdiction and made the following points:
  • [A] chief judge may assign qualified county judges "as temporary circuit judges for the performance of any judicial service a circuit judge can perform.";
  • The supreme court has been clear in "conclud[ing] that [the supreme court] has exclusive jurisdiction to review judicial assignments," that "there is nothing in our Constitution to indicate that district courts are to share in the administrative supervision of our trial courts," and has unambiguously held that "a litigant who is affected by a judicial assignment made by a chief judge of a judicial circuit must challenge that assignment in the trial court and then seek review in [the supreme court] by way of petition for writ of prohibition or petition under the 'all writs' power."; and
  • The petitioner sought mandamus and prohibition - not certiorari. Therefore, certiorari was not available unless converted by the court.

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