Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...of one of Steinhorst's codefendants. No such recusal was ordered here, nor did the judge notify the parties of the potential conflict, even though the reasons for recusal applied equally to both cases. The State calls our attention to the fact that section 38.06, Florida Statutes (1991), appears to render "valid" any order entered by an otherwise-recusable judge when a party has failed to file a timely suggestion of disqualification....

...A judge who has represented the estate and family of a murder victim never should preside over the 3.850 proceeding of the alleged murderer, and especially where that same judge was recused from the case of a co-perpetrator on the exact same issues. Art. I, § 9, Fla. Const. No matter what section 38.06 says, a statute cannot supersede a provision of the Constitution....

...ntation or his prior recusal. *502 The majority opinion makes meaningless the provisions of Chapter 38, Florida Statutes (1985). No grounds for his disqualification as enunciated in that statute are present. The opinion eviscerates the provisions of section 38.06 which validates all orders of a judge even if he had been disqualified....

...This statute does not provide that a waiver occurs if information regarding a basis for disqualification is reasonably available and the defendant fails to file, within 30 days of when that information became reasonably available, a suggestion explaining the basis for disqualification. I recognize however that section 38.06, Florida Statutes (1991), in conjunction with section 38.02 could provide a basis for waiver if waiver was possible in this case. Section 38.06 provides that where grounds for disqualification as set forth in 38.02 appear of record in the cause, but no suggestion of disqualification is timely filed, the order entered by a judge shall be valid. Accordingly, if information regarding Judge Turner's conflict was in the record as the majority concludes it was then, according to section 38.06, Judge Turner's order must be considered valid....

...if good cause for delay in filing is shown. See Fischer v. Knuck, 497 So.2d 240, 243 (Fla.1986). Regardless of how these statutes are interpreted, they cannot supersede a provision of the Constitution. [9] Again, I note that I believe it is actually section 38.06, in conjunction with 38.02, that the trial court should have identified as a basis for waiver....

...en order specifically assigning the case to him. [4] At oral argument Foster's counsel stated that he had looked at the circuit court's records and that hundreds of orders might be affected by the district court's ruling. [5] This is consistent with § 38.06, Fla....