Category Archives: Miami

‘Rumpole’ Finds a Cause

Posted on May 11, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

[Update (5/11): As noted by a commentator, Rumpole retracts!

THE FOLLOWING POST IS INCORRECT. RUMPOLE BLEW IT. SEE THE POST ON 511/06. JUDGE FARINA HAS NOT ORDERED ANY INTERPRETER NOT TO INTERPRET FOR A DEFENDANT’S FAMILY. SORRY. WE BLEW IT.

Maybe I should change the title to “Rumpole Loses a Cause”? (Although as the comments to the later story make clear, the incident really happened; seems it was just a misunderstanding of some kind.)]

“Rumpole” of the Justice Building Blog, now quite the talk of Miami-Dade litigators, has found a Cause, and it’s a good one:

JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG: NO HABLA INGLES….EVER

Here is the scene:
A lawyer is in court.
The Defendant is in custody.
There are sensitive plea negotiations at sidebar.
The case gets reset.
The defendant has to surrender his passport, pay a large fine and restitution before the case gets settled and he can get out of jail.
The new court date is two weeks away.

The interpreter does her job in court and on the way out the attorney wants to tell his client’s family the new court date and what needs to be done.

The attorney signals to the interpreter, who walks over and in Spanish asks the people if they are defendants.
They politely tell the interpreter that no, they are the family of the defendant who was just in court and they ask her what happened and when they have to be back in court.

The Interpreter reaches into her pocket, pulls out her reading glasses, clears her throat (ahhem) and loudly says for all to hear:

HEAR YE HEAR YE, BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF JUDGE OF THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR DADE COUNTY, I CANNOT ANSWER ANY OF YOUR QUESTIONS.
FURTHERMORE, BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF JUDGE, I CANNOT TRANSLATE ANY INSTRUCTIONS FROM YOUR ATTORNEY.
YOU MAY NOT BE TOLD THE NEXT COURT DATE.
YOU MAY NOT BE TOLD WHAT JUST HAPPENED.
WELCOME TO THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF DADE COUNTY.
I AM AUTHORIZED TO CONVEY TO YOU THAT THE CHIEF JUDGE, ON BEHALF OF ALL OF THE JUDGES OF THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT,
WISHES YOU A VERY NICE DAY.

This is not the rule elsewhere, not even in nearby Broward, which is not perhaps the watchword for sensitivity to non-English speakers and minorities. As Rumpole says, “WHEN BROWARD TAKES THE LEAD IN RACIAL OR ETHNIC SENSITIVITY, THEN YOU KNOW SOMETHING IS WRONG.”

Posted in Law: Practice, Miami | 4 Comments

The Alienware Next Door

Posted on March 23, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Who knew that Alienware was in Miami? A fact I only just discovered from AOL News – Alienware Racks Up Video Gamers, Big Bucks.

Of course if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Now I just have to figure out how to get them to give me a machine to, um, review for a few years. Which is probably less likely now that they have been acquired by Dell…

Posted in Miami | 2 Comments

DeFede Case in the Columbia Journalism Review

Posted on January 6, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Under the title “Miami Noir,” the Columbia Journalism Review has an unsparing, borderline cruel, account of the DeFede affair.

Related posts:

Posted in Miami, The Media | Comments Off on DeFede Case in the Columbia Journalism Review

Padilla is Here

Posted on January 5, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Padilla Brought to Face Civilian Charges: Jose Padilla is in Miami.

For a place so far, physically and psychologically, from the centers of financial and political power in this nation, we really are at the epicenter of all kinds of interesting things here in Miami.

Posted in Miami, Padilla | Comments Off on Padilla is Here

Kudos to the Miami-Dade Public Library

Posted on December 17, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

I have to praise the Miami-Dade Public Library system. Once I escalated my complaints about their new wireless service they have done almost (but not quite) everything I asked for.

They unblocked digicrime.com from the PC network. They are going to put into place procedures which allow on-the-spot blocking overrides for the laptops they lend out in the library (!). They regret that they don’t see a secure means of providing a similar on-the-spot override for users who bring their own laptops, as they think that would ‘compromise security’.

But most importantly, they’ve unblocked port 22 so I can use ssh! And they were very nice about it, too. (Please, nobody mention some of the things you can do with ssh tunnels, ok?)

I’m impressed.

Posted in Miami | 2 Comments

Wireless Woes at the Miami-Dade Public Library

Posted on December 10, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The Miami-Dade Public Libraries, where I tend to hang out on Saturday afternoons because that is where the kids’ chess club meets, has a nice new new free wireless service but it’s infested with about the most restrictive web filters and port blockers it has ever been my misfortune to encounter.

Not only do they block digicrime.com, but they block download.com. And many other harmless sites also. And of course they block the archive.org versions of those pages too.

The library PC’s in the adult section of the library also operate under this highly censored regime. But when one tries to reach a blocked web site on one of those machines one gets an informative error message, and it is possible to request an override code from a librarian. In contrast, the wireless blocking happens in an a most uninformative way: Trying an http connection to a blocked site on the wireless access produces a long delay, followed by this informative popup:

The connection was refused when attempting to contact 192.168.99.32

How many people are likely to know that 192.168.xxx.xxx means a local network, meaning something has intercepted one’s request?

Even armed with the knowledge that one’s browsing is blocked, one is still out of luck: at present the library has no means to override the blocking for wireless users. We can of course use a desktop (if one is available – they’re quite popular), and ask for an override code; this workaround means that the blocking has a decent chance of skirting the First Amendment rules that constrain library content censorship.

And did I mention that anything other than port 80 (http web access) and port 443 (https secure web access) appears to be blocked too? I am unable to telnet or more importantly to ssh to my mail server. Why on earth should the library block me getting my email? Indeed it in was the search for a proxy tunneling tool that I hit the download.com block; there may be a method to their madness. (Is there a way to do ssh over http?)

The branch librarians are sympathetic, especially about the blocked sites, but they don’t control the filter list or the wireless port blocking policies. And they don’t get “ports” at all. All that computer stuff is handled by some distant, faceless, unresponsive central administration. So my requests for changes to the policy, so far, go unheeded, including written requests a week ago to unblock a site, and open port 22.

Only mildly relevant links:

Miami-Dade Public Library Internet/Workstation Policy

Miami-Dade County Liability Disclaimer and User Agreement (which states, notably, “Anyone using this system expressly consents to administrative monitoring at all times by Miami-Dade County and its authorized agents and contractors. You (User) are further advised that system administrators may provide evidence of possible criminal activity identified during such monitoring to appropriate law enforcement officials. If you (User) do not wish to consent to monitoring, exit this system now.” This would be a good exam question for someone as it suggests a rather broad waiver of the right to anonymous speech…)

Posted in Law: Free Speech, Miami | 6 Comments