mY! How TImEs HavE CHangED!
Senior Counsel Section
Chair: Thomas Newcomb Hyde – Attorney at Law
The rules of evidence are followed
now in the Family Law divisions
as strictly as they are in the
general Civil division, and the
H
opefully, younger
lawyers not in the
Senior Counsel
Section will read
this and learn a little bit of the
history of practicing law here.
After beginning my career as a
prosecutor, I have now specialized
in divorce for decades. Times
have changed during my career.
Let’s start with this: When my
career started, women lawyers
made up less than 10 percent of
the profession. Now that number
is approaching 40 percent. George
Edgecomb was the only black
lawyer in the State Attorney’s
Office, and there were only a
handful of black lawyers in the
area. There had never been any
black judges nor women judges
in the Thirteenth Circuit.
There were no security devices
in our courthouse. There were
no separate Family Law divisions.
There was no mediation. In most
family law cases, the rules of
evidence were only followed
loosely. The judges and the
lawyers looked at this court of
equity as more of a “Let’s let
everything into evidence and then
we can make a fair ruling based
on everything.” We spent a full
four hours arguing about the
amount of child support that
should be ordered. There were
no law firm websites, computers,
or cell phones.
62
skills of Family Law trial work are
much more closely aligned with
those of general Civil litigation.
This has been the single biggest
local improvement to the court
system during my career.
Partially because of some death
threats against local lawyers by pro
se divorce parties on the opposite
sides of cases, but mainly because
of court-related shootings in other
parts of the state, Judge Ralph
Steinberg recommended that we
pursue obtaining metal detectors
and security staff to screen people
entering the courthouse.
Back then, the general civil
judges were handling divorce
matters along with everything
else. Based on the initiation by
Chief Judge Arden Merckle
(who, unfortunately, later ended
up serving a prison term for
bribery), on February 1, 1982, the
court started Family Law divisions
where the judges could devote
all of their time to staying current
on changes in family law statutes
and rules of procedure. The rules
of evidence are followed now
in the Family Law divisions as
strictly as they are in the General
Civil division, and the skills of
family law trial work are much
more closely aligned with those
of general civil litigation. This
has been the single biggest local
improvement to the court system
during my career.
After the creation of the Family
Law division, Judge Ralph Steinberg
later initiated setting up the
courthouse mediation system.
The legislature wised up and
followed the example of Arizona
by creating child support guidelines.
Now, each lawyer uses the same
software that the judges have and
merely inputs the incomes and
other data required. Everyone
comes up with the same number
for child support and we don’t
waste lots of court time (and client
money) arguing about it.
When I started, all the documents
created by the office were done
by IBM Selectric 2 typewriters.
Documents filed with the court
contained lots of “white out” places.
When a letter was typed, there were
two carbons made. One went to
the file and one went to the client.
The Florida Bar did not allow
advertising of any kind. It was
thought that lawyers were above
that. Now we are somewhat
Continued on page 63
JAN - FEB 2019
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HCBA LAWYER