Afanasiev v. Romero Alvarez
Afanasiev sought prohibition to disqualify the trial judge from his dissolution, domestic violence, and malicious prosecution cases. The Third District rejected the claim that the judge was a 'material witness' in the malicious prosecution action, holding a judge generally cannot be compelled to testify about proceedings over which she presided outside Stein's narrow 'discrete occasions.' But it granted prohibition on bias grounds because the judge had filed a pending Bar complaint against all three of petitioner's counsel — focused on their veracity — after an attorney's promptly retracted misstatement in the appellate court.
Key facts
- Afanasiev sought prohibition to disqualify the trial judge from his dissolution, domestic violence, and malicious prosecution cases after the judge filed a pending Bar complaint against all three of his counsel.
- The judge's Bar complaint focused on counsel's veracity and was prompted by one attorney's promptly retracted misstatement made in the appellate court.
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Why it matters
This is one of the few Florida decisions mapping the line between Padovano (mere Bar referral insufficient) and Kline (referral reflecting findings on counsel's veracity requires disqualification), and it extends Kline… — full analysis with a trial
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