Afanasiev v. Romero Alvarez
After a trial judge filed a pending Florida Bar complaint against three of a litigant's attorneys — based on an erroneous representation made in an appellate filing that counsel promptly retracted — the Third District granted prohibition and disqualified the judge from presiding over the litigant's dissolution, domestic violence, and malicious prosecution cases. The court rejected the separate 'material witness' ground for disqualification, holding it highly unlikely the judge could be compelled to testify about proceedings she presided over. It also excused the failure to file a successive disqualification motion below as futile.
Key facts
- Litigant Afanasiev challenged disqualification of a trial judge who had filed a Florida Bar complaint against three of Afanasiev's attorneys based on an erroneous representation in an appellate filing that counsel promptly retracted.
- The trial judge denied Afanasiev's initial motion to disqualify her and subsequently filed the Bar complaint the same day, leading Afanasiev to seek prohibition in the Third District without filing a successive disqualification motion below.
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Why it matters
This is one of the few Florida decisions finding disqualification warranted based on a judge's Bar complaint against counsel, mapping the line between Padovano (mere reporting insufficient) and Kline (veracity-focused… — full analysis with a trial
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