Brewer v. Hughes
In consolidated prohibition petitions arising from a criminal matter and a related civil matter, the Third District held that the trial judge exceeded the limited review permitted on an initial motion to disqualify by implicitly relying on facts contained in a Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee opinion the judge had solicited, which contradicted allegations in the disqualification motions. Because legal sufficiency must be assessed from the movant's perspective, the court granted both petitions and disqualified the judge.
Key facts
- Brewer sought disqualification of a trial judge in a criminal matter, and a related civil matter was consolidated with the prohibition petition.
- The trial judge denied the initial motion to disqualify by referencing a Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee opinion that the judge had solicited, which contained facts supplied by the judge that contradicted the allegations in Brewer's disqualification motion.
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Why it matters
Practitioners should note that a judge's use of a self-solicited JEAC advisory opinion to support denial of a disqualification motion is itself grounds for prohibition, because the advisory opinion imports the judge's… — full analysis with a trial
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