On Friday, November 9, 2018, the Seventeenth Circuit hosted the investiture ceremony for Judge N. Hunter Davis. Family, friends, and colleagues were on hand to celebrate the occasion. Judge Davis’ wife and son robed him. Appointed to the Circuit bench in September by Governor Rick Scott, Judge Davis works in the Family division.

The Broward County Bar Association hosted a Probate Bench, Clerk and Bar Roundtable event on Thursday, November 8 in the jury room at the Central Courthouse. Panelists including Judge Peter M. Weinstein, Judge Charles M. Greene, Judge Mily Powell, Magistrate Yves Laventure and representatives from the Staff Attorneys and Clerk’s office, discussed ways to work together to improve the efficiency of probate and estate administration in the Seventeenth Circuit.

Over the weekend, Judge Florence Barner and her husband spoke at a Youth at Risk Panel at the House of God Church in Pompano Beach.

Chief Judge Tuter was recently featured in an article published in U.S. News and World Reports discussing community courts.  A community court developed by the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and various local service providers is scheduled to begin in the City of Fort Lauderdale in January 2019.

To read the U.S. News and World Reports article, click here.

More than 250 people attended last week’s Eleventh Annual Unified Family Court Summit, spending the day learning about the impact, latest interventions and local resources available pertaining to the opioid crisis. Speakers from around the country spoke to attendees about this mounting drug crisis, providing the latest innovations and research data in dealing with addictions in general and specifically in working with those afflicted by the opioid crisis. Participants of the summit  included  judges, case managers, attorneys, mediators, mental health professionals, child protective investigators, probation officers, guardian ad litems, school counselors, suicide prevention coordinators and child advocates.