Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady warned children’s advocates Monday night that the state is facing a “semi-closure of the courts” in the very near future.
Appearing as a guest speaker at a Children’s Week dinner for 300 at Florida State University, Canady said he’d been at the Capitol earlier in the day, asking lawmakers for $72 million to cover a shortfall in the courts’ current budget.
Canady also described the relationship between courts and children, saying, “The needs are just overwhelming, and we see tragedy on a recurring basis.”
In Fiscal Year 2009-10, he said, there were 9,380 new dependency petitions filed, 2,543 new terminations of parental rights filed and 57,605 new juvenile delinquency petitions filed; there were also 58,835 new domestic violence filings. As of February 2011, there were 18,327 children in foster care and relative placements in Florida.
“Those numbers represent children whose lives are affected by what happens in court, children whose lives may be moved along in the right direction or moved drastically in the wrong direction because of decisions that are made in the courts,” Canady said.
The former state representative, U.S. Congressman and general counsel to Gov. Jeb Bush is a rare public official with experience in all three branches of government.
“For those of you who pray,” he said, “pray for the judiciary.”
The News Service of Florida
