Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...Spencer raises one dispositive issue which leaves us no alternative but to reverse for a new trial without consideration of this matter on its merits. That issue concerns the use of the special districting process to select the jurors in this case. Special districts for jury selection are authorized by section 40.015, Florida Statutes (1985), which provides: (1) In any county having a population exceeding 50,000 according to the last preceding decennial census and one or more locations in addition to the county seat at which the county or circuit c...

...s from a fair representative cross-section of the county; (2) the manner in which it is determined that a defendant will be tried in the eastern or western district is a denial of equal protection; and (3) the authorizing statute for jury districts, section 40.015, is unconstitutional under article I, sections 16 and 22; article III, section 11(a)(5) and 11(a)(6); and article V, section 1, of the Florida Constitution....

...That procedure of allowing a choice in one district but not in the other violates equal protection rights guaranteed under article I, section 2, of the Florida Constitution, and the sixth and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution. Lastly, we reject Spencer's third claim that section 40.015, Florida Statutes (1985), was unconstitutionally enacted. We agree with the state that section 40.015 is a general law, as we have interpreted that term, under article III, section 11(a)(5) and (6)....

...at the Glades annex, which geographically encompasses that section of Palm Beach County lying west of a north-south line at 20-Mile Bend. Administrative Order 1.006, enacted pursuant to the authority granted the chief judge of a judicial circuit by section 40.015, Florida Statutes (1985), created the Glades jury district....

estate tax. The court then referred to Ala.Code § 40-15-18 (1975), which provides, in pertinent part, that

...State, 390 So.2d 344, 346 (Fla.1980) (trial court’s findings of fact come to appellate court clothed with presumption of correctness), cer t. denied, 450 U.S. 982 , 101 S.Ct. 1519 , 67 L.Ed.2d 818 (1981). Affirmed. . In Spencer , the Supreme Court held that jury districts created under Section 40.015 must "reflect a true cross-section of the county, with no systematic exclusion of any group in the juror selection process.” 545 So.2d at 1355 .

regulations promulgated thereunder. 32 C.F.R. § 40.15. Section (i) provides that a former officer or

DOWNEY, Judge. This is a petition for writ of prohibition or, alternatively, writ of mandamus and motion for stay of jury trial pending determination of the writ. Petitioner contends that section 40.015, Florida Statutes (1985), and Administrative Order No. 1.006-1/80, In Re: Glades Jury District/Eastern Jury District, which created the jury district system of Palm Beach County pursuant to section 40.015 are unconstitutional....

...�� and the “Eastern Jury District” drawing jurors from all the remaining or eastern coastal area of the county. The local administrative order creating these two districts was enacted by the circuit court itself on authority of Florida Statutes, Section 40.015 [(1985), which provides:] (1) In any county having a population exceeding 50,000 according to the last preceding decennial census and one or more locations in addition to the county seat at which the county or circuit court sits and ho...

...to perform an official, ministerial duty which he is required by law to perform. See Dickey v. Circuit Court, Gadsden County, 200 So.2d 521 (Fla.1967); Cash v. Smith, 465 So.2d 1294 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). In fact, here, the trial court is adhering to section 40.015, Florida Statutes (1985), and Administrative Order No....