Ex-judge told to stop taking clients

By ABBIE VANSICKLE and COLLEEN JENKINS, Times Staff Writers
Published December 18, 2007

Former workers' compensation judge Louis Tidwell agreed Thursday not to represent any new clients in Social Security cases.

It was that work that most recently got him in trouble. Tidwell, who lost his law license after getting sentenced to prison in 1991 for a sex and drug case, was accused of violating his probation in October after a client said he represented himself as a lawyer for a Social Security case.

You don't have to be a lawyer to do that line of work. But Tidwell perhaps never made it clear that he was not a lawyer, said Ron Cacciatore, who is an attorney and represented Tidwell.

As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Tidwell is allowed to complete the current Social Security cases he's handling but can't take any more. Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder did not find Tidwell guilty of violating his probation.

"I thought that was a fair resolution," Cacciatore said.

Tidwell's 20-year judicial career ended when he admitted to trading drugs for sex with a 14-year-old girl. He served four years in prison. His probation is scheduled to last until 2039.

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Inns of Court, according to the American Inns of Court Web site, are designed to "improve the skills, professionalism and ethics of the bench and bar."

Important stuff, sure, but a bit like eating brussels sprouts. You know they're good for you, but they don't go down so easy.

Which makes the recent holiday gathering of Tampa's criminal inn of court last week all the more unusual.

Embracing an idea suggested by U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew, a roomful of judges and lawyers tackled the latest legal issues with their own version of Hollywood Squares. They called it Goldberg Squares, after their group's name, the Herbert G. Goldberg Inn of Court.

Here's where it gets fun. The good-humored members dressed up as celebrities in the news for legal scrapeups. Bucklew mimicked Britney Spears with a blond wig and a baby doll; defense attorney Cacciatore went as U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (carrying a roll of toilet paper); and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Palermo impersonated Paris Hilton (he wore a blond wig, too).

There also were appearances by defense attorney Art Eggers as Nick Nolte and assistant state attorneys Shauna Hale and Chinwe Fossett as Barry Bonds and Marion Jones, respectively. Defense attorney John Lauro served as the tux-wearing emcee.

We hear there are pictures.

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Here's a dose of good cheer for 2008:

As early as spring, Hillsborough County residents will no longer be subjected to potentially annual jury duty summons.

Under a new juror selection system, if you at least show up for service, the clerk's office won't hassle you again for another three years. The clerk's office even plans to make it retroactive for the folks who got called for duty in the past year.

As it stands now, the more than 750,000 people in the county's driver's license pool are eligible for jury duty within a year of their last service.

Bumping the window to every three years will "dig deeper into the juror bucket, so to speak," said Robin McCarty, the clerk's manager of jury services.

That should appease the people who complain they get called every year, while their spouse or neighbor has been jury duty-free for a decade.

"They swear the algorithms are working properly," McCarty said. "But I have a bunch of jurors who beg to differ."

Got a tip? For cops news, contact Abbie VanSickle at vansickle@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3373. For courts news, contact Colleen Jenkins at cjenkins@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3337.

[Last modified December 18, 2007, 00:47:27]