CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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The Florida District Court of Appeal sanctioned defense attorney John Christopher Carver for failing to respond to multiple court orders requiring him to submit an appellate filing fee or indigency documentation within specified deadlines in his client's criminal appeal.
The court referred Attorney Carver to The Florida Bar for disciplinary action due to his inability to adequately explain his failure to respond to three successive court orders despite multiple warnings of potential dismissal and sanctions.
[1] An attorney's repeated failure to respond to court orders regarding appellate filing fees or indigency documentation may result in sanctions.
[2] An attorney's failure to adequately explain their non-compliance with multiple court orders can lead to a referral to the state bar.
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“his attempts to articulate why he failed to respond to this court's orders were many and varied, but none adequately explained why it took four court orders, the last triggering a time-wasting show-cause appearance, to finally get his attention.”
Establishes the court's finding that Carver's explanations were insufficient to justify his non-compliance
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAttorney Carver represented Christopher Finlayson in a criminal trial that resulted in conviction and sentencing. Carver filed a notice of appeal but …
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ORDER FOLLOWING SHOW-CAUSE PROCEEDING
Attorney John Christopher Carver, Florida Bar number 854409, represented Appellant Christopher Finlayson in the trial court in the criminal case underlying the present appeal.and, when Mr. Finlayson was convicted and sentenced, filed a notice of appeal. As no appellate filing fee accompanied the notice of appeal, this court responded to the filing of the notice with its standard fee order. The order required the appellant, as represented by Attorney Carver, to submit to this court the filing fee or indigency documentation from the circuit court within twenty days of the date of the order, failing which the appeal would be subject to dismissal and counsel subject to sanctions. Attorney Carver did not respond to this order. The court later followed up with an order directing Attorney Carver to respond to the fee order within ten days. When Attorney Carver failed to timely respond, the court by order reminded him of the two previous orders, giving him fifteen days to respond by either satisfying the initial fee order or filling a status report on his efforts to do so. The order also reminded Attorney Carver of the risk of dismissal and sanctions. Once again, Attorney Carver failed to respond. Finally, the court directed Attorney Carver to appear at the court’s November 28, 2016, oral argument session to show cause why he should not be sanctioned for his failure to respond to the three orders just described. '■ '• •
Attorney Carver appeared as scheduled. In.response to the court’s inquiries, his attempts to articulate why .he failed to respond to this court’s orders were many and varied, but none adequately explained why it took four court orders, the last triggering a time-wasting1 show-cause appearance, to finally get his attention.
Because Attorney Carver was unable to adequately explain his failure to respond to three successive orders issued by this court, the court will be referring him to The Florida Bar upon the issuance of this order.2
KELLY, CRENSHAW, and ROTHSTEIN-YOUAKIM, JJ., Concur.