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Contact: Marcus P. Meleton Jr.
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Election-related suits cram Fla. courtrooms
December 5, 2000
By Deborah Sharp, USA TODAY
MIAMI — As the election that launched what seems like a thousand lawsuits lurches to an end, a lawyer-weary Florida wonders whether the dark-suited courtroom duelists are ever going to pack it up and go home.
At last count, courts in Florida now host more than 40 lawsuits filed in the aftermath of the presidential election Nov. 7. Not all the actions have the legal heft - or the lawyering firepower - of the cases argued so eloquently at the U.S. and state Supreme Courts.
In the legal food chain clogging Florida, only so many lawyers can claim the status of a Laurence Tribe, for the Democrats, or a Barry Richard, for the Republicans. While some see an example of democracy at work even in the lowest-level legal wrangling, others find fodder for lawyer jokes. ''Florida now has a feeding frenzy going,'' says Marcus Meleton, the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based author of ''Hunting for Lawyers,'' a satirical tome. ''I'm thinking if we can saw off the state of Florida and send it adrift, the U.S. can save itself. Maybe Florida will break off just from the weight of the lawyers landing in airplanes.''
