► Judge Laura Watson of Ft. Lauderdale; ethical goblin Print E-mail
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Judge Laura Watson of Ft. Lauderdale; ethical goblin

 
The state of Florida presented Laura Marie Watson with a law license in 1985. In November 2012, Laura succeeded in duping the voters in Broward County into electing her as a Circuit Court Judge.
 
The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) charged Judge Watson with the following misconduct. Laura’s misconduct came about while she was practicing law.
 
Laura was part of a legal team that sued Progressive Insurance in 2002 over non-payment of personal injury claims. Laura’s firm represented 440 doctors who had 2,500 outstanding claims. As part of the same lawsuit, other doctors accused Progressive of operating in bad faith. (Sun Sentinel)
 
Lawyers representing the “bad faith” doctors pooled their resources with the lawyers suing over unpaid claims. But when it came time to resolve the case in 2004, the claims lawyers, including Laura, secretly settled the cases with Progressive for $14.5 million.
 
Laura’s firm was paid over $3 million, of which $361,470 went to her clients. The “bad faith” lawyers complained that they and their clients were effectively cut out of the settlement.
 
When the lawsuit settled, the doctors who sued over non-payment of claims, including those represented by Laura’s firm got their money. The doctors who accused Progressive of operating in bad faith got nothing.
 
All that’s left now is to see what if any punishment the Florida Supreme Court metes out to Judge Watson.
 
As we speak (ca. December 2013), Laura continues to sit as a Broward County Circuit Court Judge in the Family Court Division. 
 

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