Second Circuit Judge candidate Amanda Wall appeared on Above the Fold with Tallahassee Reports Editor Steve Stewart on Oct. 1.
The Circuit Judge race is nonpartisan, and Wall is running against Tiffany Baker. The race went to runoff in the primaries, with Baker getting 37% percent of the vote and Wall 25%.
Wall, who has lived in Tallahassee for nearly 25 years, formerly worked as Administrative Magistrate for the circuit and resigned in order to run for Circuit Judge.
“For 31 years, I’ve had legal experience in all areas, criminal, also civil for the state, also in private practice,” Wall said. “I worked for several years in private practice as a family law attorney. Then, in 2014, I was appointed by the Chief Judge for our circuit as the administrative magistrate for this circuit. So, for the past six years, I’ve actually been running a courtroom.”
Wall said her experience running a courtroom will serve her well as a judge.
“I think the fact that I have not just been an advocate, I haven’t just been an attorney over the past 31 years, but I’ve actually had the ability to run a courtroom for six years has really helped me and has trained me to handle a caseload that a Circuit Judge would handle,” she said.
“Running a courtroom is not just simply knowing the area of the law, knowing the evidence and procedure, it’s knowing how to run a docket and all the relationships you have to have with everyone else that runs that courtroom,” she continued. “I’ve heard more than 3000 cases in six years.”
The Circuit Judge deals with criminal cases, civil litigation cases and family law cases, Wall said. She discussed her judicial philosophy.
“My judicial philosophy is that it is imperative to be prepared for the court case, to be impartial, and to not be biased, and to simply give a fair hearing and fair result to the people who come before the court,” she said.
The rest of the interview is available here.
Circuit Judge Candidate Amanda Wall Discusses Campaign added by Lexie Pitzen on
View all posts by Lexie Pitzen →
I agree with Edward Lyle that it is hard to find out about candidates ideology, political party affiliation, leanings, etc. The race is a non-partisan race, but I’m sure each person in the race does vote. If I knew who each was voting for President my choice would be easy. Amanda Wall did indicate that: “Then, in 2014, I was appointed by the Chief Judge for our circuit as the administrative magistrate for this circuit’. In my research that chief judge was Charles Francis, and he was appointed in 1999 by Governor Jeb Bush if it helps anyone to know that.
A quick search at flvoters.com came up inconclusive for party affiliation for both candidates in the district area.
While the website was not helpful in determining either being NPA, DEM, or REP without additional information, the website is usually a helpful tool in making a determination of who you may wish to vote for.
If you have never browsed flvoters.com try looking yourself up. You will be surprised and maybe a little annoyed at the extent of information on yourself just clicks away from the general public.
Thankfully at the moment we do have a good group of judges in our area to represent us and we thank them for their service.
Take judges election seriously because they make a difference. It wasn’t too long ago that we did have a bad judge on the bench and thankfully he has recently retired.
A**clown Hankinson, I presume. Rumor was he purposefully did a terrible job in family court in order to get back to criminal matters.
Judicial races are among the hardest, if not the hardest, races to make a truly informed decision on. Candidates are not permitted to speak on their ideology, political party affiliation, leanings, or even how they might rule on a given matter. Forums involving judicial candidates are among the most difficult to get through. You basically have only their own words to go on in which to base your decision… and whatever “gut instinct” you might garner when researching their bios and listening to their interviews. I’ve made no decision thus far in this race.
Best of luck to all candidates… and thank you for the courage to step to the plate and seek to serve.
I don’t know much but I do know that Tiffany Baker’s eight years of experience does not support her claim about having “vast legal experience”. I don’t want a judge with such a high BS quotient so I voted for Amanda Wall.