Video Transcript
Todd McPharlin (00:02):
Judge, tell us about your background.
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (00:03):
Alright, so I started out, I graduated from high school obviously, and went to BC, which was Broward Community College back then, on a tennis scholarship. And then I went to University of Florida and I graduated from University of Florida with a criminal justice major and I wanted to go to law school. Since I was a little kid, I wanted to become a judge, really. And the path was you had to go to law school, obviously, so I went to Nova Southeastern Law School. I came back home and went to Nova Southeastern, graduated from Nova. And while I was at Nova, they used to have this great course and I think they have it again, certified legal intern. And I worked at the state attorney’s office and got to try some cases while I was in law school and loved trying cases. So when I got out of law school, I started doing civil litigation practice and I did that for over 14 years before having the honor of being appointed to the bench. So that was my path.
Dan Harwin (01:06):
Judge, can you tell us a little bit about just some of your ties to Broward County?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (01:10):
Oh, sure. So I grew up here in Broward County. I’ve lived in Broward County since I was three years old. I’m a proud product of the Broward County School System. I went to Castle Hill Elementary School. I went to Dale Elementary School, Lauder Hill Middle School. I graduated from Boyd Anderson High School, gold Cobras. And I’ve lived here my entire life. I lived in Hollywood and then we moved out to the Lauderhill Lauderdale Lakes area and then we moved to east of the city of Fort Lauderdale.
Todd McPharlin (01:44):
What made you want to become a judge?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (01:46):
I wanted to be a judge since I was a little kid, and I think I’ve said this before, I think I got that sweatshirt a long time ago on the Jersey Shore one summer, and it said, here comes the judge. And I’ve always thought it was the pinnacle would be the pinnacle of my career. It would be such an honor to be able to become a judge.
Dan Harwin (02:09):
And what would you say you’re most excited about the Broward County system and its current state?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (02:16):
Oh, I think we strive to do better all the time in the system and make things easier and provide transparency and as much access as possible, especially with pro se litigants, litigants who do not have counsel. And with Zoom, I know it was a terrible time back in 2020, but the opening of allowing Zoom hearings and allowing all you guys to attend remotely for five minute hearings rather than having to get in your car and spend two and three hours and clients being charged for two and three hours of time for a five minute uniform motion calendar hearing. So I’m most proud of that, providing access to the courthouse and how important everybody takes their job within the courthouse. And I think we’ve tried to create a level of professionalism where everybody is prepared and everybody enjoys their job.
Todd McPharlin (03:16):
What’s your day-to-day schedule as a judge?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (03:19):
Well, in complex litigation, it’s changed from the general civil division that I was in for so long. But normally I have hearings first thing in the morning, eight 30 to nine 30, and then when I’m in trial, we start trial at nine 30 and go through trial for the entire day. And that takes up the whole week. I try, especially with complex litigation cases since there’s so much longer, try to get started at 9:00 AM or nine 30 a posted 10:00 AM when you have uniform motion calendar every day.
Dan Harwin (03:52):
Judge, you mentioned the complex division. What exactly is that?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (03:57):
Well, the complex litigation division are very long and complex trials. They normally last at least 10 days, mostly more some up to six weeks. I’ve tried a case and we have some that are two and three months. Luckily the ones that I’ve had have settled. But everything on the spectrum, asbestos cases, medical malpractice cases, I’ve tried very large complex business litigation cases and non-jury trials. Also within that, sometimes Chief Judge Tudor and I switch off a few cases. And so they have a lot of novel issues that require a lot of research and a lot of time and preparation on those cases opposed to some of the more general litigation cases. Those all of the cases are important, but these type of cases just require more time to be prepared, more time to get up to speed and prepare orders on the more complex issues.
Dan Harwin (04:59):
Judge Phillips, could you even roughly estimate how many civil jury trials you’ve presided over? And then secondarily, how has that experience helped you throughout the course of your career as a judge,
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (05:14):
I tried in recent history, I had to answer some questions and I can easily say that it’s greater than 300 jury trials to verdict and probably greater than 200 non-jury trials. And it’s helpful. It is kind of like in private practice. I had over 70 civil jury trials to verdict and as I said, a couple of criminal trials to verdict. It keeps you on your toes and it keeps you, when you have to make rulings when the issues are in the forefront of your mind, it’s much easier when you’re trying a lot of cases and you’re doing it on a daily basis rather than getting rusty over time and you haven’t been in there for six months or something like that.
Todd McPharlin (06:03):
How important is civility and professionalism in what you do as a judge?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (06:09):
I think it’s utmost importance, especially in today and after 2020 and with the advent of zoom, I think professionalism is so important and attorneys can get so much done when they actually communicate with one another. And on the professionalism part, to me, professionalism is being prepared for court, knowing your case, knowing what the hearing that you have and speaking with the other side. And even if you can’t agree on the motion that may be in front of the court, you can at least narrow the issues and have everything completed. As far as the civility, again, I think that’s so important just to speak to everybody. And that’s one of the things I think that there has been a little bit of a downturn with the remote hearings because we all used to talk out in the, remember waiting for hearings. That is the one good thing is everybody would talk out in the hallway and you get to know somebody. And when you see somebody face to face and you get to know them, it’s such a different feeling than just talking to someone from one Brady Bunch box to the other Brady Bunch boxer picking up the telephone or everybody’s behind the computer saying nasty things and sending before they realize what they’ve sent. So I think it’s utmost importance.
Dan Harwin (07:36):
Judge Phillips, a lot of people might not know this, but I do. I was there. But can you tell us about a lot of the things that you did in the early stages of Covid when we were getting adjusted and being on Zoom? Can you just tell us some of the things that you and the other members of the judiciary did so that the courthouse could remain open?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (07:54):
So we hit the ground running, the courthouse closed down and we did not miss one day of work. We went the next morning to telephone uniform motion calendar, and then within, I think it was two or three days, we had the Zoom links up and running and it was so important to keep the court moving forward and everybody be able to attend. I mean there were a little bit of rough patches with the Zoom and none of us were used to it. None of us had even really used it prior to that, but it was great. And then we started off with, we did a mock jury trial and it was great, and then we worked on that. So we got together and I did, I kind of wrote out a short mock jury trial and some of our staff attorneys were the jurors or witnesses, and we did that. And then we sent the tape to a ODA and a ODA just made it so much better. And then remember we brought in actual jurors, we summoned jurors, the clerk’s office summoned jurors, we had actual jurors attend via Zoom. We had a judge presiding over the case and I think
Dan Harwin (09:15):
I picked that jury. Yep, picked the jury
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (09:18):
And it was fabulous. And we said, we can do this, we can make it work. And there were so many other things that we put in place. The weekly, actually weekly updates a boda did saying, okay, now where are we now? And then as it continued to go on and on and it seemed like forever. And then as soon as we got the green light to go back in the courthouse, we started trying those cases like crazy, setting up the proper protocols obviously, but trying them as best we could.
Dan Harwin (09:50):
Judge, let me follow up on that. You had talked about your experience in the complex division, but you also said you’re the administrative judge. What does that mean?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (09:59):
Well, the administrative judge is over all of the general civil divisions and the complex divisions and any the specialty asbestos division. And whenever new roles come out of the Supreme Court and to try to make it more uniform and easier for everybody to navigate, if you have a case before any judge within in the civil litigation division, we came up with the uniform trial order and when we had to pivot and do case managements that were required. So we all use the same type of case management orders to make it easier. So it’s important that we have the policies and procedures each judge now, and we’ve amped them up as well. So if you have any judge, an attorney anywhere in the state that has a case in Broward Civil Courthouse can go to the website and see each judge’s policies and procedures and we try to keep them as similar as possible. Obviously each judge has different things that they like or ways they like things, and that’s easy. So somebody who’s never had a case in front of judge, whoever can go and look at the policies and procedures, and it’s a requirement that, I don’t want to say, make sure everybody stays on the same page.
Dan Harwin (11:29):
It sounds like you don’t take much time off, but when you do, what sort of things do you love to do in your free time?
Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips (11:36):
Well, I love boating and I love fishing and I love doing all kinds of things outdoors. Every day I try to get a run in and exercising and go to different places and we enjoy food. My daughter’s a foodie, so we enjoy going to good restaurants and eating really good food, obviously. That’s why we exercise exactly.
