Per Curiam Affirmed: When Appellate Losses Hurt Most

Reviewed by Michael P. Maddux, Esq. | Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer | Florida Super Lawyer for 16 Consecutive Years

In the appellate world, there's a fancy term called per curiam affirmed. In Latin it means…. Appellate courts use this legal device to manage their heavy dockets. Recently, two aggrieved clients sustained an appellate loss, each with a PCA. Each case had merit and needed to be reviewed to provide legal clarity in the niche areas of the law. We write more about each of the cases here to share the types of dynamic issues we deal with at our office and the often heartbreaking losses sustained when trying to hold the government accountable.

One case involved the new protest statute, and another involved a unique tort law doctrine called the undertaker doctrine. In the first case, our client suffered trauma to her mouth from less-than-lethal munitions fired at her while she was peacefully protesting and required dental implants. She has no prior record and was simply standing up for her First Amendment right to express her displeasure over the George Floyd murder.

In the second case, our client sought the assistance of law enforcement via welfare checks for a suicidal relative, only to be told that the relative was fine and only manipulating because he was drug seeking. Law enforcement refused to Baker Act the relative and, in essence, told the family they were just being manipulated. As a result, they stopped advocating as diligently as they had for involuntary commitment, and the relative took his life.

Both entities, the City of Tampa and the City of Saint Pete, sought to avoid liability by arguing unique legal issues, and in both cases, they were successful in convincing the trial court they were correct. We earnestly believe they were wrong and expected reversal at the appellate court level, but were denied even an opinion confirming the trial court's decision was correct. This is the painful course of the law when injustice isn't corrected and there's no explanation of why the injustice is actually legal justice. The remedy is perseverance in all our cases until the bitter end, which sometimes isn't bitter but full of justice, although too often, rarely.