Estrada To Serve On Florida Court's Fairness And Diversity Committee

SEBRING - Circuit Judge Peter Estrada, with the 10th Judicial Circuit, accepted an invitation to serve on the Florida Supreme Court's Standing Committee On Fairness and Diversity.

He is one of 19 court officials from across the state who will serve on the committee, which, "plays a key role in confronting and addressing bias and other barriers to meaningful access to the Florida court system," according to a letter sent to Estrada from Chief Justice Peggy Quince.

Estrada said he received an e-mail from Quince on Nov. 14, asking if he would like to join. The offer was accepted that day.

"I can remember coming to work here in 1988, and we had no translators," Estrada said. "We had no court interpreters. We had one of the bailiffs and, occasionally, I would have to help out, to try to explain to somebody, 'This is what's happening.'"

Twenty years later, Estrada said Highlands County now has a full staff of court interpreters ready to go on a moment's notice.

Prior to being asked to serve on the Standing Committee, Estrada spent the past year on a subcommittee for diversity. Its purpose was to start training judges and staff within the circuit courts on different diversity issues, he said.

The Standing Committee's primary tasks over the next two years include building relationships between the court and the community to facilitate a dialogue on fairness and diversity topics, develop materials on recognizing and responding to bias in the court environment, provide input to the Florida Court Education Council and seek out and liaise with the Florida Bar Commission on Professionalism, Florida law schools and other organizations, according to a Supreme Court administrative order.

"It's not that you're trying to put out a fire," Estrada said. "You're trying to look ahead and try to meet the needs and look at the different issue that are occurring."