<\/p>\n
A family business dispute ended with two Fort Lauderdale lawyers facing professional discipline from the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
GETTY IMAGES\/ISTOCKPHOTO<\/p>\n
Impugning a judge\u2019s integrity during a family vs. family case will get a pair of Fort Lauderdale attorneys disciplined by the state Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Matthew Herman\u2019s 30-day suspension starts Monday. Herman\u2019s father and the other lawyer at The Herman Law Group, Bruce Herman, wants a review of the referee\u2019s report that recommended the state Supreme Court slap him with a six-month suspension.<\/p>\n
As has Matthew Herman, a Florida Bar member since 2010, Bruce Herman has had a clean discipline record since joining the Bar in 1978.<\/p>\n
The actions in the Florida Bar complaints occurred during Broward County case No. CACE22004734, The Herman Law Group vs. Peter Herman, an ongoing legal civil war between the father-son team and Bruce\u2019s brother, attorney Peter Herman.<\/p>\n
What follows comes from documents filed in the Broward civil case and in the Matthew Herman and Bruce Herman professional discipline cases.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Rape charges got a Florida attorney suspended. He\u2019ll get more punishment soon<\/a><\/p>\n Friends and family<\/p>\n The Herman Law Group sued Peter Herman on March 31, 2022, claiming Peter promised to pay the firm back for money spent on him during his 2015 to 2020 stint at the firm. , On July 19, 2023, The Herman Law Group filed a motion to disqualify Broward Circuit Judge Carlos Rodriguez.<\/p>\n The motion said Matthew Herman recalled that Peter Herman told him \u201cseveral years before\u201d about a \u201cJudge Rodriguez\u201d with whom he played football with at Fort Lauderdale High and said his uncle bragged, \u201cIf I ever get Judge Rodriguez as a judge in any of my cases, I\u2019m golden.\u201d<\/p>\n A later filing by Matthew Herman said, \u201cThis statement by Peter took place several years earlier in respect to a case involving Peter\u2019s mother and Matthew \u2018s grandmother, where the deceased had been negligently cremated.\u201d<\/p>\n An affidavit from Peter Herman said while he and Rodriguez had been at Fort Lauderdale High 47 years ago, he\u2019s had cases before high school, college and law school classmates, and no one requested disqualification. Also, so many decades later, Peter Herman claimed he wouldn\u2019t even remember if Judge Rodriguez played football, so he wouldn\u2019t have said anything like that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also a patently false and reckless statement to say I have a long term, close, personal social relationship with Judge Rodriguez,\u201d Peter Herman\u2019s affidavit stated.<\/p>\n Rodriguez not only rejected the disqualification motion, he said it contained \u201cseveral false and spurious sworn allegations directed at the Court.\u201d<\/p>\n If true, that would count as perjury. So, Rodriguez did what he said state statutes demanded: referred the alleged perjury to the Broward County State Attorney for investigation and disqualified himself \u201csua sponte\u201d (of his own accord without prompting).<\/p>\n The Herman Law Group twice tried \u2014 and failed \u2014 to get the next judge, Keathan Frink, disqualified from the case.<\/p>\n The referee\u2019s report<\/p>\n Judge Gerard J. Curley, Jr. of Florida\u2019s 15th Judicial Circuit drew the referee\u2019s assignment for both Hermans\u2019 discipline cases. Curley drew a difference between Bruce Herman<\/a>, who was the lead counsel in the case and was the only one involved in trying to disqualify Frink, and Matthew Herman.<\/p>\n Before Curley, Matthew Herman said his motion had \u201cno intent to impugn\u201d Rodriguez and maybe he should have drafted the motion more cautiously. Curley\u2019s report also quoted Matthew Herman as saying he was \u201csorry for the way [Rodriguez] took it or understood it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Curley wrote: \u201cThis statement does not constitute acceptance of responsibility. Rather, it diminishes respondent\u2019s own conduct while implicitly suggesting that the judge overreacted or misinterpreted respondent\u2019s allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n Also, Curley found Matthew Herman almost refusing to accept the seriousness of making unsupported accusations against judges.<\/p>\n Also, Matthew Herman \u201cfurther complained these disciplinary proceedings had \u2018tarnished [his] otherwise stellar reputation\u2019 because Internet searches now associate him with his own actions,\u201d Curley\u2019s report said. \u201cWhen confronted with the inverse \u2014 that his own verified allegations potentially harmed Judge Rodriguez\u2019s reputation \u2014 [Herman] minimized the impact, stating there was \u2018no harm in recusal,\u2019 that he was \u2018regretful [Judge Rodriguez] took it that way,\u2019 and that it was \u2018simply a recusal.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Bruce Herman also expressed dismay that the discipline hearings received public notice, complaining a $4 million closing was among lost business.<\/p>\n \u201cHe stated that \u2018We look like bad guys\u2019,\u201c Curley\u2019s report said, \u201cand further complained that the Daily Business Review had \u2018rigged\u2019 Google searches so that these disciplinary proceedings appear prominently on the first page of search results associated with his name.\u201d<\/p>\n Curley noted Bruce Herman complained about official, public decisions about him while he took a shot at a judge\u2019s integrity \u201cbased solely on subjective suspicions and dissatisfaction with judicial rulings.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked why he refused to attend court-ordered depositions, Bruce Herman claimed fear of violent actions from his brother. But, Curley\u2019s report said, he \u201cadmitted he has shared an office suite with his brother for years\u201d since before the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The Bar wanted Matthew and Bruce Herman each suspended for a year. The Hermans wanted each suspension \u201cbrief and measured in days, not months.\u201d<\/p>\n Curley recommended Matthew Herman be suspended for the 30 days that begins Monday. But, for Bruce Herman, Curley found several aggravating factors, among them \u201cdisregard for the truth and selfish motive\u201d and \u201crefusal to acknowledge the wrongful nature of the conduct.\u201d Bruce Herman is fighting a six-month suspension.<\/p>\n Matthew Herman The Florida Bar <\/p>\n