'WHAT'S HAPPENING?'

"It makes you question what's happening with the judicial system. Is there a lack of communication between judges and clerks? Are there judges who are arbitrarily just improperly sealing cases as political favor, or whatever? What's happening here?"

A review of the recently opened dockets showed judges typically acted to seal cases at the request of one or both parties. They often did so without issuing public notice or holding a hearing, as required by law.

OTHER COUNTIES

But progress dockets - a log of the court proceedings - indicate judges sometimes issued sealing orders without being asked, and clerks sometimes closed off cases when no sealing order was issued.

Such cases also have been found in Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Sarasota counties. Court officials in Miami-Dade have said cases are not hidden there.

Other newly uncovered Broward cases include:

• A 2000 lawsuit against Fort Lauderdale's Mutual Benefits Corp by investor Rory R. Enright over an insurance policy. Four years later, the nation's largest viatical settlement company was shut down for allegedly running an elaborate Ponzi scheme that took in more than $1 billion from unsuspecting investors.
  The case was later dismissed, and the judge granted Mutual Benefits' motion to seal it. Bruce Culpepper, Enright's lawyer, said he didn't know the case had been removed from public view.
• A 1998 case involving Jennifer Bush, whose mother was found guilty of deliberately making her child sick to attract attention for herself.
• The state sued to terminate parental rights, a proceeding the Florida Supreme Court ruled in 2001 should remain secret. Beverly Pohl, a lawyer for the mother who wanted the case heard in open court, said it appeared to her that under a state statute, any information pertaining to such proceedings should not be open to the public. Nevertheless, the progress docket now is accessible.
• The 2000 divorce of Coral Springs-based home builder Itzhak Ezratti of G.L. Homes. "In all my years practicing law, I've never asked for, or been the recipient of, a motion or request to basically undocket a case, " said Andrew Leinoff, a Miami lawyer who represented Anna Ezratti. Itzhak Ezratti did not respond to calls for comment.
• The 1990 divorce of Preston G. Stern, a one-time Coral Springs doctor who pleaded guilty to sexual battery on a patient. Parties involved in the case couldn't be located for comment.