- May 5, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Don Appignani
Age: 59
Family: Married for 39 years, four children, four grandchildren
Quirky Fact: Interviewed by “CBS This Morning” as an unusual college graduate
Bio: Don Appignani is a former Sheet Metal Workers Union official in New Jersey. He earned his law degree from the University of Miami in 1997. He has practiced law in federal, state and local courts from Miami to Jacksonville.
What is one experience that led you to want to become a judge?
I worked for 20 years in a non-legal field, raising my family in New Jersey, went to law school at 40, got out at 44. I practiced law in federal, state, local courts doing both criminal and civil matters, administrative matters, from Miami to Jacksonville. Seen a lot of courts, been in a lot of courts, met a lot of judges, lot of prosecutors, lot of attorneys, and I think at this stage of my life I have the experience, the compassion, the demeanor, the competence, and the integrity to do a good job. I believe with my life experience and legal experience I’d be able to relate very well to the people who would be coming in front of the county court judge. Deals with misdemeanors, small civil suits. I believe I have a lot of experience in that area. A lot of other candidates don’t touch on the civil arena. …
You don’t tend to send people to prison, you don’t deal with the hardened criminals that much. There will be times you have to put people in county jail, but if you can get them on the right track and get them to be productive citizens, as opposed to being in and out of the system all their lives, I think that would be very rewarding and that was the main reason that I decided to run. Because I think it could be a rewarding position.
What qualities are essential in a county judge?
Life and legal experience. Demeanor to deal with people. Patience, compassion, tough. Integrity.
What makes you the most qualified out of all the candidates in this race?
I have a long background in life experience as well as my legal experience. I didn’t go to high school, college, law school to become a lawyer. I’ve worked in all different types of industries, mostly in the construction industry. Hospitals, schools, nuclear power plants, casinos in Atlantic City, chemical refineries, auto assembly plants.
Raising my children, I was a youth soccer coach, vice president of the soccer club, and I was also a scout leader.
I think I have more life and legal experience than any other candidate. I said I’m 59 years old, and I’ve experienced a lot of things in my life, had a lot of ups and downs, which is a part of life, you just deal with them. I feel like I could relate, probably better than any other candidate, to the people who will coming before the court.
For the first year and eight months I practiced mostly labor and employment law with a firm in Miami, represented 45 labor unions. Federal, state, local administrative areas, national labor relations, federal court, appellate court. And I guess since I was the low person on the totem pole at the time, sort of considered a young associate even though I wasn’t young, I would get a lot of tasks to do things for clients that wasn’t necessarily associated with what we were doing: family matters, small criminal matters for family members of union officers, bankruptcies, civil suits, things like that. I got a lot of experience doing that. But when I went to law school I wanted to have my own practice, basically be a sole practitioner. So I went out on my own, only had two clients at the time, a small criminal matter and a family matter. My wife was working, this was 1999, I guess around March. Wasn’t making enough to pay bills at the time, so my one son was working delivering pizza for Dominoes, so I took a job there a couple nights a week delivering pizza. Coworkers found out I was an attorney and wanted to know why I was delivering pizza and I said, “You gotta do what you gotta do to support your family sometimes.” Did that for about four months until I could build my practice better. As I said I was doing criminal matters, family matters, civil suits, small enlargement, I had the opportunity to represent a labor union that represented all the immigration employees in the state of Florida. The inspectors at airports and seaports, the officers that look at people’s documents when they’re trying to change their status, and the special agents that enforce the law, federal agents.
If elected, what changes would you make to the way county court is run?
Sometimes you have to wait around a long time, lawyers do, so I would streamline the docket somehow.
