Historic High Court Change

Peggy Quince said she'll focus on budget problems, bias, mentally ill prisoners and foster children after receiving the gavel Friday as the first black woman to head Florida's court system.

Quince, 60, became the Florida Supreme Court's 53rd chief justice to the applause of a packed courtroom. The crowd included family and friends from as far back as Quince's days in segregated schools in her native Virginia.

The biggest challenge going into her two-year term will be coping with budget cuts that have slashed court system spending by nearly $44 million, or about 9 percent, in the past 12 months.

Falling tax revenue caused by a depressed economy has resulted in budget cuts of more than $5 billion across state government in that span.

Quince said if the court system, which represents less than 1 percent of the overall state budget, has any more cuts it'll mean backlogs for low-priority cases such as foreclosures, which have mushroomed because of the nation's credit crisis.

"We must and we can, with the help of everyone, make sure the court system has the funding that it needs so that every citizen and every kind of case that comes before the court can be taken care of effectively and efficiently," Quince said.

Quince announced she has already created a task force to compile oral and written histories of black lawyers in Florida. She said she hopes the history will help overcome a perception of bias in the state's court system identified in a recent report by a Supreme Court panel on bias and fairness.

"When people really get to know each other and understand something about other groups then we don't allow ourselves to succumb to the stereotyping that we hear," she said.

The survey of court participants found racial and ethnic minorities, women, the disabled and gays do not always feel that they receive bias-free treatment from judges and other court personnel.

"You may lose, but you should still come before our court system feeling that you have been treated fairly," she said.

Quince said she'll also continue efforts by outgoing Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis to change the way Florida treats the mentally ill.

Gov. Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush, then governor-elect, jointly appointed Quince to the Supreme Court on Dec. 8, 1998, four days before Chiles died in office.

Quince is the second black and third woman to serve as chief justice in Florida.