Former Florida chief justice Gerald Kogan dies at 87

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan has died, a court spokesman said Friday. He was 87, and known as a champion of opening public access to legal proceedings.

Kogan, who died Thursday, was appointed to the high court in 1987 by then-Republican Gov. Bob Martinez. He was chief justice of the court from 1996 to 1998, after which he went into private practice of law.

Among other things, Kogan was known for an “Access Initiative” intended to use the internet to make courts more open to the public. One of Kogan’s ideas was to make state Supreme Court oral arguments available over the internet.

“These are practices now standard around the nation but novel when he pioneered them,” said court spokesman Craig Waters in an email.

The Florida Court Public Information Officers organization said this after presenting Kogan an award:

“His work became the foundation of Florida’s cutting edge court communications program as we know it today,” the group said. “It was on full display when high profile cases hit the court, most notably the presidential election cases of 2000 known to history as Bush v. Gore.”

That battle was ultimately settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in favour of Republican George W. Bush, who became president, over Democrat Al Gore.

After his Supreme Court service, Kogan joined a Miami law firm that specializes in alternative resolution of legal disputes, rather than fighting it out in court at often great expense and time.

Kogan and his family moved from New York to Miami Beach in 1947 with his family. He attended high school there and then the University of Miami, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business and then his law degree.

After that, Kogan joined the U.S. Army where he served as a special agent in the counterintelligence corps.

In 1960, Kogan was named a prosecutor in the Dade County state attorney’s office — it didn’t become Miami-Dade until later — and became chief of the homicide and capital crimes division.

In 1980 he became a circuit judge in Miami and then, a few years later, named to the Florida Supreme Court.

Curt Anderson, The Associated Press