Miami-Dade Chief Judge Bertila Soto and Administrative Judge Jennifer Bailey are inviting the legal community to the Miami-Dade County Courthouse today to share their thoughts on the design of the forthcoming civil courthouse.

Although construction on the Flagler Street building is not set to begin until 2020, Soto and Bailey want to hear what others would like to see in the new courtrooms sooner rather than later.

The Nov. 7 event begins at 3 p.m. and is open to the public.

“As we embark upon the design and planning stages of our new civil courthouse, we want to do so with an eye toward innovation and ease of use for the public,” Soto told the Daily Business Review. “It is important to us to hear from all those who would be using the new courthouse, and so we hope this brainstorming session is well attended and provides a useful forum for the interchange of ideas.”

The Dade County Bar Association-hosted discussion is a brainstorming session on possible improvements and innovations that could be entrenched into the bedrock of the new building. According to a press release from the bar association, this includes everything from ”the directory to wayfinding to, and in, the new building,” as well as “suggestions for specific technology improvements” and more.

Bailey, who serves as the administrative judge of the Circuit Civil Division, told the DBR she and Soto “are committed to the best design for a new civil courthouse.”

“Good courthouse design is user-based and includes perspectives of litigants, jurors, and lawyers,” she said. “While we have gone through exhaustive efforts at defining need, including the 2016 Civil and Probate Courthouse master plan as well as two county-appointed task forces, we want to provide another opportunity for input as the new courthouse takes shape and the contracting process commences.”

The judges will be joined by Gary Carman, Billy Fernandez and Anabel Nemrow, the appointed co-chairs of the Courthouse Taskforce. According to Yamile Rodriguez, the communications and program director of the Dade County Bar Association, the taskforce was assembled to ”spearhead gathering information from the community to make the future civil courthouse as community-focused and user-friendly as possible.”

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