Veteran Coconut Grove attorney and former Miami-Dade assistant public defender James Best is running for county court judge against incumbent Reginald Richardson and makes no bones about why he is in the race.

James C. Best, County judge candidate

"Frankly, I think I can do a better job at being a judge than Judge Richardson," said Best. "It appeared that he was going to get no opposition and get an automatic new term. I didn't think that was right, under the circumstances."

Judge Richardson was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in 1998 in a Biscayne Boulevard police undercover sting operation. He later was acquitted, but still faces a reprimand by the Florida Supreme Court.

Best, 50, was born in Oakland, California, but spent his pre-teen years in Chicago. He moved to South Florida with his family in 1964 when he was 14 years old. He grew up in the Perrine area of South Miami-Dade, graduating Palmetto Senior High School in 1968.

"I really consider Miami home," said Best. "I've been here 36 years."

After an 11-year hiatus to work in the family boat-building company and then in periodical sales and circulation, he returned to school to get his Associate Arts degree from Miami-Dade Community College in 1980, then went on to gain his bachelor's degree in economics from Florida International University in 1982. He took his law degree from the University of Miami in 1985.

Best started working with the Miami-Dade Public Defender while he was in his third year of law school and stayed with it for six years. He became assistant public defender and was promoted to training attorney for county court, responsible for teaching trial technique and strategy to all of the attorneys entering the office.

In 1991, he left the public defender's office to join Richard Essen's high-powered law firm and spent two years with the prominent DUI defense attorney, before leaving to open his own office in Grand Bay in 1993, practicing criminal defense and specializing in DUI cases.

"I really enjoyed public defender work," said Best. "I enjoyed working with people that really needed your help. Frankly, if I could afford to go back to the public defender's office fulltime, I probably would. But, I believe I can do more along the same lines for everybody in Miami-Dade County ­ for my peers and associates in the legal profession, my fellow citizens of the county ­ if I could be a judge. I think I would be a good judge, I know what I'm doing, I'm in court four or five days a week, I'm intimately familiar with the procedures of county court. I purposely chose county court as opposed to circuit court because that's where I've practiced for my entire 15 years in law. I've built a pretty good reputation as knowing what I do."

Best says if he's elected to the $104,000 a year judgeship, he'll be taking a 50 percent pay cut, but that he's willing to do it. He says there are two primary reasons that he wants to be a county court judge.

"County court is the level of the court system that most people come into contact with during their life," he said. "It's important that they are treated correctly, fairly and with dignity. At the same time, it's important that they see it is a dignified place to be and treat it with respect as well.

"Secondly, it's a training ground for young attorneys and it's important that they learn from their mistakes and that they make those mistakes in county court so they won't repeat them on higher levels as they follow their career," Best continued. "Let them get good guidance from the people around them, and my experience in county court is that a judge gives probably the majority of the guidance that the attorneys get."

Best is a member of the Elks and a former Boy Scout troop leader. He and his wife Patricia reside in West Kendall near The Hammocks. They have a son, Brian, 27.

Election day is Sept. 5.