Art. V, § 18, Fla. Const. · Article V. JUDICIARY
Public defenders.
Text — As revised in 1968 and subsequently amended (Online Sunshine, retrieved 2026-10-04)
In each judicial circuit a public defender shall be elected for a term of four years, who shall perform duties prescribed by general law. A public defender shall be an elector of the state and reside in the territorial jurisdiction of the circuit and shall be and have been a member of the Bar of Florida for the preceding five years. Public defenders shall appoint such assistant public defenders as may be authorized by law.
Notes and commentary — not constitutional text
History
S.J.R. 52-D, 1971; adopted 1972; Am. proposed by Constitution Revision Commission, Revision No. 13, 1998, filed with the Secretary of State May 5, 1998; adopted 1998.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As revised in 1968 and subsequently amended (Online Sunshine, retrieved 2026-10-04)
- Official file
- https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?Mode=Constitution&Submenu=3&Tab=statutes
- Text hash
- sha256 37fcf2e2b6c173eb06dc6bd20bd65ae1f93893a428cb1237cb6e89b819400e75
- Composed by
- compose_v2.py 2026-10-04: the Legislature's structured HTML read in document order; verify_v2.py's independent reading agrees character for character
- composed from the Legislature's structured HTML (one source of text; no PDF extraction); a second, independent reading of the same bytes agrees character for character
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.