Carolyn Swift
Circuit Judge · Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court
High confidence· verified July 25, 2026
Circuit Judge · Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court
What applies in this courtroom
811 verified requirements and 6 rule deadlines govern practice before Judge Carolyn Swift across the judge, division, county, circuit, and statewide layers.
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Circuit Judge — Lee County
Judge Carolyn D. Swift has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1999 and became board certified in Marital and Family Law in 2007. Judge Swift was elected to the Circuit Court bench in 2018. She presided over the Unified Family Court docket in Lee County for five years before joining the Family Division in 2024. Judge Swift was previously appointed as a Magistrate in Lee County in July 2012. During her years of private practice, she was a partner at Insignares & Swift, P.A. and prior to that was a partner at Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A.
Judge Swift is a past president of the Association of Family Law Professionals (2003- 2005) and a past president of the Lee County Association of Women Lawyers (2002-2004). Swift was also recognized as “40 Under 40” by Gulfshore Business in 2004. She was born in Staten Island, New York, and has lived in Lee County since 1983. Swift graduated from Bishop Verot High School in 1992, the Tulane University, cum laude, in 1996, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the Tulane University College of Law, magna cum laude, in 1999, where she was a member of Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity.
Published by the Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court on this judge's own profile page and reproduced verbatim — BenchPath does not write or paraphrase judicial biographies. Read it on the court's site →
Lee County Justice Center, 1700 Monroe Street, Fort Myers, FL 33901
Published forms & procedures: Judge Carolyn Swift Family Requirements and Procedures; Order of Referral to Magistrate; For Review - Family Law Emergency
Verified against Judge Carolyn Swift's own court profile page, 2026-07-24.
Division (official profile, verified 2026-07-19): Lee Domestic Relations A 20%
Captured verbatim from the court's own published pages and orders during circuit verification. Chambers practices change without notice — confirm anything time-critical with the judicial assistant. Procedural information only; not legal advice.
Appeals from this courtroom go to the Sixth District Court of Appeal (Lakeland).
● LiveThat court's published bench (11): Carrie Ann Wozniak, Dan Traver, Jared E. Smith, John K. Stargel, Joshua A. Mize, Joshua E. Pratt, Keith F. White, Mary Alice Nardella, Paetra T. Brownlee, Rachel B. Kamoutsas, Roger K. Gannam
Jurisdiction per § 35.043, Fla. Stat. (six-district alignment eff. Jan. 1, 2023).
Profile upgraded 2026-07-24: bio_url now points to this judge's own page (https://www.ca.cjis20.org/About-The-Court/jud_profile.aspx?judge=swift), confirmed to name them before extraction. Biography captured verbatim from the court's page. 3 linked form/procedure document(s) fetched and hashed.
3 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 811 total requirements apply in this courtroom across all layers — the Full Premium Report assembles the complete stack.
No judge-level deadline on record runs shorter than a statewide deadline with the same trigger. The sentinel compares quoted timing across every published rule scoped to this judge on each visit — a clean result today is re-earned tomorrow.
No judge-scoped deadlines on this tab. Deadlines are extracted only when the source rule text states them — we never infer or calculate dates the rule does not explicitly contain. 6 rule deadlines apply in this courtroom across all layers — assembled with citations in the Full Premium Report.
Timing shown here is quoted from the rule text. Compute your actual date against the court's calendar and the rule itself — not legal advice.
No verified ruling summary yet. BenchPath generates ruling summaries from opinion and docket corpora (CourtListener where covered) and publishes them only after human review — fabricated judicial analytics are exactly what this platform refuses to ship.
Use the live case-law search below to see what exists for this judge today.
How Florida’s appellate courts disposed of the 24 opinions in BenchPath’s corpus (May 8, 2020–June 19, 2026) that name this judge as the lower-tribunal judge — the courts’ own disposition labels, counted verbatim. This is a census of the appellate record we hold, not a complete case history, an affirmance rate, or a performance rating.
Florida appellate and Supreme Court opinions naming this judge as the lower-tribunal judge, taken verbatim from each court’s official slip opinion (source-hashed). Descriptive record, not a rating.
JENIFER MARSH VS AARON MARSH
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
last checked September 3, 2026
last checked September 3, 2026
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Monitor: content changed at Judge profile — Geoffrey H. Gentile (20th Circuit). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via Judge profile — Geoffrey H. Gentile (20th Circuit)
Monitor: content changed at Judge profile — Carolyn Swift (20th Circuit). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via Judge profile — Carolyn Swift (20th Circuit)
R. W. VS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES AND GUARDIAN AD LITEM
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
JERSON IMMER VELAZQUEZ ORDONEZ v. JAMES ROBERT CUNNINGHAM
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
KONSTANTINE K. YANKOPOLUS v. TERRI YANKOPOLUS n/k/a TERRI TURNER
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
DAVID SASSER v. JOLEEN SASSER
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
R. R., FATHER OF R. R. AND Y. R., CHILDREN vs DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES AND GUARDIAN AD LITEM
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
ROBERT HIMMELSTEIN v. KELLY MOORE
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
CHRISTINE ALYSS LONTIN f/k/a CHRISTINE ALYSS MCCAIN v. RANDALL WARREN MCCAIN
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
A. R. vs M. A. S.
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
D. M. VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
R. C. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
D. L. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
F. S. vs T. E. AND A. E.
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
J. L. D. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
T. C. vs T. E. AND A. E.
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
A. P. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
C. D. F. AND C. K. F. vs D. R.
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Reversed
JAMIE ANNETTE PAPLEY n/k/a JAMIE ANNETTE PAPLEY vs THOMAS CHARLES PAPLEY, JR.
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
A. M. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
K. M. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
J. L. D. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
A. H. F. vs DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
GUARDIAN AD LITEM STATEWIDE VS DEPT. OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES, ET AL.
Sixth District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
KENT GREGORY YAKLIN vs ASHLEY NICOLE YAKLIN
Second District Court of Appeal · Lee County
Disposition (court’s label): Reversed
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