Circuit Judge · Fifth Judicial Circuit Court
What applies in this courtroom
873 verified requirements and 6 rule deadlines govern practice before Judge Joel D. Fritton across the judge, division, county, circuit, and statewide layers.
The tabs below show the judge-and-division layer only. The Full Premium Report assembles the complete stack — every requirement, deadline table, ruling intelligence, live case-type scan, and source appendix in one cited document.
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Circuit Judge — Hernando County
From Judge Joel D. Fritton's own profile page on the circuit's county judiciary index, verified 2026-07-25.
Verified 2026-08-03: the 5th's own county judiciary pages render name-only rosters with no biography prose. A court fact, not a harvest gap.
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 Fifth District Court of Appeal (Daytona Beach).
● LiveThat court's published bench (11): Adrian G. Soud, Brian D. Lambert, Eric J. Eisnaugle, F. Rand Wallis, Harvey L. Jay, James A. Edwards, Joe Boatwright, John M. Harris, John MacIver, Paige Kilbane, Scott Makar
Jurisdiction per § 35.043, Fla. Stat. (six-district alignment eff. Jan. 1, 2023).
Enriched from live circuit5.org profile + controlling assignment order (independently fetched and sha256-hashed 2026-07-20; 5th Circuit arbitrated upgrade).
5 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 873 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 148 opinions in BenchPath’s corpus (May 2, 2022–August 4, 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. Showing the 50 most recent; all 148 are counted in the outcome census above.
S.M., FATHER OF A.A.M., A CHILD VS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label):
last checked September 4, 2026
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Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures)
Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures)
Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures)
Jeffrey A. Cole v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Kharess Harrison v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Janis Marie Bressan-Stacey v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Samuel Taylor v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Frank Meyer v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Authored Opinion
Mark W. Fitzgerald v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Marc Mediate v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Matthew Richard Moralis v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
H.C., FATHER OF B.C. AND A.C., CHILDREN vs DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
CHRISTOPHER JAMES COVYAW VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Stacey Edwards v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Joseph Michael Boule, Jr. v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Kevin Zicheck v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
DERRICK S. ELLIS VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Tracey Lee Stanley v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Aaron Jabar Betsy, v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Gustavo Ray Aquino v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
JOHN JEFFREY WRIGHT VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
John Curtis Dillon v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Dudley Ferdinando v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Dorothy Jane Ball-McDuffie v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Citation
Thomas Steve Burke v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
William Vause v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Travis Richard Folsom v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Patricia Ann Clair v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Mario Lorenzo Farmer v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Duane Michael Cottier v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
David Murrell v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
TINA DEANNA LOUISE SHELTON VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Jason Desaulniers v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Dourian Emmanuel Butler v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Christopher Lindsay v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Louis J. Carroll v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Albert W. Gendron v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Antoinette Civil Dietrich v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Citation
Trea Michael Edward Holland v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Jevaris N. Dortch v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
Oscar Omar Delbono v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Duane Michael Cottier v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Glenn Talmage Cunningham v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
RICHARD W. LEWIS VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
MICHAEL JOSEPH MCELROY VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Terrence Lee Hayes v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Ronald Lebed, Sr. v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Brian Keith Battle v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Brad Jay Ellcey v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Jason Jones v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Rapheal Arnold v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
W.R., Father of B.R., a Child v. Department of Children and Families
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Citrus County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Answer three quick questions. The platform pulls Joel D. Fritton's full public case-law record from the source, newest first — your matter never narrows the pull; it directs the relevance ranking and the dual-AI analysis. Every hit comes back Bluebook-cited with the opinion's own words quoted verbatim. The scan takes the time precision takes.
Case-law search
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Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
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Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures)
Monitor: content changed at 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 5th Circuit — circuit5.org official site (AOs, judge pages, procedures)