Melanie Dale Surber
Circuit Judge · Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court
High confidence· verified August 3, 2026
Circuit Judge · Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court
What applies in this courtroom
834 verified requirements and 6 rule deadlines govern practice before Judge Melanie Dale Surber 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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Juvenile — Division JS
Courtroom 2W-115
On this assignment since June 8, 2026
South County Courthouse — 2W-115 / courtroom 4
Delinquency over 15 minutes and dependency over ten minutes require special set; 72 hours notice where required; orders within three days; judicial-review and permanency materials five days ahead.
Verified 2026-08-03: the 15th's own judges grid publishes assignment and phone facts but 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 Fourth District Court of Appeal (West Palm Beach).
● LiveThat court's published bench (11): Alan O. Forst, Burton C. Conner, Caroline Shepherd, Cory J. Ciklin, Johnathan D. Lott, Jonathan D. Gerber, Mark W. Klingensmith, Melanie G. May, Robert M. Gross, Shannon K. Shaw, Spencer D. Levine
Jurisdiction per § 35.043, Fla. Stat. (six-district alignment eff. Jan. 1, 2023).
Verified against AO 11.101-06/2026 (signed 6/5/2026, eff. 6/8/2026 — fetched + sha256-hashed cb1b9451…, all 4 pages transcribed) and the live division instruction page (fetched + hashed 2026-07-22).
9 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 834 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 19 opinions in BenchPath’s corpus (May 6, 2021–July 23, 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.
BRANDY LYNN SVOBODA VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
last checked September 4, 2026
last checked September 3, 2026
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LexisNexis
○ bring your licenseMonitor: content changed at 15th Circuit — Administrative Orders (faceted ledger). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 15th Circuit — Administrative Orders (faceted ledger)
Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JS Instructions (Judge Surber). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 15th Cir. — Division JS Instructions (Judge Surber)
Monitor: content changed at 15th Circuit — Administrative Orders (faceted ledger). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 15th Circuit — Administrative Orders (faceted ledger)
6 verbatim requirements published by Palm Beach Division JS on proposed orders & online scheduling.
Judge Surber: the prevailing party submits proposed orders within 3 days after the Court rules, and exhibits must be in at least five days before the hearing.
S.S., a minor, v. State of Florida
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Citation
MAURICIO TARANTO vs CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE CORP.
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
M.K. and JAMES WALSH, Attorney ad Litem, on behalf of A.P., a Minor Child VS Department of Children & Families, et al.
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Authored Opinion
TENTH STREET COMMERCE PARK OWNERS ASSOC., INC. vs H & S DEVELOPMENT GROUP, INC.
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
L.D., The Mother v. Department of Children and Families
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
PAMELA M. WILLIAMS vs PALM CLUB WEST VILLAGE II HOMEOWNER'S ASSOC., INC.
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
ANGELA MICHELLE CIRIELLO VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
M.N., a child v. State of Florida
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
CHRISTIAN SCHOLIN, Trustee vs PARK TOWERS APARTMENTS, INC.
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
L.F., The Mother v. Department of Children & Families
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
R.M.G., the Mother v. Department of Children & Families
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
SOUTH FLORIDA IMAGING AND DIAGNOSTIC CENTER INC. d/b/a VS DIRECT GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
F.D., The Father v. Department of Children and Families
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
F.D., The Father v. Department of Children & Families
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
2026-0817
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
J.P.P., THE FATHER VS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
S.S., a minor, v. State of Florida
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Citation
TOYANO'S AUTO REPAIR SERVICES vs SOUTHERN AUTO FINANCE COMPANY, LLC and DIEUVERT JOSEPH
Fourth District Court of Appeal · Palm Beach County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
Answer three quick questions. The platform pulls Melanie Dale Surber'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 15th Cir. — Division JS Instructions (Judge Surber). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 15th Cir. — Division JS Instructions (Judge Surber)
Monitor: content changed at 15th Circuit — Administrative Orders (faceted ledger). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 15th Circuit — Administrative Orders (faceted ledger)
Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division JS Instructions (Judge Surber). Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 15th Cir. — Division JS Instructions (Judge Surber)