R. Lee Smith
Circuit Judge · Seventh Judicial Circuit Court
High confidence· verified July 25, 2026
Circuit Judge · Seventh Judicial Circuit Court
What applies in this courtroom
378 verified requirements and 6 rule deadlines govern practice before Judge R. Lee Smith 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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Div 59 Circuit Civil — St Johns County
Circuit Judge R. Lee Smith was appointed to the bench in 2016. He earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State University and his Juris Doctor from Florida Coastal School of Law. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 2003 and previously served as legislative counsel in Washington, D.C., for Congressman Ander Crenshaw, as an Assistant State Attorney and Chief of the Traffic Homicide Division in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, and as an Assistant State Attorney in the State Attorney’s Office of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. He currently hears civil cases at the Richard O. Watson Judicial Center in St. Augustine.
Published by the Seventh 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 →
Published forms & procedures: Standing Order for Civil Procedures; Uniform Case Management Order for Civil Cases; Benchmark Instructions for Scheduling; Directions to Attend Hearing By Zoom
Verified against Judge R. Lee Smith's own court profile page, 2026-07-24.
Published forms & procedures: Standing Order for Civil Procedures; Uniform Case Management Order for Civil Cases; Benchmark Instructions for Scheduling
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).
Profile upgraded 2026-07-24: bio_url now points to this judge's own page (https://circuit7.org/judges/judge-r-lee-smith/), confirmed to name them before extraction. Biography captured verbatim from the court's page. 4 linked form/procedure document(s) fetched and hashed.
2 verified rules specific to this judge's division, grouped by requirement category. 378 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 202 opinions in BenchPath’s corpus (November 13, 2018–August 6, 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 202 are counted in the outcome census above.
last checked September 3, 2026
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Monitor: content changed at 7th Circuit — Judges Overview. Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 7th Circuit — Judges Overview
Monitor: content changed at 7th Circuit — Judges Overview. Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 7th Circuit — Judges Overview
Monitor: content changed at 7th Circuit — Judges Overview. Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 7th Circuit — Judges Overview
Carlton Xavier Mathews v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Herman Paul Solano v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
BENJAMIN MICHAEL MCGONIGLE VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
JAMES SCHARFSCHWERDT VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
ABIGAIL ROMAINE vs CHRISTOPHER D. ROMAINE
Fifth District Court of Appeal · Flagler County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed in Part/Reversed in Part
Donald E. Dial v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
ELIZABETH A. TRENDOWSKI vs ROBSON FORENSICS, INC.
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Reversed
TORREN JERMAINE DENNIS VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
THOMAS JERRY THEBO, JR. VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Riley James Kaelin v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Steve Leslie Stanaland, Jr. v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
McReynolds v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
CASHUS D. CUMMINGS VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
Tyrone Lemont Bell Johnson v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Hosston Cole Bishop v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Vermont J. Anderson a/k/a Vermount J. Anderson, Jr. v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Citation
Paul Toler v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
JOE LEE VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
ELLIOTT ANDERSON VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
MICHAEL ALLEN RHEIN VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Joseph Edward Nichols, Jr. v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Citation
Kenwand J. Thompson, Sr. v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Calvin Wideman v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Travis Lerchen v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
John Desanto v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
SHANNON MYLES VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Michael Louis McIntosh v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Citation
Stephon La'Robert Wright v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
STEVE ALLEN LETH VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
WILLIE MILLING vs STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
WILLIE MILLING VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
Germaine Williams v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Authored Opinion
Eugene Wilson v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
NICHOLAS M. DUNGEY VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
Anthony Brian Conley v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
JOSEPH D. SANKS, INDIVIDUALLY AND O/B/O MARSHA SANKS, DECEASED vs GREGORY FUNDING, LLC, CALCHAS, LLC, AMERIQUEST MORTGAGE COMPANY, ARGENT MORTGAGE COMPANY, LLC AND AMERIQUEST FUNDING II, REO, ET AL.
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
Eugene Gus Blythe v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
ELAINE B. RYAN vs COMMUNITY FIRST CREDIT UNION OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
Jimmy Lee Lewis, Jr. v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Tyler Joel Stockley v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Michael Owen Hutchinson v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Joseph Darrell Daniels v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
WILLIE MILLING VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Opinion
Robert Arnell Foster v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
AUNDREA HAIRSTON VS STATE OF FLORIDA
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Vyacheslav Azarov v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Charles Michael Mohr v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Reco Bennefield v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
Kenneth Richard Hillman v. State of Florida
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Appeal - Per Curiam Affirmed
ASHKAN NAJAFI vs BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., FATEMEH S. NAJAFI, MARSH LANDING AT SAWGRASS ASSOCIATION, INC., MARSH LANDING AT SAWGRASS HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION VI, INC., CITIBANK, FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK N/K/A CITIBANK, NATIONAL
Fifth District Court of Appeal · St. Johns County
Disposition (court’s label): Affirmed
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Case-law search
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Monitor: content changed at 7th Circuit — Judges Overview. Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 7th Circuit — Judges Overview
Monitor: content changed at 7th Circuit — Judges Overview. Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 7th Circuit — Judges Overview
Monitor: content changed at 7th Circuit — Judges Overview. Review before republishing dependent rules.
via 7th Circuit — Judges Overview