Trials & Special Sets Over 15 Minutes Are In Person — Division AF — Palm Beach County, FL · BenchPath

Trials & Special Sets Over 15 Minutes Are In Person — Division AF

High confidence· verified September 9, 2026Remote / Zoom Hearings15th Jud. Cir., Civil Division AF Divisional Instructions

Summary

Judge Bell holds all trials and special-set hearings over 15 minutes in person; Zoom appearances must be on camera — no phone.

Applies to

Florida > Fifteenth Judicial Circuit > Palm Beach County > Civil Division AF (Judge Carolyn Bell)

Source of truth

"all Division AF Trials and Special Set Hearings more than 15 minutes long are conducted with counsel and self-represented parties appearing in person" / "Must appear via video (phone appearances or appearances without camera are not permitted)"

Official source: 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell)
Source health: Healthy · checked October 25, 2026
Effective date: —
Last verified: September 9, 2026benchpath-reverify-2026-09-08 (live text containment) | prior: benchpath-cw-2026-08-04

Reviewer note: Verified against the live official page on 2026-07-05. 30-day recheck scheduled. | 2026-08-03: the source (rendered DOM (headless Chromium)) no longer contains this rule's quoted text; dropped to medium pending re-composition against the current version. | Superseded in practice by fl15-div-af-instructions (composed 2026-08-03 from the current page after the July rotation). [MEDIUM CONFIRMED 2026-08-03 (paraphrase-class): source re-fetched live (sha256 6d5b998177dd6dde7e1b921f77c4d927bfe09640db78e0ebd7a1e78da9637187); all 2 quoted source fragment(s) verified live. Text remains a summary — verbatim recomposition queued.] [RECOMPOSED VERBATIM 2026-08-04 (campaign wave, fully-anchored): 2 bullet(s) quoted whole from the live page, sha256 d52cca5a1442fb3f6bb08df6069341c2b5173ed392b696f48940af880d59ca47; the prior summary-class text is superseded.] Verbatim from the division's live instruction page (https://www.15thcircuit.com/division/af/instructions), harvested 2026-08-04; each bullet is quoted whole from the page, whitespace normalised only. [moved from the text 2026-09-14]

PIP / No-Fault Benefits Declaratory & Injunctive Relief Defamation Nursing Home & Assisted Living Small Claims Quiet Title Partition Eminent Domain Auto Accident / Negligence County Civil Construction & Liens Debt Collection Landlord/Tenant & Eviction Ejectment Circuit Civil

Change history

August 6, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 5, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 3, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 2, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
August 1, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 31, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 30, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 29, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.
July 28, 2026Monitor: content changed at 15th Cir. — Division AF Instructions (Judge Bell). Review before republishing dependent rules.