Second Circuit — AO 2018-09 establishes the circuit's… — 2nd Cir., FL · BenchPath

Second Circuit — AO 2018-09 establishes the circuit's Alternative Dispute Resolution program

High confidence· verified August 23, 2026Mediation2nd Cir. Admin. Order 2018-09, Alternative Dispute Resolution Program

Summary

Administrative Order 2018-09 (Second Judicial Circuit Alternative Dispute Resolution Program) establishes the circuit's ADR/mediation framework; it remains active per the live ledger. Family mediation contract mediators and parenting coordinators are published on the court's mediation pages (in BenchPath custody).

Applies to

Civil and family ADR, all six counties. Binary unrecoverable from the court endpoint; metadata verified from the live active ledger.

Requirement

• 1. An Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Unit for the Second Judicial Circuit is hereby re-established by the Court, under the supervision of the Office of Court Administration. The ADR Unit shall be responsible for establishing and executing procedures relating to family, juvenile dependency, Unified Family Court, small claims, and county civil alternative dispute resolution matters which are the responsibility of the Court, except for all referrals made by the Court from a list of Court-appointed mediators or to private mediators. All mediators which conduct Court-ordered mediations shall be certified by the Supreme Court of Florida in the area of certification which is applicable to the type of case being referred. • 2. The provisions of Chapters 39, 44, and 61, Florida Statutes, and the applicable provisions of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, Florida Rules of Family Law Procedure, and Florida Rules of Juvenile Procedure, and any amendments thereto, as they relate to mediation, are hereby adopted, and incorporated into this Order, and shall become the procedure to be utilized by the ADR Unit, which includes, but is not limited to, setting mediation conferences and establishing the appropriate fee schedule for the Second Judicial Circuit. The fees required by those statutes shall be paid in full by the parties prior to the scheduled mediation session. Failure to pay all mediation fees prior to the mediation session may result in the cancellation of the mediation session and may result in the Court's imposition of sanctions. • 4. All matters pertaining to those divisions set forth in paragraph 1 hereof, which the presiding judges deem appropriate shall be referred to mediation on any contested issue, other than temporary injunctions for domestic and repeat violence, and shall participate in mediation prior to final hearing or trial. The mediator shall report that mediation is completed prior to final hearing or trial. The presiding judge shall refer all actions described herein to mediation by an order incorporating all requirements of the statutes or rules relating to the division in which the case is pending. All orders of referral shall be standardized within such divisions. • 5. FAMILY LAW (excluding Dependency): Parties may request to appear telephonically for the mediation conference by contacting the ADR Unit, at least 10 days prior to the mediation conference so long as the following criteria are met: a. The litigant resides more than 100 miles from the mediation conference location and the litigant has submitted proof that their permanent and physical residence is more than 100 miles from the mediation conference location; or, b. The litigant has a verifiable medical reason confirmed by a medical professional that prevents the litigant from being able to physically appear and the litigant has submitted proof from the medical professional to the ADR Unit with the request to appear telephonically; and c. The litigant must have the ability to receive and send documents via facsimile or email during and at the conclusion of the mediation conference unless a party is incarcerated and then the correctional facility policies shall apply. • 9. Administrative Order 2006-05 is hereby rescinded. [Done and ordered June 1, 2018, Jonathan Sjostrom, Chief Judge.]

Source of truth

Metadata verified from the live active-status ledger 2026-07-24; order binary unrecoverable.

Official source: 2nd Circuit — Administrative Orders page (adminOrders.php; the AOs/ directory index is forbidden by design)
Source health: Healthy · checked September 14, 2026
Effective date: —
Last verified: August 23, 2026benchpath-fixprogram-2026-08-23

Reviewer note: Transcription hold CLOSED 2026-08-19: the custody scan (sha cc43ce92..., the recorded Leon County instrument, Official Records BK 5200 PG 1177-1179) was rasterized at 170 dpi and read with every quoted provision verified against the page images. LIVE CURRENCY CLOSED 2026-08-23 (fix program): the registered URL serves the order to a real browser (HTTP 200) and the served bytes are BYTE-IDENTICAL to the committed custody scan (sha256 cc43ce92362c97df8f8ec834188cb29e81362c187a876e7ace53e5350d9a1094, 187,264 bytes; in-page crypto.subtle digest at the origin). The host still refuses non-browser fetch agents, so the automated monitor observes the AOs INDEX page rather than this file - browser re-verification is the per-instrument channel. Transcribed verbatim from the court's born-scanned order (Leon County Official Records BK 5200 PG 1177–1179, recorded June 4, 2018; custody sha cc43ce92…; rasterized at 170 dpi and every quoted provision verified against the page images at transcription time — no raw machine OCR was published). The full scanned instrument remains in custody and is the controlling text. [moved from the text 2026-09-17]